Ian Holloway has crossed paths with Cardiff on many occasions over the years and their respective histories are entwined thanks to two significant games, with contrasting outcomes.
You were in the opposition dugout for two significant games in Cardiff’s recent history; both play-off finals. A win against QPR and defeat to Blackpool. Starting with the QPR game, what was the build up like? It was in Cardiff, while Wembley was being rebuilt, so there was home advantage to a certain extent.
You cheated us! Haha. Imagine that, you get to a play-off final and it’s in your backyard! I mean, c’mon. That can’t be right, can it.
Well, it is usually in London!
It was slightly intimidating, to say the least, and probably more after. Coming out of the ground, some of your lot were ludicrous. You won it and they were having a go at me and my family on the way out. It didn’t make much sense, but such is life.
It was a very tight game, with very few chances. I know you were missing Richard Langley, who then went on to move to Cardiff. How did you find the game?
The thing I remember the most was that we had a fantastic chance. My sub said ‘I’ll win this for you, gaffer. Get me on.’ So, I put on Tommy Williams and he made a brilliant run. All he had to do was square it to Paul Furlong, who was stood a yard out and he shot instead. He missed. Then your manager probably made the bravest substitution I’ve ever seen in my entire life, bringing off Earnie and putting on Andy Campbell. Then he scores! It was heart-breaking for me. Your fans had started to boo and I was thinking ‘here we go,’ but well done Lennie. What a decision that was.
I was absolutely devastated, I must admit, but it’s always been in my memory how you lot were celebrating at the end and the noise you were making. It was like 46 matches thrown away in the bin. That’s it. It’s a one-off and you’ve either done it or you haven’t and it’s brutal. Worse than losing a cup final. I couldn’t watch it again, there was no point. I wanted us to play better than we did and I think the occasion was tough for everybody.
I don’t think your lot played that well either. It was like there was too much on it. I just remember the ball over the top, the bounce, then he’s hit it and I thought ‘that’s it.’ The last thing we needed was you lot singing and dancing, with that short amount of time left. If there was another 15 minutes left, we might have had a chance. I felt like SuperTed with my stuffing knocked out. I was straight in the bin.
I remember when Cardiff were getting their trophy, that you stayed on the pitch to applaud and I thought that was a very classy touch and not the sort of thing that you see very often. Was that a spur of the moment thing, or were you always planning to be magnanimous in defeat if the result didn’t go your way?
I think you always have to congratulate and hopefully it might come back to you one day. Losing and winning are both imposters. It’s about what you’re trying to build and where you’re going. You’ve got to keep going, no matter what. I was in a very difficult situation with the QPR fans and a lot of them didn’t want me. They were moaning and winging saying that someone else would have got them up, but we had a massive year the following season, where we ended going up automatically on the last day of the season. I felt like my career needed that, so that was what was worrying me at the time. Am I going to get sacked?
Its either an amazing or cruel way to end a season. How do you set about picking yourself and your team up after losing a play-off final, when you were 90 or 120 minutes away from playing in two different divisions?
You have to look at the positives. You talk about the experience and how it can help us. Put that in your top pocket and learn from it. That is the part that defines you as a manager. If you can come back the following season, you’ve obviously got something about you. Life is about improving and all of us should be doing that every day.
In complete contrast, the game against Blackpool is a painful memory. Charlie Adam scored the best free kick I’ve ever seen in the flesh and I can see myself in all the photos, so I can relive it over and over! For Cardiff fans, the early injury to Jay Bothroyd makes it forever a ‘what if’ moment.
He couldn’t wait to come off! Seriously, how bad was it?! My question is, was his resolve right on the day? I’m not knocking him, I’m just saying, if it was that bad, he shouldn’t be starting. You try and find out on the drums and there was nothing about him being injured beforehand.
Cardiff were favourites with everyone, bar us. I wasn’t sure if they were that good at the time. Our record in the division wasn’t much different to yours and we were probably on a better run than you were. It was all a bit weird.
It was a wild first half and it felt like the game was done by half-time. The second half was largely a non-event and it was a deserved Blackpool win in the end. How did you approach that game, because like you say, you were rightly or wrongly very much the underdogs.
I had been there before and failed, so for me, it was all about momentum. We talked about going behind and we scored within four minutes both times. That took the stuffing out of you lot. I remembered how that felt with Campbell’s goal and I told the lads about that. Our whole run in was about belief. We went a goal down six games in a row and come back to win all of them 2-1. When you scored, I wasn’t bothered at all and neither were my lads. You lot didn’t realise what you were up against. Michael Chopra scored a good goal and Joe Ledley got the second, but we didn’t care and were ready. I was just disappointed that we didn’t score in the second half.
I know you have a friendship with Dave Jones. Does that change how you feel about competing in and winning such a game?
No. I felt he was villainised at the end of it and it wasn’t his fault. We weren’t meant to be a good side, but we were. We had Seamus Coleman playing right back, for Christ’s sake! No one knew him then, but he ended up being Everton captain. DJ Campbell, Charlie Adam, look how good they were. Looking at your lot, they looked like they thought they were going to win and that’s a dangerous way to be. All I remember is the tangerine joy at the end.
Going back to the QPR game, because of the way you accepted defeat and congratulated Cardiff, as painful as it was, I was at least glad it was you. Mainly due to these two games, I always felt like it was written in the stars that you would end up in charge of Cardiff at some stage and you would probably rock up with Charlie Adam! Was that ever an option or a possibility? Cardiff burn through a lot of managers, so you must have been in the picture at some point.
Mr Tan talked to me after the game and I said that I couldn’t leave this team that I had just got promoted. I also later blamed him for getting you lot to wear red and I don’t think he liked that. I was doing some punditry and said it was madness. You cannot turn the Bluebirds into the Redbirds. He’s not used to being told by someone like me that he shouldn’t do that. Maybe by then he just thought I was fecking crap! You never know.
That was then. As for now, they just told me politely that they’re not interested in me. I got someone to ring them at the weekend and Mehmet politely declined me an interview, so unfortunately, that will never happen, young man. I’m bitterly disappointed because I would have loved to have been in charge of you lot at least once in my life. I thought I might have had a chance, someone with my Championship experience, to keep you up. Even if it was now until the end of the season, like Mick McCarthy at Blackpool. I would help you beat Swansea!
You have a new book out. ‘How to be a Football Manager: Enter the hilarious and crazy world of the gaffer’ and I look forward to reading it. How did that come about and what sort of stuff do you cover?
I hope it helps managers get more credit because I’m going through how hard it is and how every single football club is unique. We’re the only ones that have arrows pointing at our backs every minute of every day when it all goes wrong. I go through stories about me and Neil Warnock on the touchline and what we’ve said to each other. I talk about some of the directors I worked with and how I didn’t like them. I’m also brutally honest about the things I got wrong and how important it is that football fans enjoy it, even when it’s bad. Cardiff are going to need their supporters to help them because we need you.
How to be a Football Manager: Enter the hilarious and crazy world of the gaffer from Headline Publishing is out now