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MacFarland on a hiding to nothing
BACK in February, Burton Albion's promotion to the Football League looked a formality.
On Sunday they finally made it, despite suffering their fifth defeat in six matches.
The Brewers were a remarkable 19 points clear of the field six weeks into 2009 and romping towards the Blue Square Premier title.
But by then they had lost Nigel Clough to Derby County and Roy MacFarland had been installed as the caretaker boss at the Pirelli Stadium.
Clough had left in January, not long after a run of 11 successive wins, and Albion won the next six as well.
But a bad run meant a nailbiting finish to the season before they were confirmed as champions despite defeat at Torquay.
MacFarland was always on a hiding to nothing at Burton where Clough was a revered figure.
He had 10 seasons with the club, lifting them from the Southern League to the verge of the Football League.
MacFarland admitted in the aftermath of Albion's eventual triumph that he had endured many sleepless nights.
And I am not surprised.
It was always going to be Clough's work that won them the league. Failure to finish top would have been put firmly at the feet of MacFarland.
The influence Clough exerts over the club was evident by his presence at Plainmoor on Sunday and it will be interesting to see if the caretaker gets the job on a full time basis.
Former Town boss Chris Wilder narrowly missed out on what would have been a remarkable play-off place with Oxford United.
Torquay’s win over Burton would have been enough to have denied Wilder’s team whose chances diminished when they were docked five points for a registration issue from before his appointment.
As it happened they also managed to lose 2-1 to already relegated Northwich, a side that included Danny Meadowcroft who was, until early last month, plying his trade at the Shay.
The most eye catching part of the game was the crowd at the Kassam Stadium, with 10,298 turning out.
Expect Wilder, seldom given a fair crack of the whip in his six seasons at the Shay, to get them close to a return to the League next season.
IT was no surprise when Ryan Giggs was announced as the PFA Player of the Year on Sunday.
What was surprising, however, was that it was the first time he had ever won the award.
Since first appearing in 1991 Giggs has won more trophies than most clubs have in their entire histories.
He has 10 League winners medals - soon to be 11 - four FA Cups, three League Cups and two Champions League winners’ medals, to which he can also add and earlier in his career he was twice voted the PFA young player of the year.
So why has he had to wait so long for the players’ union’s top honour?
A look at the recent winners may give us a clue
Thierry Henry (twice), John Terry, Steven Gerrard and Cristiano Ronaldo (twice) have picked up the award in the last six seasons with Teddy Sheringham and David Ginola also among the winners in recent times.
All of them have profiles that go - or went - beyond football, with perceived glamorous lifestyles, something Giggs, a far more rounded human being I have always thought, has shied away from.
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 0 C
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