I saw almost every home game of Brian Little's reign and a lot of away matches too, including all 3 play-off finals. In my opinion he is one of the best managers we have ever had, certainly in the top 5. When he took over the club was at rock bottom and had just had its worst season ever, only avoiding relegation to the 3rd division by the narrowest of margins on the last day. The transformation under him was immediate and dramatic and we had 3 tremendously exciting seasons between 1991 and 1994, culminating in the brilliant day when we beat Derby and won at Wembley for the 1st time.
Some people might say that he should have got the club promoted sooner but in each season there were big clubs in the 2nd Division who had much more money behind them. The likes of Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Derby, Forest, Crystal Palace, Wolves were all in the mix at various times. Losing to Swindon was a big disappointment but what a match that was.
The real hallmark of his teams during that period was their ability to score vital last minute/injury time winners and equalisers. It is quite remarkable how often that happened during those 3 promotion campaigns and shows what a great never say die attitude he had instilled in the team.,
And he did it all on a Poundland budget with players like Gary Coatsworth, Jimmy Willis and Ian Ormondroyd, who all became heroes after starting out as villains.
Would we have stayed up in the 1994/5 season if he hadn't left for Villa? Impossible to say but I think we'd have made a better fist of it than we did under Mark McGhee, who took us down with a whimper. Ludicrously, at that time McGhee was being talked of as the natural successor to Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford. Ferguson stayed on for another 20 years while McGhee failed everywhere he went.
I didn't boo Brian when he came back with Villa a few weeks later and I was very sad that so many supporters did. But hopefully that's water under the bridge now and he can be seen as a truly transformative manager whose time at the club will be fondly remembered by all those who experienced it.
