May 24 2006

Iain Dowie

The conveyor belt goes round again and whose Red 'n' Blue army will it be next? Jamesey reflects.

On Monday afternoon, something many of us suspected might happen actually happened.

At a Monday afternoon press conference at Selhurst, it was announced that by "mutual" agreement, Iain Dowie would be parting company with CPFC.

Iain and chairman Simon Jordan sat together and acted out as amicable a scene as is possible in the circumstances.

But how "mutual" is the sack? That is was it appeared to be to this commentator, with the rather flimsy excuse of Dowie's family remaining in the north-west being used as a major factor.

Why the Dowie family's location or commitment to a geographical location should suddenly become a big issue after two-and-a-half years is a mystery to me.

But whatever the reason - and we are as unlikely to ever be told as we were not in the Bruce affair - Mr Jordan has quite legitimately used his casting vote of one and ID is on his proverbial bike with his contract fully paid up.

Who could have failed to warm to Iain Dowie when he did his "knight-in-shining-armour" trick and took us from the depths of despair at the foot of the First Division to a totally unexpected victory in the play-offs final?

The Premiership beckoned and Iain took us all up on a tide of euphoria.

Whatever happened in the big boys' league could not harm the Dowie image. After all we had never expected to be there and getting badly thumped a few times was a small price to pay for being in the big time.

To top it all we weren't actually relegated until the last day of the season, so it wasn't a total disaster like 97-98.

But in the season just over, where once again we came a creditable sixth, the cracks began to show and I for one did not enjoy many of the games which we somehow managed to win.

Sometimes we played well, but hoofing, inaccurate passing, incompetent deadball situations and general tactical ineptitude seemed to become more and more the norm as the season progressed.

Simon Jordan, in my view, obviously felt he had provided ID with enough ammunition to get back up again until the awful play-off displays against Watford - a tame capitulation at home and a spineless and lame goalless draw away - ended the possibility.

Well, it's been quite an exciting couple of years with Iain Dowie at the helm and I wish him well wherever he goes next.

The names of all the usual suspects are now being bandied about as his successor, so lets keep our fingers crossed that Simon Jordan's judgement has sharpened up since the Alan Smith/Trevor Francis eras.

Email Jamesey with any comments to Jevans3704@aol.com

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