Autobiography

He won us promotion after just six months in
charge, despite the fact that we were lying
fourteenth in the table at one stage and tenth
with nine games remaining. He took us
through to the play-off final after beating
Millwall in the semi-final. In that game, it
looked as though we were going to miss our
chance yet again when the redoubtable onloan
striker, Dion Dublin, equalised a goal from
our Bryan Hughes ten minutes from time
during the first leg at St Andrews. Incredibly
we went to the Den and did the same to them,
only later, as Stern John scored the winning
goal in the 90th minute to at last put us
through to a play-off final.
Theo Paphitis, the then chairman and later star
of ‘Dragon’s Den’, had his close friend Simon
Jordan with him at the match, because Simon
had never seen Millwall lose at The Den. Once
again, Simon was there to see us beaten
because he was still carrying his grudge
against us. It was an intimidating place on the
night, not only because of what the lunatic
fringe did outside the ground but because of
the electric atmosphere inside the stadium. It
was incredible, and the animosity in the
boardroom was as powerful as I have ever
encountered. Nevertheless I was sorry for the
club when some of their supporters, or yobs
masquerading as fans, torched two parked cars
both belonging to local Millwall residence, and
injured 47 police officers and, would you
believe it, 26 police horses.
As we drove away from the stadium a team of
riot officers were there to protect us from the
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