How Are You Doing Billy Boy?
How Are You Doing Billy Boy?
Billy Davies has been the Motherwell boss for about six months and most people would say he's doing a good job. He is not afraid to spend money or to make tough decisions. This season has been our best for a few years, and it could be argued that he deserves the credit for that. He is very young for a manager though and has made mistakes that he will hopefully learn from. The appointment was met with surprise and scepticism from 'Well fans, but most would admit that we are doing better than they expected. A closer look at some of the events that have taken place in Billy's short managerial career makes some interesting reading.
The Davies' reign at Fir Park couldn't have gotten off to a worse start. We were destroyed 5-0 by St. Johnstone. This did nothing to ease the nerves of fans who weren't convinced he was the man for the job. What was more pleasing to see, was him substituting Brian McClair at half time - many people were worried that he would just be a 'yes man' who would let Choccy and Nevin run the club. The next few days were to prove rather eventful. John Spencer was signed on loan, and the not inconsiderable sum of £378,000 was paid for Ged Brannan of Manchester City. The pair were thrown into the game against Rangers the next day and both had superb debuts. They combined to score the only goal of the game and that was the catalyst to another four games unbeaten.
The Dundee game was postponed due to the tragic death of youngster Andy Thomson. This gave Billy something much more important than football to worry about. He seemed to cope with this as well as could be expected and Stevie McMillan's free kick won us the game when it was played. As the Winter break approached we were still doing pretty well. In the two week shutdown he made the biggest gamble of his short career. The former Rangers goalkeeper Andy Goram was signed till the end of the season and most 'Well fans were in favour of the move. Andy made his debut in the cup game against Hearts - this was where the team showed team spirit and determination that had been missing for a while. Despite Hearts equalizing against the run of play, we fought back for a deserved 3-1 win. We followed this with a rare win at Tynecastle which sent belief to a new high.
It was around this time that Billy could be accused of not keeping the players' heads on the job. To the media, Motherwell were the 'cool' club at the time. We were in the papers every day and Scouser Ged Brannan was being touted for the Scotland squad. Then, disaster struck. We were due to play Dundee at Dens and people made the cardinal sin of expecting Motherwell to win. The performance was pathetic - the team didn't look interested and we were lucky only to lose 1-0. However, Billy was soon to have more to worry about. The Sunday Mail broke the Andy Goram is a terrorist story the next day and suddenly we were on the front pages. The whole management team coped well and Billy made the sensible decision to let Goram play in our next game. He was badly let down when the goalie felt that he couldn't play in a major game against Celtic and we were destroyed 7-1. The Scottish cup run was still on as we stumbled to a narrow victory over Stirling Albion, but the performances were beginning to deteriorate. Around this time Billy was seriously considering his future at Motherwell - to the relief of the fans he stayed on.
Our season was at a crossroads on March 6th when we played St. Johnstone in the cup. We weren't playing well going into the game and 'Well fans were shocked to learn that Owen Coyle was leaving just two days before the game. Davies was heavily criticised for this but it now seems that Coyle had been engineering a move for some time to aid his bank balance. Without Owen, we never looked like scoring, and our season was effectively ended by two second half goals. Billy maintained that a new striker would be brought in and most fans were pacified by the signing of young Steven Nicholas. He made a promising start to his 'Well career against Aberdeen in a 1-1 draw. The week before had dealt us a defeat at Ibrox. We defended desperately for the first seventy minutes and we had lost two goals. Billy then put Nevin on and we played them off the park for the rest of the game. Debutante Mark Gower got one back but we couldn't quite find an equaliser. Not for the first time Billy's team selections were being called into question. When Billy dropped fans' favourites Jan Michels and Rob Mattheai for players like May and Christie he was taking a big gamble. Results vindicated him however so when he played Eddie May upfront for a couple of games, nearly everyone was prepared to give it a chance. It didn't work out as well though but Billy was prepared to cut his losses by dropping Eddie as soon as he had another player to put in that position; that player was Don Goodman, our latest signing. It is still unclear whether Don was bought for his footballing ability or his haircut but he too looked good in the win at Tannadice. In that game, we were playing sharp, passing football again, and we looked as if we wanted to win for the first time in a few weeks.
All in all, Billy is doing fairly well. When he took over we were bottom, so anything above that has to be viewed as relative success. We could have done a lot better though: there were some very dodgy games around the time we were knocked out of the cup. The players stayed the same so some questions have to be asked of the manager. However, Billy managed to take us out of that sticky patch and it appears that the squad is in a positive state of mind for next season. With Billy at the helm, who knows what it will bring, but it seems a safe bet that it will be rather eventful!
Derek Wilson
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