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Phil Brown

There are positives and negatives from Phil Brown’s time with us and his career, he deserves a balanced view overall.

He got us promoted which not many of our managers have achieved so he deserves credit and our respect for that. We narrowly missed out on the league one play offs with him in charge which feels light years away from where we are now. If he had joined earlier in that dire league two relegation season I think we would have been more likely to stay up than having Mark Molesley in charge who was sadly out of his depth.

Phil Brown is a has been thesedays though and his management methods are dated, the throwing of players under the bus is no way to manage people in any environment. His penchant for signing of senior pros is also not good business. Not many people remain in the game for as long as he has though so he has a lot of credibility for that. I doubt his role at Kidderminster is a long term plan for either party, I wish them all the best.
 
If he had joined earlier in that dire league two relegation season I think we would have been more likely to stay up than having Mark Molesley in charge who was sadly out of his depth.

Have always thought that too. Everyone remembers us losing to Col U but there were loads of games under MM earlier in that season where the tactics and performances were dire (apparently we had to trust and to stick to MM and his huge backroom staff and their project ? ) - so many points were lost and games just passed us by. Thanks Harry. If we had been able to attend matches as a united fanbase during the MM tenure I think changes would have been forced earlier and maybe someone other than PB would have had the chance to save us from relegation. Anyway it's all history now and so many things might have been different.
 
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As I've said previously I was never a fan of PB but I did feel before his second stint in charge that we'd gone very soft since he'd left and maybe he would prove me wrong and bring some fight back to the club, sadly all he brought in were has beens way past their sell by date. I do think with more time after MM had left you may be right though, he could possibly have kept us up! We'll never know sadly.
 
I think the second spell has unfortunately coloured the first - having him back was very much not the way forward.
His first spell set up the second spell.

Our demise was the predictable consequence of all those short-term decisions in his first spell.

Thank **** we’ve got a management team capable of looking ahead and signing players like Crowther and Moreton for the future.
 
I never really connected with Phil Brown. I didn't like his ego, his treatment of players, his short-termism and, most significantly as a fan, his style of football.

Unlike many, I found the promotion season underwhelming with too much emphasis on his clean-sheet mentality. Yes, yes, yes, the team only conceded 9 goals at home but we didn't score that many either. Think there were three 0-0 draws in a row at one point.

The play-off final was a template. He picked a cowardly line-up: 4-5-1 with Barry Corr isolated up front. It was fine during the season when Jack Payne played in the number 10 role as it meant he could link the midfield with the forward line but it was never going to work with a flat three. When I heard the line-up I warned a visiting friend that it was going to be a very poor game and sadly I was right.

Now don't get me wrong, THAT moment in the 122nd minute will stay with me forever. I was bouncing around like I'd been injected with five packets of Haribo Fangtastics and I didn't come down until the penalty shoot-out went beyond the regular five. Later I found myself uncharacteristically yelling 'Everywhere we go' at Liverpool Street. I can't remember whether it happened at Stratford as well but hey, who cares.

However, as great as that day was, PB gets no credit from me. He played it too safe and had Wycombe won there would be no complaints.

People say he's a great bloke. I'm sure he is. But Tilly and Brush proved that you can be decent on the sidelines as well.
 
Its both funny and quite sad that some still get upset over us winning at Wembley. The fact is we won on the day and no amount of PB winging will ever change that.

He did it with a budget lower than what Kev is getting now.....Even last season

A budget that was not in the top 6 of L2 that season

A maximum wage of 1500 per week.

He begged the owner to up it in the summer of 2014 because you can't get an average forward let alone the fans favourite 20 a season striker for anything less.

So the only option was to have team with the minerals to get results and they did.....Our run in and play-offs were outstanding. As the commentator said at Wembley "Southend United the team that never beat."

The people who nailed their "Brown will never get us promoted" colours to the mast are still bitter about the Wembley win but for the majority it was atop day out and for for some us, an all weekender.

Yes it was a mistake to come back. His heart wasn't in and I did say that on here at the time. But no one can ever take a win at Wembley away.

As for the cost of PB he must be the most successful SUFC manager in the transfer market. The successful management of Bentley, Payne and Yearwood alone payed his way. There are things that can't be said but some people owe him one.

Developing Lenny from L2 right back to a Championship CM was another £1m in the bank. Look back at posts on here "the undroppable Lenny" or "Browns favourite" etc

No one moaned when we signed Kightly or Cox People were angry ad wanted him sacked for finishing only 7th in L1. Thats when Ron really went mad and chased fools gold in the Championship. Back then I was mocked on here for saying we need to aim for mid table. Others were demanding we sign 15 players in week just like Bury......Or 8 players in January just like Scunthorpe.

"If truth be told" we all played our part in the clubs downfall. Some of us can admit that. I was delighted when he told me "I've just signed Kightly" and so were you.....Remeber that.
 
Its both funny and quite sad that some still get upset over us winning at Wembley. The fact is we won on the day and no amount of PB winging will ever change that.

He did it with a budget lower than what Kev is getting now.....Even last season

A budget that was not in the top 6 of L2 that season

A maximum wage of 1500 per week.

He begged the owner to up it in the summer of 2014 because you can't get an average forward let alone the fans favourite 20 a season striker for anything less.

So the only option was to have team with the minerals to get results and they did.....Our run in and play-offs were outstanding. As the commentator said at Wembley "Southend United the team that never beat."

The people who nailed their "Brown will never get us promoted" colours to the mast are still bitter about the Wembley win but for the majority it was atop day out and for for some us, an all weekender.

Yes it was a mistake to come back. His heart wasn't in and I did say that on here at the time. But no one can ever take a win at Wembley away.

As for the cost of PB he must be the most successful SUFC manager in the transfer market. The successful management of Bentley, Payne and Yearwood alone payed his way. There are things that can't be said but some people owe him one.

Developing Lenny from L2 right back to a Championship CM was another £1m in the bank. Look back at posts on here "the undroppable Lenny" or "Browns favourite" etc

No one moaned when we signed Kightly or Cox People were angry ad wanted him sacked for finishing only 7th in L1. Thats when Ron really went mad and chased fools gold in the Championship. Back then I was mocked on here for saying we need to aim for mid table. Others were demanding we sign 15 players in week just like Bury......Or 8 players in January just like Scunthorpe.

"If truth be told" we all played our part in the clubs downfall. Some of us can admit that. I was delighted when he told me "I've just signed Kightly" and so were you.....Remeber that.
I never did rate Kightly and Thought Tango was an egotistical crazy, but I did love our win at Wembers, I didn’t get the weekender **** up like you Rigs I crashed in a heap at 2.30ish Sunday morning.
 
I never did rate Kightly and Thought Tango was an egotistical crazy, but I did love our win at Wembers, I didn’t get the weekender **** up like you Rigs I crashed in a heap at 2.30ish Sunday morning.

So did I but was somehow wide awake by 8am. It was the buzz of winning rather than marching powder.

I do get the egotistical TV persona but anyone I was with who met him in person was always pleasantly surprised when he spoke to them like he knew them. It was the same with Brian Horton.
 
So did I but was somehow wide awake by 8am. It was the buzz of winning rather than marching powder.

I do get the egotistical TV persona but anyone I was with who met him in person was always pleasantly surprised when he spoke to them like he knew them. It was the same with Brian Horton.

I played in one of the matches at the Meet The Blues Day when PB was manager, and he was such a nice guy.

Hear a lot of negative stuff about him on the Undr The Cosh podcast. He has his favourites, if you’re in the side you are in the good books and those out of the squad are almost forgotten by all accounts.
 

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