ONE OFF the bottom of Skrill North with a solitary point from five games, Stockport County did not have a prayer; a once-proud Championship club at their lowest ebb with manager Ian Bogie quitting after abuse from fans.
So who better to call for than the man to whom who the Hatters have always seemed to turn in recent years? The headline writer’s dream, Alan Lord.
‘Our Father’ would be an appropriate opening to their plea, seeing as the former Cheadle Town, Warrington, Atherton Collieries and Atherton Laburnum Rovers manager is taking on his biggest ever job at an age when most men are about to retire.
After more than a decade as centre of excellence coach, youth boss, development manager, part-time recruitment manager, consultant scout, caretaker manager, head of development and assistant, the 64-year-old finally has the top job and with four wins and two draws from his opening seven matches, County are on the up once again.
“I’ve certainly had a few roles here,” says Lord, who joined the pro ranks with Jim Gannon towards the end of 2006-07, but had already been working with the club’s juniors as his son, Alex, came through the system.
“In 2007 it was mainly to help recruit a younger type of player that could fit in with what Jim’s model was. It was a really enjoyable period of my life.
“I’d been in Non-League most of my life before that. I had two or three spells at Atherton Collieries as well as County, so I don’t know what it is with me – I might not be the clubs’ fault when I think about it! It’s been one long road of ups and downs, ins and outs…and finding young players.”
That’s the beauty of Lord’s work. His discovery of Anthony Pilkington is the stand-out name among many young boys he’s helped into the first-team at Edgeley Park.
“Anthony was a student at Myerscough College, where I was working at the time, and he was playing for my old club Atherton Colls,” says Lord of the £2m Norwich City winger.
“I took him to Stockport on trial and it didn’t work out first time around,” he continues. “Then they played FC United at Gigg Lane in the North West Counties.
“He scored all the goals in a 3-0 win and on the way home my phone was red hot, so I rang Jim and said, ‘Can you take him in again and have a close look?’ He soon signed him and threw him straight in.”
Lord is able to pass on his own experience of how not to do it as a young footballer. Let go by Manchester City at 16, the right-half – “that’s probably central midfield in today’s terms” – would go onto earn international Boys’ Club honours, captaining England, and earn a pro contract with Cambridge United in 1968.
Hot-head
But his stay with the double Southern League champions under Bill Leivers would only last a couple of years.
“I was totally undisciplined as a young player,” says Lord. “When you’re 18 you think you know most things about life – then you find out you know nothing about life, and I paid the consequences.
“I was a bit of a hot-head, and I transferred a lot of that into my Non-League days as well when I moved back home and played for the likes of Altrincham and Witton Albion, doing the rounds before going into management.
“When I came out of that, I just changed my whole outlook on the game. I looked more deeply into it – especially when I met up with Jim. He changed me and now my approach to professional football is totally different.
“I wasn’t good enough in those days. Whether I’m good enough now is something for other people to judge. But I certainly wasn’t then, but I’m mending my ways now.
“I learnt a very big lesson about what discipline you need. From getting a bit older and doing my coaching badges, I realised how many boxes you had to tick and what you had to put into it. Now I’m trying to guide young players down a different street to the one I went down.”
Lord’s first temporary spell at the Hatters’ helm came last January when Gannon was axed. He led them to Conference Premier victory over Forest Green, but says that even if he had been offered it, he couldn’t have taken the job out of loyalty to his mentor, for whom he has also worked at Motherwell and Peterborough.
County went for Darije Kalezic, then turned to Bogie with relegation round the corner. Lord describes the Geordie he was brought back to assist as “someone I had a similar relationship with to that I had with Jim”, but felt more comfortable stepping in this time because Bogie had left the club of his own accord.
“I had six games as caretaker before it was made permanent, and I understand completely why the club have taken their time because it’s such an important decision to make,” says Lord. “The players have got me the job though, because the’ve worked tremendously hard.
“I’m more like a fan in the dugout. When you walk out at Edgeley Park in a Non-League situation and you can see 3,000 fans there – or away from home when they outnumber the home fans by two to one – you realise that it’s a special club and they are special fans.
“They’ve had a bit of a duff turn over the past few years and they deserve a lot better. I’m proud to be their manager and hopefully I can make them proud again.”
