Time to 'restore factory settings.....'

The comments that have divided opinion, following the appointment of manager Kevin Dillon, are of course a load of old nonsense.

But as I sat back quietly drinking my beer in the pub next door to Underhill Stadium last Saturday, I couldn’t avoid overhearing a range of views that were disturbingly similar, I’m sure, to those expressed in Newcastle over the arrival of Ruud Gullit…in north London when Tottenham appointed Christian Gross….following Bolton’s announcement that Gary Megson was to be the new manager…and across England when McClaren was ‘elevated’……

All good coaches. Some, good managers. All capable of dividing opinion.

Perhaps with Kevin it could be that the all consuming desire to be ‘his own man’ has led to public statements that appear insensitive and actions that have been based on unsound judgement. The drive to make an impact on the way we play appears from the outside to be no more than change for change sake.

Now of course we needed to modify our playing style after Gary Waddock left….but it was only necessary to make our defence more secure. Despite the free flowing football that restored League status to the Rec being quickly understood by the ‘big boys’, last season, it is still our greatest asset. An asset that should not be discarded lightly. And the current approach, which will only lead to our midfield developing ‘corporate neck ache’, as they search the sky for the ball, was not on the ‘must do list’ I sent Kevin when he was appointed.

Then to compound matters Dillon secured the services of a young goalkeeper, on loan from Bristol City. His League experience pretty much zero and his match experience in the previous 12 months, limited. Kevin Dillon replaced Ruiz, who has in my opinion been one of the revelations of the season, with Henderson. And inevitably the ‘young boy’ failed his test at Barnet.


Lewis Carroll died in January 1898 at his sister’s house in Guildford, Surrey and was buried in the Mount Cemetery. His last great work was, The Hunting of the Snark – a classic example of literary nonsense. An unusually long poem for Carroll and full of darkness.

‘The Bellman, who was almost morbidly sensitive about appearances, used to have the bowsprit unshipped once or twice a week to be revarnished, and it more than once happened, when the time came for replacing it, that no one on board could remember which end of the ship it belonged to. They knew it was not of the slightest use to appeal to the Bellman about it-- he would only refer to his Naval Code, and read out in pathetic tones Admiralty Instructions which none of them had ever been able to understand-- so it generally ended in its being fastened on, anyhow, across the rudder. The helmsman used to stand by with tears in his eyes; he knew it was all wrong, but alas! Rule 42 of the Code, "No one shall speak to the Man at the Helm," had been completed by the Bellman himself with the words "and the Man at the Helm shall speak to no one." So remonstrance was impossible, and no steering could be done till the next varnishing day.

During these bewildering intervals the ship usually sailed backwards.

From ‘The Preface’, The Hunting of the Snark – Lewis Carroll

Kevin Dillon still has time to reflect on his approach to the first few months at the Recreation Ground…..and the ’restoration of factory settings’ could be a good first move.