David Moyes or Gordon Lee?

[tonyhorne]

Never liked Gordon Lee as a manager. Had a little flush with Bingham's side the way Martinez did with Moyes's and then did his best to lodge us in the bottom half of the table ...

 

[Lawrence]

Its strange with Lee. He loved Geoff Nulty "strange one" however. Dave Thomas down that wing and Latchford will never leave me. We had maybe 2 unreal seasons. We won NOWT but we were the BEST team. Due to or in spite of Lee, I know not. What I do know is Moyes came nowhere near.

 

[allezlesbleus]

Yep,that’s the one

I haven’t checked but I think we were knocked out of LC by Leeds, FA by Boro and had this setback in the league all in the space of a couple of weeks. The long unbeaten run before Xmas was followed by this collapse.

 

[summerisle]

It's a tough one :

Lee : dour demeanour, extreme disappointment.
Moyes : dour demeanour, extreme disappointment.

 

[Dario Terracotta]

Its strange with Lee. He loved Geoff Nulty "strange one" however. Dave Thomas down that wing and Latchford will never leave me. We had maybe 2 unreal seasons. We won NOWT but we were the BEST team. Due to or in spite of Lee, I know not. What I do know is Moyes came nowhere near.

Add Dobbo,Kingy,a fine left back in Pejic,big Mick and a great character in Georgie Wood in nets and it was hard not to love this team!!

 

[summerisle]

Better coats than Moyes.

 

[Haydn]

Its strange with Lee. He loved Geoff Nulty "strange one" however. Dave Thomas down that wing and Latchford will never leave me. We had maybe 2 unreal seasons. We won NOWT but we were the BEST team. Due to or in spite of Lee, I know not. What I do know is Moyes came nowhere near.

I was a regular, home and away under Gordon Lee. I took my bird, later to become my wife, to a home night game during that period (because she had a car and I didn’t)

All she could talk about afterwards was “that poor Geoff Nulty” and the abuse he received.

Agree it was a strange dedication from Lee. Nulty came from Newcastle with him, didn’t he ?

Akin to any recent manager having an unmovable Mick Keane fixation in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

 

[sam domingo]

Remember Gordon going off on one after a defeat on an icy pitch at wolves,”my bloody players are risking their “loives” out there”,on duncan mckenzie,”if I wanted to see a clown,I’d go to the bloody circus”

There was a game at Coventry the following season (a clip from it below) played on a really bad pitch , we'd been unbeaten in our first 20 league games until that afternoon. Sadly we fell away a bit in the second half of the season finishing 4th, which didn't get you the rewards you would get now. Billy Bingham was the manager when I went to my first game (v Birmingham Dec 1976), but lost his job shortly afterwards, so I don't really have any strong memories of him. Gordon Lee though, I loved his 77/8 team! Even the two poor league seasons he had leading up to his sacking, there was some excitement with the FA cup runs, I still find it hard to watch back the games against West Ham and then the following year Man. City. Maybe it was just childhood optimism but I always felt we had a chance of winning something under Gordon Lee (even if we did ultimately fall short), and although I enjoyed some of the football we played under Moyes (especially when we had the likes of Arteta in his prime) and we reached a cup final, I never ever really felt under him that we would take that next step.

 

[Black Belt Jones]

Tricky comparison - Lee compares very unfavourably to the era that went before, Moyes compares extremely favourably to his preceding era, but both normalised being quite good and winning nowt. I'd give it to Moyes as he took over when we were in the absolute cellar and a total state on and off the pitch - Paul Gascoigne and David Ginola wearing the Royal Blue Jersey for the Love of God.

Lee before my time (just) in any case but always remember my Dad couldn't stand him. Sounded like the untouchable quality and class from the Catterick era has steadily eroded over the 70s, plus the RS antifootball being in the ascendency. That's hard to deal with when your benchmark is Catterick's team of winners.

 

[roy vernon]

I've gone for Gordon Lee, but, it's really not a fair comparison. Everton could afford and attract a much higher quality of player in Lee's era.

 

[John BCN]

I haven’t checked but I think we were knocked out of LC by Leeds, FA by Boro and had this setback in the league all in the space of a couple of weeks. The long unbeaten run before Xmas was followed by this collapse.

Went to all those matches aged 14. Lost 6-2 at home to Man United on Boxing Day and 3-1 at Leeds the next day. We recovered a little beating Arsenal in the League and Villa in the Cup but then got knocked out of both cups in the space of 10 days - 4-1 away to Leeds and 3-2 at Boro. I always felt that Gordon Lee was shell-shocked by this bad run and went much more defensive afterwards. The following season we scored far less goals and drew too matches despite finishing 4th. Chaos at all those away matches too.

 

[Street end man]

Moyes by a million miles. One managed a div1 side, the other a prem side. Spent peanuts on outlandashly class players and got us a 4th spot. Corrupt refs in the Champions league killed the fairy story.

 

[sam domingo]

Went to all those matches aged 14. Lost 6-2 at home to Man United on Boxing Day and 3-1 at Leeds the next day. We recovered a little beating Arsenal in the League and Villa in the Cup but then got knocked out of both cups in the space of 10 days - 4-1 away to Leeds and 3-2 at Boro. I always felt that Gordon Lee was shell-shocked by this bad run and went much more defensive afterwards. The following season we scored far less goals and drew too matches despite finishing 4th. Chaos at all those away matches too.

We had two long unbeaten runs under Gordon Lee, the one I mentioned above (ending at Coventry) and the one the season before (I think it was 19 games?) that was ended by that freak result against what was a very average (they were mid table that season) Man Utd team, who we would actually beat in the return game at Old Trafford later that season. I always remember the easter period that season, three games in four days (Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday) were we won at Newcastle and Man. Utd and also beat Leeds at home. Imagine a programme like that now, never mind the results we got!

 

[Gradwell Dave]

Unfair comparison really but we played really good football under Gordon Lee, had 3rd and 4th placed finishes, European football and two FA Cup semi-finals (getting done over by Clive Thomas in one). A month after we signed George Wood in 1977, Forest signed Shilton and he only conceded 18 goals in 37 matches. He was the reason they won the league that year.

We were still perceived to be one of the elite clubs in the 70s, but when Moyes took over we were making the numbers up in the league. He got us up the league and competitive at least at Goodison. I preferred to watch the Gordon Lee team, but as others have said it’s not a fair comparison.

 

[summerisle]

I would say that the league was more competitive in Lee's tenure ; coupled with the fact that, as usual, any luck that was going took a look at us and went on a gap year. I think we were a little unlucky in crucial games.. Still didn't like Lee tbh.
As @tonyhorne intimated I think he gradually regressed into negativity, as the failure to win anything (remember those expectations) increasingly took its toll.