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'Howard's Way' Film

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Whilst watching that again, you forgot how many goals Mountfield scored during that period. Just looked up he managed 19 league goals in 100 games. Unreal for a centre half. He must have been gutted when the club signed Dave Watson, but once again kendall was proven right by this decision.
 
Chris O'Connor said:
The biggest regret for me in that era besides the league cup and United cup final losses, more than made up for with league titles, an FA cup win and the European Cup Winners Cup, was the repercussions of the Heysel ban. The way we were so singularly and massively punished for something which had nothing to do with us. The chance to dominate Europe as a blanket ban on all English clubs was introduced.

(As pretty much every English club winning the league did in those days - days when winning the European Cup the season after was a mere formality for the league chsmpions as only league winners entered it.

Aston Villa won the European Cup at the first time of asking in their first ever European Cup campaign, , as did Nottingham Forest, only two seasons after being 2nd Division winners, and who then went one better repeating the feat in their second one too. Liverpool won most of their European Cups at a time when English clubs won every year - far easier to win when only champions of Finland, Sweden etc entered and only one team from stronger nations Germany, Italy)

It was especially poignant when Pat van den Hauwe just couldn't bring himself to even comment on the injustice, obviously just still too affected by it all, the players possibly had their chance of being household names throughout Europe just cruelly snatched away by events beyond their control, and the ban must have been an influence on Howard leaving for Spain a year or two later too following our second league title win.

- tbh I thought the second championship win was only commented on right at the end, virtually as an afterthought and the contributions of the likes of Wayne Clarke etc in that win just ignored.
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This, enough said.
 
StreetEndBlue said:
It really should've had a bit more on the 86/87 season. Us winning the title that season, and by 9 points, was a bigger achievement than in 1985 for me.

Big Nev didn't come back until October, Gary Stevens missed a fair chunk of the season, Peter Reid and Pat Van Den Hauwe didn't kick a ball until February, Paul Bracewell missed the entire season, Graeme Sharp missed around a third of it plus Gary Lineker had just left so Howard did a marvelous job in steering us to the title with so many problems regarding player availability.

In 1984/85 we could play pretty much a settled side as Adrian Heath was our only long term injury casualty that season.
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Exactly this.

The 87 triumph was massively against the odds using Howard's ability to make signings and add strength in depth to cover for key men missing for lengthy periods.

What an inspired signing Wayne Clarke was that season. Howard saw injuries had left us short up front and saw an opportunity to bolster our resources with Birmingham needing cash. He joined us late in the closing months of the 1986–87 season and quickly established himself as a key member of our title winning side scoring five goals in ten games including the absolutely crucial winner away at Arsenal not long after he joined.

(He then began the following season with the only goal in a 1–0 Charity Shield win over cup winners Coventry and later scored the only goal in the derby)

Pity the whole season was just treated as a 'oh yeah forgot, must mention they won in 87 too' right at the end with van den Hauwe's goal at Norwich sealing it.

Tbh wasn't over impressed as had a lot of not all that important filler, Hatton and Question time ffs, and could have been far more focussed on Howard and the 87 win instead.
 
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Chris O'Connor said:
Exactly this.

The 87 triumph was massively against the odds using Howard's ability to make signings and add strength in depth to cover for key men missing for lengthy periods.

What an inspired signing Wayne Clarke was that season. Howard saw injuries had left us short up front and saw an opportunity to bolster our resources with Birmingham needing cash. He joined us late in the closing months of the 1986–87 season and quickly established himself as a key member of our title winning side scoring five goals in ten games including the absolutely crucial winner away at Arsenal not long after he joined.

(He then began the following season with the only goal in a 1–0 Charity Shield win over cup winners Coventry and later scored the only goal in the derby)

Pity the whole season was just treated as a 'oh yeah forgot, must mention they won in 87 too' right at the end with van den Hauwe's goal at Norwich sealing it.

Tbh wasn't over impressed as had a lot of not all that important filler, Hatton and Question time ffs, and could have been far more focussed on Howard and the 87 win instead.
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should've just made it longer. I'd have happily watched for an extra couple of hours TBH
 

Chris O'Connor said:
Exactly this.

The 87 triumph was massively against the odds using Howard's ability to make signings and add strength in depth to cover for key men missing for lengthy periods.

What an inspired signing Wayne Clarke was that season. Howard saw injuries had left us short up front and saw an opportunity to bolster our resources with Birmingham needing cash. He joined us late in the closing months of the 1986–87 season and quickly established himself as a key member of our title winning side scoring five goals in ten games including the absolutely crucial winner away at Arsenal not long after he joined.

(He then began the following season with the only goal in a 1–0 Charity Shield win over cup winners Coventry and later scored the only goal in the derby)

Pity the whole season was just treated as a 'oh yeah forgot, must mention they won in 87 too' right at the end with van den Hauwe's goal at Norwich sealing it.

Tbh wasn't over impressed as had a lot of not all that important filler, Hatton and Question time ffs, and could have been far more focussed on Howard and the 87 win instead.
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I enjoyed the film, but agree about Hatton. The 87 success was treated like an afterthought, but arguably it highlighted what a great manager kendall was. We had a host of injuries that season, but the acquisition of the likes of Clarke and Power were instrumental to our success.
 

Chris O'Connor said:
Tbh wasn't over impressed as had a lot of not all that important filler, Hatton and Question time ffs, and could have been far more focussed on Howard and the 87 win instead.
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I enjoyed it as an Everton fan and seeing that great side again but I wasn't that impressed with it as a documentary. A good documentary will take a subject that the viewer has no knowledge or interest in and despite that will entertain and enlighten. I'm not sure Howard's Way would manage this with someone who isn't into football or doesn't have some kind of strong bond with the subject.

I'd have to watch it again but from memory it all seemed very clip, talking head, voiceover, clip, talking head, voiceover....No strong sense of style, presentation or unique narrative device which is a shame coming from a city as artistically strong and vibrant as Liverpool where the local culture, art, style, politics and football are so strongly interwoven.
 
ClausThomsen said:
I enjoyed it as an Everton fan and seeing that great side again but I wasn't that impressed with it as a documentary. A good documentary will take a subject that the viewer has no knowledge or interest in and despite that will entertain and enlighten. I'm not sure Howard's Way would manage this with someone who isn't into football or doesn't have some kind of strong bond with the subject.

I'd have to watch it again but from memory it all seemed very clip, talking head, voiceover, clip, talking head, voiceover....No strong sense of style, presentation or unique narrative device which is a shame coming from a city as artistically strong and vibrant as Liverpool where the local culture, art, style, politics and football are so strongly interwoven.
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Yes, although I thought it must have been made with a target audience very much in mind, for me it fell short here too, it would perhaps have been extremely unlikely that anyone without knowledge or particular interest in the subject would be particularly engaged by it.
 
Football documentaries

After 'Howard's Way' there may be another one worth a quick squint at on sky documentaries.

Not about us unfortunately but for football drama hard to beat ....

It's called simply '89 and includes classic footage and interviews telling the story of one of football's greatest triumphs - Arsenal's history-making win against the [Poor language removed] at the pit when Michael Thomas scored in the very last minute to switch the destination of the league title away from Anfield and down instead to Highbury, on goal difference too (0-2).

(The [Poor language removed] only needed any result better than a loss by two goals and Anfield was packed for one of those famous nights under floodlights and a big party, 0-1 into the last minute it was their's, then Michael Thomas changed it all, bursting through on a breakaway accepting a pass and finishing brilliantly, their balloon burst and the ground went completely silent - all except for the noisy Arsenal contingent in their section of the Anfield Road end)

There's a book called 'Fever Pitch' by Nick Hornby on this too which is worth a read
 

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