The Bald Facts: The Autobiography of David Armstrong

182 Pages·2013·2.24 MB·English

by  Pat Symes

Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
© Pat Symes, 2013
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First published and printed in 2013
First published in eBook format in 2013
eISBN: 978-1-909626-07-2
(Printed edition: 978-1-90917-864-9) eBook Conversion by
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Contents
Foreword By Kevin Keegan
Tribute From Jack Charlton
1 Robson’s Dogged Bench-Warmer
2 From England To The Dole
3 Following George To Middlesbrough
4 The Man For Stan
5 Another Shaggy Dog Story
6 Cautious Jack Cost Us
7 Cup Glory And Failure
8 My Biggest Regrets
9 Rejecting Manchester United
10 Lawrie’s Unrewarded Vision
11 So Close To The Double
12 Southampton’s Wrong Choice
13 Preferring Bournemouth To Clough
14 Life After Football
David Armstrong’s Career Statistics
Photographs
Foreword
W
HEN DAVID ARMSTRONG joined us at Southampton from
Middlesbrough the players wanted to see his birth certificate because
we could not believe someone who looked like him and had played
350 or so matches could only be 26. We reckoned they must have doctored it in
the North-East and knocked ten years off his real age. David seemed even then
to have been around forever. I was pleased Lawrie McMenemy had signed him
for us because he had always been an excellent player for Middlesbrough;
capable, tidy, he never gave the ball away and always had a good football brain.
Even when he was a youngster, coming into the team at Middlesbrough, there
was a maturity about him, a calmness on the ball which made him stand out. He
just looked old.
At Southampton he gave a very good team a lovely balance on the left side.
He was the last piece of the jigsaw to complete an outstanding team. We had
tried one or two younger lads down the left but David came along and brought
quality to that position and he fitted in from day one as if he had been with us all
his life. We did not have to teach him a thing because he was already a great
professional and his understanding of the game and the way we played it was
instantaneous.
What a team that Southampton squad of the early 1980s was. There was
already great flair with the likes of Channon and Ball and one or two others and
we beat all the big boys for fun week after week. No one on the outside expected
much of us but the difference was that we, the players, did expect to do well.
Players like Dave Watson, Chris Nicholl and the rest of us, getting towards the
end of our careers, still wanted to win. There is a subconscious temptation
among players of that age and stage to wind down in one last big move but here
was a group of players, many of them in their 30s, who were still desperate to
succeed. None of us were looking for an easy run and that is why we came so
close to winning the First Division.
I have to say we were not quite good enough. One of the reasons, in my view,
was that Southampton did not have the volume of support of the bigger clubs.
We had tremendous backing home and away, and from the South Coast fans had
to travel many costly miles, but the major clubs will always have an advantage
in the sheer size of their following and I think that is what counted against us in
the final reckoning.
David was a better player than I thought he was going to be, if I am honest.
Sometimes when a player joins a club you find out a weakness or two which you
had not expected but with David, he did what it said on the tin. Every
performance was an eight out of ten, no matter the occasion or location. You
always got the same excellence. Above all, in a team of veterans, he worked his
socks off, covering huge areas of the pitch to save our older legs. We needed
him to do that and he never disappointed.
I am amazed to discover he only got three England caps. I thought he had got
a few more than that, as he should have done, and he would have got more today
without a doubt. I suppose at the time there were quite a few left-sided players in
competition and sometimes it is simply a managerial choice, depending on the
way the England team is set up tactically. But I think the most likely cause of his
lack of international recognition is that in Middlesbrough and Southampton he
played for two unfashionable clubs. It does help to play for the top sides but
three caps was poor reward for a player of David’s calibre.
David would have been better appreciated now. When he was in his prime
the vogue was for bigger players and although he could look after himself he
would have got more room, more protection and more freedom. David always
had a lovely left foot and although he was not pacy he lacked nothing in courage
and being a clever player, he used his guile to drift past opponents and his
goalscoring record shows he could finish with the best of them.
I think that if he played now he would have played in a more central midfield
role. On the left side he was no winger and no wing-back but centrally the ball
would have come to him more often and he knew how to use it. Another of his
great attributes was his durability and he seemed to go on for ever. All those
many matches in succession for Middlesbrough was ridiculous and I wonder if
any other outfielder will again do what he did. Perhaps if he had played more
centrally he would have got a few more injuries but to steer clear of anything
serious for all those years was an achievement in itself.
Like the way he played, David was always unchanging. He had this great
ability to mix with everybody and was an affable and much-liked member of the
team, sociable and humorous. I understand he has mentioned further in the book
about the ordeal of singing a song for the rest of the squad, a cruel initiation
which comes to every new signing at most clubs. He says it was painful but I can
assure him it was not nearly as painful as it was for us listening. If David had
chosen to make his living as a singer this book would not have been written.
Overall he was as reliable off the field as he was on it.
David makes mention of the fearsome five-a-side matches we held at
Southampton the day before big games. No other major club in the world would
have allowed something as blood-thirsty and as competitive to take place on
Fridays when players should have been saving their energy and aggression.
When I first joined Southampton I said to Lawrie he should stop these dangerous
sessions because I had never seen such ferocity among team-mates, such
thunderous tackles and commitment. But after three weeks I was worse than
them all. Lawrie said the players wanted it that way. For 25 minutes we all
turned into something else. But the amazing thing was no one ever got hurt and
injuries were rare. David was always in the thick of it.
I am pleased to be able to write these few words on David’s behalf. He was
an underestimated, excellent footballer and a good man. He had some bad times
after his career finished but he pulled through them and recovered through
strength of character and I know his story will be a good one. He deserves the
best.
KEVIN KEEGAN
September 2012
Tribute From Jack Charlton
D
AVID ARMSTRONG had not played very much for Middlesbrough
when I took over as manager but I could see from the first pre-season
friendly or two that he was a hell of a good player. David sealed the left
side of our midfield from day one and gave the club tremendous service over
many years and, like a lot of that team, did not get the individual recognition he
deserved.
We had a great team and played to our strengths and the weaknesses of our
opponents. We had in Alan Foggon a striker who might have made a living as a
sprinter. He was that fast. Teams in those days played offside and our aim was to
get David and the great Bobby Murdoch to find the gaps behind defences for
Alan to run in to. Alan was not so good with the ball but if we did all the right
things he could get on the end of those through balls and put them away.
David was a great passer and a little quicker than people think. He also got
more than his fair share of goals from midfield. He was an intelligent player but
not a big lad and that might have counted against him in England terms. They
always want big lads.
I think back to the lads we had like David Mills, Foggon, John Hickton,
Willie Maddren, Stuart Boam and John Craggs and, like David, they either
played little for England or not at all. In my view they were all good enough but
maybe Middlesbrough didn’t capture the imagination of the national media.
David was an important part of an outstanding team and it didn’t change
much at all from year to year. We should have won a trophy or two. We were
certainly good enough.
Looking back, I think I should have stayed as Middlesbrough manager for
one more year. It is easy to say that now but when I left we were not far away
from winning honours regularly. I left behind a great team and some fine
players. David was one of those.
David had a top class domestic career and should have played many more
times for England. He was easily good enough.