He was in charge for that game mate ( won 1-0 and I'm sure Lee Chapman missed a free header 2 yards out that smashed off the bar at the end ), we were bloody awful and it was a misty night. I think next game we had Norwich away and got best 2-0 and Walker was rightly sacked.
It was 0-0. Mike Walker was sacked after two consecutive clean sheets - then it became six after Royle took over.
How the hell are we going to score two cleanies in a row this season - let alone SIX?
If you can't score regularly, at least defend. If you can't win, then don't lose - there will be chances. It was that mentality which not only secured survival, but won the FA Cup.
We are worse off now, because there are no Watsons, Unsworths or three dogs of war to get us out of the mess.... in fact, 1 to flucking 11, let's compare with the squad that beat Liverpool in Royle's first game:
1) Instead of Southall, we have a guy who is all bravery but (as yet) insufficient brain for a relegation fight.
2) Instead of the firey, die hard blue convert scouser Watson, we have geriatric nice-guy Jagielka from Sale or the firey but unsurprisingly shot-of-confidence Keane.
3) Instead of Ablett, a former red - but with more integrity in his little finger than any of our shythouses - we have Agent Williams, a boyhood kopite doing the footballing equivalent of pulling his C4 from underneath his flak jacket as he lies dying from a hail of bullets, and taking his boyhood club's enemy with him.
He's coming to the end, so what has he
really got to lose? All that shirt pulling over the mouth after another fluck-up? Just to hide his laughter! Think I'm being libellous? He's certainly playing badly enough to back up this idea.
4) Instead of Hinchcliffe we have Baines. He is not as injury prone, but again, the end is nigh for him and his set pieces (apart from pens) are a joke.
5) Instead of Horne, Parkinson and Ebbrell, we have a raft of midfielders who are either OLD, INEXPERIENCED, OUT OF FORM or INCAPABLE of passing the ball forward more than 5 yards.
6) Wingers? We have them, but unlike Limpar, they don't play regularly enough as part of a wide system (ha!)
7) Instead of Ferguson, we have timid strikers, and the only one who isn't has been banned at a time when we need him most
And finally
8) Instead of Royle, we have someone with zero top flight experience. Royle had three years at Oldham and remarkably kept them up twice, with no money and only tactical nous - he was not a caretaker dredged from lower down the club.
We also have a board that unwisely dithered BEFORE the October international break, so there is no possibility of 2017's Royle (Dyche?) making the sort of impact he could, as Royle did in 1994.
So yes, we
ARE worse off than in 1994. Lose the next two (and we will) and we are down. Without question.