Millwall and Holloway - The Nightmare Revisited
Article by Jack roberts
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Ian Holloway was the man who promised it all. I’ve never felt such hype about a manager coming down to The Den - ever. His first game in charge on that cold January day up in Huddersfield ended up in them winning 1-0 through a 93rd minute Nahki Wells goal and it should have been a sign of things to come.
None of us thought it could get worse than the 4-0 drubbing by Southend prior to his arrival, but fast forward a year later and we are getting drubbed again by lower league opposition, just this one hurt us all more. Whether it hurt Ollie or not we still don't know but that’s football I’m afraid. The 8 game unbeaten run at the end of the 2013/14 season to keep us up after being adrift at the bottom of the table was an absolute miracle, performed by the clown himself, Mr Holloway.
The good start to the season when we were 5th in the league come the first international break in September was earning him the love of the fans and the players, but who would have thought that after that we would only go on to win 2 in 22 and have 6-1 and 5-1 drubbings. The Ipswich game was where it all started going up the wall for him. The 2-0 loss up at Portman Road signaled the torturous beginning of the end for the unlovable clown, his obsession with 4-2-3-1 was something Sam Allardyce would be proud of.
Now bear in mind please that this is a man who said at the start of pre-season that Millwall don’t need a pre-season, then 3 months later he is on record saying we needed more pre-season games, oh dear Ollie someone didn’t take their tablets this season. Now the tactical magician is known for his love of passing football, but watching Millwall under him was like watching England under Graham Taylor, you just want to put it out of its misery and confine him to the history books.
The first major turning point for the fans was the 5-1 home loss to Middlesborough, where Ollie thought he was Mourinhio and of course his rather massive ego for such a short person. He was always right and the fans were always wrong, but what goes on in the fantasy world of his I do not know. There was a small glimmer of hope for our poor souls when we played Bradford at home. We went 3-1 up at home - but this is Millwall and things aren’t ever that simple… so we drew 3-3. We then go back to that eventful night up at Valley Parade. I took a day off school for the Championship v League One affair knowing we could face Chelsea in the next round, what could go wrong? Well from around the 7th minute it did! Ollie managed to take his Championship relegation battlers to a mid-table League One side and lose 4-0!
I mean even Dartford managed to score a goal up there and they’re now in the conference South. 1 month later, 0-1 up at Rotherham… lost 2-1, cue the “Ollie you’re a c**t” chants which I so happily joined in. A Month later, a 1-4 home loss to Norwich which proved to be his final match in charge. Well, I suppose when your manager is too scared to walk out of his dugout and stays on the subs bench the chairman has no choice but to sack him? On the 10th March Berylson put the witch out of his misery and behold we have our Millwall back. As my mum would say, the reign of Ian Holloway was a “f*****g nightmare”.
© e-Media Group 2015 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of @e_media_group
Follow e-Millwall on Twitter - Click Here
We are looking for Millwall fans as writers! Interested? Contact us here!
Ian Holloway was the man who promised it all. I’ve never felt such hype about a manager coming down to The Den - ever. His first game in charge on that cold January day up in Huddersfield ended up in them winning 1-0 through a 93rd minute Nahki Wells goal and it should have been a sign of things to come.
None of us thought it could get worse than the 4-0 drubbing by Southend prior to his arrival, but fast forward a year later and we are getting drubbed again by lower league opposition, just this one hurt us all more. Whether it hurt Ollie or not we still don't know but that’s football I’m afraid. The 8 game unbeaten run at the end of the 2013/14 season to keep us up after being adrift at the bottom of the table was an absolute miracle, performed by the clown himself, Mr Holloway.
The good start to the season when we were 5th in the league come the first international break in September was earning him the love of the fans and the players, but who would have thought that after that we would only go on to win 2 in 22 and have 6-1 and 5-1 drubbings. The Ipswich game was where it all started going up the wall for him. The 2-0 loss up at Portman Road signaled the torturous beginning of the end for the unlovable clown, his obsession with 4-2-3-1 was something Sam Allardyce would be proud of.
Now bear in mind please that this is a man who said at the start of pre-season that Millwall don’t need a pre-season, then 3 months later he is on record saying we needed more pre-season games, oh dear Ollie someone didn’t take their tablets this season. Now the tactical magician is known for his love of passing football, but watching Millwall under him was like watching England under Graham Taylor, you just want to put it out of its misery and confine him to the history books.
The first major turning point for the fans was the 5-1 home loss to Middlesborough, where Ollie thought he was Mourinhio and of course his rather massive ego for such a short person. He was always right and the fans were always wrong, but what goes on in the fantasy world of his I do not know. There was a small glimmer of hope for our poor souls when we played Bradford at home. We went 3-1 up at home - but this is Millwall and things aren’t ever that simple… so we drew 3-3. We then go back to that eventful night up at Valley Parade. I took a day off school for the Championship v League One affair knowing we could face Chelsea in the next round, what could go wrong? Well from around the 7th minute it did! Ollie managed to take his Championship relegation battlers to a mid-table League One side and lose 4-0!
I mean even Dartford managed to score a goal up there and they’re now in the conference South. 1 month later, 0-1 up at Rotherham… lost 2-1, cue the “Ollie you’re a c**t” chants which I so happily joined in. A Month later, a 1-4 home loss to Norwich which proved to be his final match in charge. Well, I suppose when your manager is too scared to walk out of his dugout and stays on the subs bench the chairman has no choice but to sack him? On the 10th March Berylson put the witch out of his misery and behold we have our Millwall back. As my mum would say, the reign of Ian Holloway was a “f*****g nightmare”.
© e-Media Group 2015 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of @e_media_group
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