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What do you remember about...Derek Johnstone


east end jag
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Having achieved very little of note during nearly two years as manager, Benny Rooney is replaced in March 1986 .  Bertie Auld takes over until the end of the season but is not kept on as new controlling shareholder Ken Bates starts doing things his way.

So a city holds its breath on the next managers appointment which will hopefully herald a new dawn for Thistle.

And when the decision is announced, the new guy in charge is ex-Rangers striker Derek Johnstone. Letting go of its breath, the city's reaction is a very half hearted 'meh'.

So what do you remember of DJ's nine-ish months in charge?  I know this will be painful for some, but during his time with us did you get a chance to see him training the team in Ruchill Park and thought, wow, those training methods are revolutionary. Or did you leave Jaconelli's in disgust just before kick off one Saturday when Derek managed to order the last two fish for a sneaky supper he planned to wolf before taking his place in the dugout? Maybe your memory is as simple as seeing him pull up in his car outside Firhill and having a quiet chuckle as you realised that as he got out of the drivers seat, his trousers were the flares  only a square would wear.

This might be the most difficult one yet. Let's hear what our memories and opinions are of a man who's spell in charge was the very definition of the word flop.

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The only good thing to come from DJ's short reign at Firhill was the birth of the "Derek Johnstone's Red and Yellow Army" chant, stolen from  West Ham and their Johnny Lyall's Claret and Blue Army.

Continued of course with Billy Lamont and took off when Lambie arrived.

 

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I have met Derek socially in recent years and a nicer man you couldn’t meet. Also I believe he has not bad mouthed the club as he was entitled to. However his appointment as manager was the defining issue of Ken Bates’ ownership of the club - a patently unqualified incompetent put in charge of team affairs, and allowed to carry on for 9 months despite his obvious inability to even run a training session. An often unrecognised figure was his assistant John Hagart, who by all accounts held things together with his professional work during Derek’s utterly shambolic reign.      

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At that time my wife's cousin was staying in Houston and on a visit  they told me D.J. was a near neighbour and that when the ice cream van comes hes always is there..Sure enough 30 minutes later ding dong the vans here I am out there , sure enough he's beat me to it.. Hi Derek I say visiting my wife's  cousin how's it going big man  I am a Jags fan, no he did not even by me a pokey hat..

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That's a good point, e4b, re John Hagart.

I've always been of the opinion that the real culprit was the clown who employed Johnstone in the first place. The fella himself never managed again, never even attempted to and more to the point very possibly never would have even applied for a manager's job in the first place. Very much a case of monkey and organ grinder.

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19 hours ago, jagfox said:

Jackie Husband told him at a game at Stenhousemuir that if he wanted to be manager he couldn't be one of the boys. Obviously DJ didn't take his advice.

Never really wanted it to be fair to him.

 

Correct Jagfox.  Jackie told me the same story at a pre-season friendly at Stenhousemuir.  He'd come into the club in the morning and find he was larking about as one of the lads.  I'm sure Jackie told me that when "it" was all over he admitted to Jackie he had been right all along and that he should have taken his advice. 

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I seem to remember we had a few decent players at the time including loans of the likes of Dodds and Kelly (I think) on loan from Chelsea.  But Bates imposing Johnstone on us undermined everything.    Bates really was taking the p!ss with that appointment which showed his attitude to us.  I've often wondered why on earth he bought us. (Or was it just a controlling share?  I think the Reids were still around somehow.)

Edited by Mr Bunny
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