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LEEDS UNITED: Murphy: We need our own Macca
Gerry Murphy is accustomed to picking up the pieces at Huddersfield Town.
In 20 years of employment with the West Yorkshire club, Murphy has seen the front and back of more managers than the average LMA conference, and November 4 brought a repeat of a cycle which the Irishman knows too well.
Early that morning, Huddersfield announced a parting of ways with Stan Ternent and the end of a managerial experiment which failed to produce the anticipated results. Murphy digested the news and waited for his phone to ring.
Huddersfield's director of football development had been their first port of call after Peter Jackson's departure in 2007 and again when Andy Ritchie was sacked late last season, and it was an automatic response for the club to appoint him as caretaker manager while the dust thrown up by Ternent's reign settled.
A man held in high esteem at the Galpharm Stadium – though one with apparently no interest in leaving his academy position for the more volatile environment of professional management – Murphy's influence had a profound effect on Huddersfield's first team last season.
His six matches as caretaker brought two draws and four victories, one achieved against Leeds United on a wet night at the Galpharm Stadium, but, as Murphy admits, there is more at stake for the club third time around. When Jackson and Ritchie moved on, Huddersfield were trailing towards a mid-table finish; after 15 matches of this season, the club have some distance to travel before they can feel the same security.
Murphy will enjoy his moment of personal exposure when he leads the operation in the visiting dug-out at Elland Road tomorrow, but his long-term view of a club who hold 16th position in their division is pensive.
"This is a very important period for the club," he said. "It's important in the sense that a run of steady results is overdue, and if the club don't put that run together then we're going to have a problem.
"It's a delight for me to be taking the team at Elland Road but I won't be properly happy until we've got a manager in place who's going to be here for the long term and who can get us moving forward.
"It sounds strange because Leeds United have had very little stability in the last six or seven years, but we probably need what they've got now – a stable management team who are doing a fantastic job. They made a tremendous appointment when they got Gary McAllister. He's a high calibre manager and he knows football inside out. The same goes for his staff.
"I've been caretaker twice before but this is a different situation for me and probably more difficult. Last season, the team I took on contained a lot of the kids I'd worked with in the academy, but Stan signed quite a few players in the summer and most of them don't know me at all. I accepted straight away that it was going to be a little complicated.
"There are players in the dressing room who will have been sad to see Stan go. As with any club, there are players who won't have been quite so sad. All I can ask of the squad is that we work together in a professional manner and give the new manager the chance to take over a club who are together making progress. Maybe a local derby against Leeds is just what we need to set the ball rolling."
Huddersfield's most recent memory of a West Yorkshire derby against United is satisfying – a 1-0 victory at their own stadium on April 15 – but their prior visit to Leeds was unsavoury in several senses.
The club were beaten 4-0, a crushing result which Leeds saw as recompense for the mindless vandalism of Billy Bremner's statue at Elland Road on the night before kick-off. "To whoever did that," said Dennis Wise, then United's manager, after full-time, "I'd like to say 'up yours'."
Huddersfield's frame of mind may be more fragile than it was a year ago – the club conceded a 3-1 lead against Port Vale in the FA Cup last Saturday, losing 4-3 at the Galpharm Stadium – but Murphy is not worried about the timing of tomorrow's derby. If anything, he hopes it might bring unity to a club who have lacked purpose during a season in which many anticipated their promotion to the Championship.
"There won't be a single person outside Huddersfield who tips us to win," admitted Murphy. "There might well be a few of our own fans who feel a bit of trepidation about the game.
"But these are the games when players rise to the occasion and it's a game that we can get a result from. I don't think we were particularly fancied when they came to our place at the end of last season. I'll tell that to my players and I'll tell them to believe in themselves. We won't get any more difficult games this season but we won't get any bigger either. I always feel that bragging rights are important, and maybe now more than ever for us.
"With all due respect to everyone involved, I think it's fair to say that things haven't been good at Huddersfield this season. When it's like this, certain players need an arm around their shoulders and others need a stronger approach, but respect is crucial from all sides and my philosophy as a caretaker has always been to treat people as you want to be treated."
In the thick of tomorrow's derby, that philosophy may have to be suspended. Huddersfield will pay as little homage to United's healthy league position as Leeds show sympathy to their troubled neighbours, and Murphy will have no alternative but to trust in the professionalism of the squad he has inherited after the first kick of the ball.
"I've seen a difference in the players already," he said. "There are a few smiles on faces which were looking down-hearted before, and I need this team to show what they're made of.
"We can't hide from our problems or from the poor results we've been having, but people who make mistakes don't do it on purpose. None of us football men are perfect, not even the best.
“I’m a person who loves the game and I’m not in the habit of dwelling on negative aspects. On this weekend of all weekends we as a club can’t be negative because Leeds don’t have it in them to show us any mercy. You can be sure of that.”
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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