John Sillett With Frank Miles And Mike Roberts
Hereford historian Ron Parrott has penned this tribute to John Sillett.
1974/75 saw John Sillett take charge, the ex-Chelsea, Coventry City and Plymouth Argyle full-back had 238 League appearances to his credit and was a coach at Bristol City. As an experienced full-back, fans expected him to start by strengthening the defence but John would have none of that and surprised us all by immediately making his attacking intent clear when he signed England winger Terry Paine from Southampton and ace striker Dixie McNeil from Lincoln City.
John Sillett With Terry Paine
They were both inspired
signings and thanks to McNeil’s 31 goals that made him top scorer in the
Football League, Hereford United maintained progress. 1975/76 was even
better and with his attacking philosophy paying dividends and Dixie
McNeil ending the season as the nation's top scorer again, United swept
all before them and won the Third Division title by a clear margin of six points, leaving rivals Crystal Palace and Cardiff City trailling in their wake.
From a personal point of view, I owe John Sillett so much! As a football mad teenager, I had no time for Wolves, Liverpool or Manchester United like most of my mates and I just said, "You wait, one day, we'll play you lot on equal terms!" Thanks to John, I lived the dream and during our one season in the Second Division (Championship), I travelled to every away game but one, a foot of snow in Hereford on Boxing Day ruining my full house at Chelsea. We went to places like Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Southampton, Wolves, Burnley and Fulham and although we didn't win any of them, the sheer unadulterated pleasure these games gave me can surely never be repeated.
United fans had every reason to be happy but the Second Division (Championship) proved to be a step too far, the squad was simply not strong enough to compete and finished bottom of the table and back to the Third Division. The philosophic view of fans was that they had enjoyed the experience and in no way blamed manager Sillett for the downfall.
1977/78 was a different kettle of fish however, the defence performed adequately enough but the loss of Dixie McNeil and others meant that Hereford scored a grand total of only six goals in 23 away matches. Sillett became more and more frustrated as the season progressed and after a 5-1 home loss to Plymouth in January, he decided that enough was enough and handed in his notice. Coach Tony Ford was appointed caretaker manager but could do little to improve results and United suffered relegation for a second successive season.
They say that in life, nothing is ever the same going back. I've certainly learned this in my own personal life but United's Board obviously hadn't learned their lesson and when Colin Addison failed in 1990/91 to reproduce his earlier Edgar Street successes, his replacement for 1991/92 was none other than John Sillett, who had superseded Addison last time around too. John however, was his own man and if he failed he was going to fail with his own team. As a result, there was a massive clearout and ten new players were recruited but the end result was no better – another final position of 17th. As the season neared its close, Sillett had been grooming Greg Downs and handed over team affairs to him before resigning at the end of the season.