Bull sees red after Stafford anticlimax

Steve Bull’s first home match in charge of Stafford Rangers on Saturday was marked by the presence of a black-and-white bull, Stan Collymore, Robert Plant, Frank Munro and a crowd of 1,853, the club’s biggest for more than three years.

The bull behaved impeccably; the friends collected by Bull during his Wolverhampton Wanderers and England days did him proud. Collymore, a Stafford legend, kicked footballs with youngsters, Plant posed for photographs and signed autographs, Munro, a Wolves defender in the 1970s, was a poignant sight in a wheelchair.

The razzmatazz was great, but the football was a letdown to Stafford’s hopes of escaping the Blue Square Premier relegation positions. Instead, Farsley Celtic opened up a ten-point gap on them as they climbed out of the bottom four with a 2-0 win, thanks to a far-post header by Steve Torpey and a penalty by Dominic Krief.

“When I heard the away supporters [62 on Saturday] cheering at your stadium, I hated it as a player and I hate it as a manager,” Bull said with a ferocity that made clear that, behind public wisecracks, he will be snorting and stamping his feet with the best of his breed behind dressing-room doors.

Bull also issued his first managerial mea culpa by saying that he should not have started with the 3-5-2 formation to which he had switched to salvage a 3-3 draw away to Histon on Tuesday. “The players weren’t good enough to make it work,” he said. An early injury to Matt Hazley, a winger, did not help.

The manager finished the day hoarse, but his message was clear. “There’s been a buzz,” he said. “I’ve heard people saying, ‘Bully’s here, Bully’s here.’ Bully’s here to do a job — and he will do it.”

WALTER GAMMIE