C

ALLS have flooded in to the Todd household this week from friends and relatives concerned that the Wanderers boss might have marital problems to add to his relegation strife.

It was a false alarm, of course. We're talking here about one of the most enduring marriages in football. But the concerns were genuine after the tabloids ran the story that the manager's wife and son had sent him to Coventry after Sunday's heartbreaking events!

It was all to do with the fact that Todd Snr hadn't picked Todd Jnr at Stamford Bridge.

"Andy didn't say a word all the way back from Chelsea and now my good lady's not speaking to me," Todd said, self-mockingly.

The manager was just trying to use a touch of humour to lift the gloom that had descended on the Reebok.

Monday wasn't one of his better days. By his own admission, he felt worse than he had the previous evening when the sense of disappointment still hadn't hit rock bottom.

He genuinely believed Wanderers would survive and failure was hard to take. Anyone who saw the faces of the players as they emerged from that morgue of a dressing room, could see how painful an experience they'd had.

M

uch more shattering than when their fate was sealed in '96. Then they could see it coming and, truth be told, they had long been resigned to being relegated. This time was altogether different.

Fair enough, two months earlier they seemed dead and buried. But they didn't just give themselves a fighting chance; they actually got their noses in front of Everton going into the last lap and raised expectations to disproportionate heights.

Sunday left everyone in a state of shock - manager, players and fans alike - and when the dust had settled, prompted a good deal of soul searching.

Where had it gone wrong?

Relegated with a record identical to Everton's but showing five goals less! Not powerful enough up front then, or not tight enough at the back.

What if they hadn't crashed so heavily at Sheffield Wednesday...or collapsed so catastrophically at home to Coventry? Couldn't they have hung on a few minutes longer for the extra points - one at Newcastle two at Manchester United? Or, as Todd prefers, why couldn't they have beaten the likes of Southampton and Barnsley here at the Reebok?

F

ew would argue that, on their day and unlike last time they were in the top flight, Wanderers are a good side with good players, who have made telling contributions to the Premiership: Keith Branagan, young Todd, Per Frandsen, Alan Thompson and Nathan Blake.

A good side but, as results and the league table have shown, not good enough when it really mattered!

Their destiny was in their own hands at Chelsea and they just didn't have enough to produce one performance that would have secured their survival. They paid for chances missed in the first half, when they were on top, and a mistake at the back, when they were under pressure from the threat of Vialli, Poyet and Di Matteo.

I

njuries and suspensions have highlighted at various stages the squad's lack of depth and, more importantly, denied Todd the continuity of selection that is so important. Oh to have had Taggart available during his six-month lay-off, or Branagan, Fish, Bergsson, Sellars, Thompson and Blake at crucial times.

If only Dean Holdsworth hadn't struggled to justify that massive fee.

Luck played a part too. No-one will ever forget THAT disallowed goal against Everton on the opening night at the Reebok and to a lesser extent Gaetano Giallanza's against Leeds. So costly!

But what about Sunday? Don't ever let anyone argue against the League's insistence that all games on the final day of the season kick off at the same time. For, had Wanderers known - 17 minutes from time at Stamford Bridge - that Everton would end up only drawing at home to Coventry, you can bet your last shilling Todd wouldn't have replaced Gudni Bergsson with Michael Johansen and switched to a flat back four.

A

s it happened, Wanderers were understandably chasing the game at the time and had no way of knowing Coventry would equalise in the closing minutes up at Goodison.

If he'd known then what he knows now, the manager would surely have sent on his lad, kept to his three centre-back system and, as they had done for the prevous 25 second half minutes, kept Chelsea in check and hung on for that precious, life-saving point.

And he wouldn't have ended up in the doghouse when he got home!

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.