I’ve always thought that a manager and a trainer should complement each other. Going back to the start of my Carlisle career, Alan Ashman was a quiet bloke. But him and Dick Young were the perfect combination.

We’d see Alan on the training ground maybe every other morning. Most of the work there was done by Dick. Alan’s main asset was putting your mind on the game. For 10 or 15 minutes before the match, he’d talk about it, going through the opposition.

Alan went to West Brom and won the FA Cup with them in 1968. He’d worked with a coach who then left the club. When Alan signed me for West Brom in 1970, the coach they had was good, but he was too similar to Alan. I think players take advantage. Not deliberately. But when you’re in charge of 20 blokes, you’ve got to have a bit of steel.

Don Howe replaced Alan after I’d been at West Brom for a year. I wasn’t a regular under him. He didn’t want wingers that took people on. He wanted runners.

From there I went to Oldham, managed by Jimmy Frizzell with coach Bobby Collins. They were similar to Alan Ashman and Dick Young. Jimmy had that knack of focusing you before games.

Going back to the 1960s, Tim Ward had taken over from Alan at Carlisle. We used to call him ‘Gentleman Tim’. I’ll never forget one match at Crystal Palace. We lost 5-0. At half-time we were three or four down. Dick Young was going through us like a dose of salts, rightly. Tim was just walking round the dressing room. Then he went over to Chris Balderstone and said something like “Clive Lloyd is 320 not out for the West Indies”. He was too nice to be a manager.

Then came Bob Stokoe. There was no in-between with Bob. He was either ruthless or a gentleman. He got rid of me twice, but I wouldn’t say anything bad about him. He told you fair and square how it was.

He sold me to West Brom then ten years later he became Carlisle manager again when I was back at the club. He took the game home with him. A bad result would ruin his weekend.

Dick Young had brought me back to Carlisle. Dick was a great coach but he inherited a team on a downward spiral after relegation from the First Division.

Then came Bobby Moncur, with Martin Harvey who eventually took over from him for a brief spell. Bobby had a great playing career as captain of Newcastle and Sunderland. Carlisle was his first job as manager.

I wouldn’t say I didn’t get on with Bob. But he was probably looking at my age and thinking about the future he was planning for Carlisle.

Maybe it was hard for him to manage in the Third Division after most of his career had been in the top flight.

It’s hard to put your finger on what makes a good manager. Some of the best ones, you didn’t see that much during the week. But they had that knack of focusing players on match days and setting you up to win matches. That’s what matters.