IN DEPTH WITH... Dave Hockaday

The former Town right back, who was nicknamed ‘The Professor’ by his teammates, studied under Lou Macari and Ossie Ardiles during his seven-year stint at the County Ground.

Former Forest Green Rovers and Leeds United head coach Hockaday, who descends from Sedgefield in County Durham, was able to learn the heart that was needed to win a football game from the steely Scot Macari, while Argentinean Ardiles brought the South American flair and the skill to change a game on its head.

“Swindon was a brilliant time,” explained the 57-year-old, who is often still seen down at the County Ground keeping an eye on the current crop of scholars.

“I learned the best of being a professional from Lou Macari, and take a big part of that into my coaching now.

“We thought we hated him at the time, but we respected the hell out of him and he showed all the players there at the time what it was to be a true professional.

“High standards were demanded on and off the field.

“Then Ossie came and enriched me from a tactical point of view, because we didn’t play in straight lines.

“We had this diamond (formation) and the movement off the ball and bringing the ball down and being brave on the ball.

“Ossie introduced me to that.

“So my philosophy as a coach is to make sure I have the fittest team in the league and that we are brave enough on the ball to play football.

“So two massive lessons, learned from two contrasting managers.”

Dave Hockaday on the training pitch

Hockaday joined Swindon in 1983 from Blackpool, where he had endured turbulent times, with 12 managers coming and going in the space of eight years.

Despite having almost a dozen clubs after his signature, then-Town manager Ken Beamish persuaded the 25-year-old to sign up to a two-year deal, with John Trollope having already tried to sign him a year previously.

Hockaday experienced a tough opening campaign as Swindon struggled to a 17th place finish in Division Four, before Beamish was replaced by Macari the following summer.

Harry Gregg was brought in as his assistant and Hockaday can still remember the irony in the first training session that was held by Macari, who became known during his time at the County Ground for his fitness-driven training.

“Pre-season then was running lots of miles. We went up to, past Wroughton, to Barbury Castle and we ran and stopped and did exercises,” explained Hockaday.

“We got so far away and then it was a run back to the mini bus. I was running alongside Lou, because he was fit, and after literally half a mile he said ‘right, everybody stop, this is stupid’.

“The very first day he said we weren’t going to be doing stupid running, so it was all about football.

“We started the season, Lou was playing, and then the rules were a lot more lax than they are now and Lou just got absolutely kicked to smithereens. It was horrible to see. He was just a marked man.

“He was a tough lad and never complained, but it just became obvious that everybody was out to get a scalp.”

For the defender it became clear from an early stage that Macari and Gregg were at polar ends of where they wanted the club to be.

That filtered down to the dressing room and it wasn’t long until the board acted and sacked the duo.

“We, the players, were devastated,” said Hockaday.

“It was one of the very few times that we, along with the fans, made a stand and miraculously, Lou was reinstated.

“That is when Lou became the Lou Macari that everybody knows.

“He had a good look at what was needed and he knew he had to get the lads the fittest in the land.

“We would come in on a Monday and we would run, every Tuesday throughout the season we would do a six-mile run or more at pace, run Wednesday, run Thursday and then we would get a bit of the ball, but it was more like killer ball on a Friday.

“Then we would just run over every team on a Saturday.

“As a person it toughened me up. I went out to play football, with Lou I became a winner.

“He ruled with a rod of iron, even though he was only a little chap, but he was incredibly shrewd and I think, through gritted teeth, we all have a lot to thank him for.”

Hockaday celebrates Town's play-off success in 1987

That, along with Macari’s nous in the transfer market, secured Swindon the Division Four title in 1986 with a record points tally of 102, before play-off success the following season saw them move up to the second tier of English football.

After a year of consolidation, Swindon were on the brink of dining at the top table in 1989 but a 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace in the play-offs put an end to those dreams and spelled the end of the Macari era.

“We looked at it as a missed opportunity,” added Hockaday, as he reflected on one of the darkest days in his football career.

“It was bizarre because after the game, for all of the highs, Lou disappeared and we all got on the coach at about midnight to go back to Swindon and our season had been ripped to shreds.

“All our hopes and aspirations of playing in the top league, which we would have been capable of doing, had ended.

“Lou wasn’t there and it was like a ship without a rudder.

“The chairman and the director didn’t know what to do. It was the worst journey of my life, driving back on a darkened coach, with no food, absolutely shattered in every way, mentally, physically, emotionally.

“Then in the next few days we’d found out that Lou had gone to West Ham.”

The next season saw the arrival of former Tottenham Hotspur star Ardiles and Hockaday saw his role in the team transformed.

No longer was he the reliable right back who liked to have the ball in front of him, instead he was being encouraged to get forward with a new diamond formation.

“It was total football,” explained Hockaday.

“It was interesting from my point of view, because by then I was a very experienced right back and he was telling me just to attack.

“That is when we found out how good we were from a footballing perspective, because he wanted us to play football and we could.

“Lou had got together some very good footballers and he had a certain way of playing, but the system completely changed and it was about getting the ball down on the deck and passing.

“We could handle the ball and were better than maybe people had given us credit for or thought we were.

“We would go somewhere and beat them 8-0 and it would be a fight with Lou, but with Ardiles we would go and get the same result and it would just be passing.”

Hockaday on the pitch alongside Ossie Ardiles

Town took the Second Division by surprise with the new and exciting brand of football, but it ultimately spelt the end for Hockaday as a Swindon player as he found himself down the pecking order behind David Kerslake.

He said: “From my own personal point of view it was going well until we had a run of replays against Bolton in the FA Cup and in one of them I got my cheek smashed.

“I had an operation where they shaved all my hair, cut open my scalp to mend the break and it looked like I had had a lobotomy, maybe some think I should have had a lobotomy.

“Dave went and filled in for me and sort of became the right back and he was superb.

“Dave gave this attacking diamond formation a different dimension. I was better defending and Dave was better going forward.”

Hockaday missed out on the play-off final, forced to watch from the bench as Town secured their passage to the First Division and that misery was soon to be compounded over a conversation with Andy Rowland in the toilet at Miami airport.

“I went to America, with my wife, as a top league player, and on the way back, in the most incredible of coincidences, I met Andy Rowland in the airport toilets,” he said.

“I went up to him and said ‘Andy how are you doing?’ and he just looked at me and said ‘you don’t know do you’.

“He told me we had been relegated two leagues and those six hours back from Miami airport were a nightmare.

“I had gone as a top division player and was coming back as a Second Division player.

“I came back and there were demonstrations and eventually we got reinstated into the Second Division.

“As I understand it they were told they were going to be hit by a big fine, but because we weren’t a big-hitting club they decided to throw the book at us.

“That was a really sour part and I thought the football authorities let football down, let alone Swindon Town, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.”

Hockaday was in demand as a player that summer, having helped Swindon to their three promotions, but having made only 11 appearances in the previous year found himself in the squad to play Hull City.

However, after the game, rather than getting on the team bus back he ended up on the pitch with Hull manager Stan Ternent and ended up signing for three years to close the book on his time at Swindon Town.