I didn't know Paul Sturrock, having met him only once, but I think I know how he feels.

I lost my job at Doncaster at the end of my third season, having won the championship in my first but been unable to improve the team. We were relegated and a week later I was sacked.

They had a record in those days for getting rid of managers - at least I was given three years. But when I was shown the door, I've never felt so low in my life.

I didn't want to leave the house, I felt like a failure and blamed myself entirely for the results of the team.

Fortunately I had a good wife who kept my spirits up and also a wonderful man called Paddy Hamilton, the chairman of Grimsby, who rang me within days. He and his board made me their new manager exactly a week after I was sacked at Doncaster.

I rewarded Paddy by winning the championship, again in my first season, and we had a fantastic second year until Southampton asked me to take over from Ted.

I promptly got relegated again in my first season but the difference was that the chairman and board had given me a brief to "sort out the dressing room" and, while we were all disappointed and I personally was devastated with the relegation, I had their total backing.

I was given the time to regroup and, in the following 12-year period, was allowed to build four or five different teams which took us on to different levels, with very little financial income and a decreasing capacity at The Dell which strangely got smaller as the team's performances got better.

The same thing was happening with Bobby Robson and Brian Clough at Ipswich and Nottingham Forest.

The three of us became reguarly placed in the top six, with Cloughie winning the league and Bobby and myself finishing runners-up at different times and all of us winning cup competitions.