Blackburn now 18th and out of the relegation zone had not lost in the league

Blackburn, now 18th, and out of the relegation zone, had not lost in the league under Parkes, and had taken eight points from 12.Second spell: 2 Sept - 12 Oct 19912 Sept 1991: Blackburn, 21st of 22 in the Second Division, with one point from three games, sack Don Mackay after 2-1 home defeat by Ipswich. Tony Parkes, team coach, took over for his second spell as caretaker. His record was:Played 8 Won 5 Drawn 2 Lost 1Second DivisionDerby 0 Blackburn 2Sunderland 2 Blackburn 2Blackburn 1 Port Vale 0Blackburn 1 Watford 0Leicester 3 Blackburn 0Blackburn 0 Tranmere 0Millwall 1 Blackburn 3Blackburn 5 Plymouth 212 October 1991: Just before kick-off against Plymouth, Kenny Dalglish's appointment as manager is confirmed. Blackburn are seventh, having taken 17 points from 24 under Parkes.Third spell: 25 Oct 1996 - ?25 October 1996: Blackburn, 20th of 20 in the Premiership, with four points from 11 games, appoint Tony Parkes, team coach, as caretaker, after sacking manager Ray Harford. Parkes' record so far is:Played 17 Won 7 Drawn 6 Lost 4FA Carling PremiershipWest Ham 2 Blackburn 1Blackburn 3 Liverpool 0Blackburn 1 Chelsea 1Nottm Forest 2 Blackburn 2Blackburn 2 Southampton 1Leicester 1 Blackburn 1Wimbledon 1 Blackburn 0Blackburn 1 Newcastle 0Derby 0 Blackburn 0Everton 0 Blackburn 2F A Cup third roundBlackburn 1 Port Vale 0 FA Carling PremiershipBlackburn 4 Coventry 0Sunderland 0 Blackburn 0Tottenham 2 Blackburn 1Blackburn 2 West Ham 1F A Cup fourth foundBlackburn 1 Coventry 2 FA Carling PremiershipLiverpool 0 Blackburn 0Today: Blackburn are 15th in the Premiership, having taken 24 points from a possible 45 in League matches Roy Hodgson will take over as manager in the summer.. Is there life after Scarborough? Hardly, to judge by state of the old-timers who walk their Zimmer frames on the Esplanade every afternoon. For Scarborough, as Pete Davies pointed out in a piece in FourFourTwo a year or so ago, is a place where people come to die, but then forget why they came.

A year ago, pretty much the same could have been said of the football side - after a lifetime of non-League toil. At the end of last season, only Torquay - and the fact that Stevenage did not have a decent ground - lay between them and a return to the Conference. It was not just the lowly position that mattered, it was the manner of it. As befits a seaside club, we were shipping goals by the crateload. The caretaker-manager, Mitch Cook, was a worthy trier, but everything he touched turned to dross.

The high point of his reign came when, one Friday evening, he took his squad out for a drink in Plymouth. His stated aim of relaxing his too-tense players was achieved the following afternoon: Argyle won 5-1.I took in the last game of last season with my son - he had a free ticket from the Football in the Community scheme. I prepared him for a certain amount of late-season carnival; but full-scale clowning I had not forecast. The Seasiders conceded four to the claret-and-blue clodhoppers of Scunthorpe, and my son (not a bad wit, for an eight-year-old) asked the gateman for his money back.Dire straits, then - and all this just a decade since Neil Warnock brought the club into the League on a tide of euphoria. Scarborough were a potent semi-pro side, a Woking of their time, and older fans still live off the glory of the non-League days. There were three Wembley trips in the 70s for FA Trophy wins over Wigan, Stafford and Dagenham. Those old enough to remember tend to regret the transformation from big fish in a small box to tiddler in danger of being thrown off the quayside.Of course, seaside towns in decline make good copy.

The papers loved it when Bulgaria, billeted in town during Euro 96, walked out; cue for much metropolitan sniggering and a visit from Nick Hancock, who sat on the sand in a deckchair with a hanky on his head.Despite all this, the football club seems to have acquired a bit of buoyancy under the new manager, the former Carlisle United director of coaching, Mick Wadsworth. He immediately impressed by seeming to know a fiasco when he saw one - he released half the squad and made a few wise buys, including the old Sunderland stopper, Gary Bennett.Scarborough are now trying to play a beautiful game, and they deserve some plaudits; it takes courage to play it on the deck (no pun intended) in the teeth of a North Sea gale. Crowds are up and, with a mid-season dip apparently behind us, the possibility of a play-off place is looming large in our consciousness. Even as profound a sceptic as my son has agreed to return, and he's seen high-flying Wigan and eight-man Darlington well beaten on our home patch. And before you ask - yes, it really is called the McCain Stadium, but for once we seem to have something more solid than oven chips to build our future on.. NATIONWIDE LEAGUE Footballing connoisseurs anticipating an intriguing battle between the First Division's two most skilful players could be disappointed at Maine Road today. While the visitors, Bradford City, expect Chris Waddle to play his part, Manchester City's manager, Frank Clark, has admitted that Georgi Kinkladze is a major doubt. The inspirational Georgian midfielder limped out of the FA Cup defeat at home to Middlesbrough a fortnight ago and has been under intensive treatment ever since.Clark has yet to be beaten in six League games since he took over at Maine Road, but he knows that his team are not the only side battling against the drop whose quality belies their lowly position.