Who Are The League Two Managers? No.18: Frankie Bunn (Oldham Athletic)

“It was one of those nights where everything I touched seemed to go in – and those are very few and far between.”

Critics may say the appointment of a 55-year-old rookie to his first managerial role has all the hallmarks of a disaster, particularly when it is a club recently relegated to the basement division. Stabilising a club after the despondency of relegation is no easy task, and Oldham have turned to a club legend to drag them out of the mire.

It is unlikely that many football supporters under the age of forty will have heard of Frankie Bunn, but he is one of those rare players who have achieved cult status because of one event. In the case of Frankie, we can call it six events. All six of those events came during a third round Littlewoods (League) Cup tie between Second Division promotion-chasers Oldham and Fourth Division strugglers Scarborough on 25 October 1989. Oldham won the game 7-0 with centre-forward Frankie getting a double hat-trick, which still stands as a League Cup record. Bunn had his first hat-trick after twenty minutes and five goals by halftime. What is often forgotten is that Bunn also claimed an assist for the other goal as his flick on was finished superbly by strike partner Andy Ritchie.

Unusually for the time, the game was televised – the goals are readily available online. Oldham surprised the football world by going all the way to the final, where they lost by a single goal to Nottingham Forest. Bunn was substituted at half-time at Wembley and made just two more appearances before his career came to a premature end due to injury. Let’s go back to the beginning.

Born in Birmingham, Bunn started his football career with Second Division Luton after leaving school at the age of sixteen. Unfortunately he would make only sporadic appearances throughout his five seasons at Kenilworth Road due to the presence of David Moss, Brian Stein, Trevor Aylott and Mick Harford at various times. He did enjoy promotion to the old First Division in 1981-82 after an excellent run of just one defeat in their last twenty-two games secured the title by an eight-point margin. After another great end of season run, Luton famously retained their First Division status on the final day of the 1982-83 season when an 85th-minute winner from Raddy Antic relegated Manchester City in their place. More memorable was David Pleat’s equally famous run across the Maine Road pitch, although Bunn was not in the side that day.

Luton retained their First Division place by just three points in 1983-84, although their position was only endangered by a poor run of only three wins from their last twenty-three games. Bunn’s final season saw Luton reach the semi-final of the FA Cup, going down 2-1 to Everton at Villa Park. In the summer of 1985 he was taken to newly-promoted Second Division side Hull City by player-manager Brian Horton, who had been Bunn’s captain for three years at Luton. Bunn had the unenviable task of replacing Hull legend Billy Whitehurst, who had been sold to Newcastle. This time he managed to secure a regular place in the team, helping Hull to finish sixth in their first season and fourteenth in his second.

Having scored 23 goals in 95 games for Hull, Joe Royle took him to Second Division rivals Oldham for £90,000 in 1987. Oldham finished tenth in 1987-88, well off the pace at the top of the table, and endured a televised hammering from Spurs in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Early in the 1988-89 season Bunn picked up a knee injury that would eventually force his premature retirement from the game. He missed four months initially, but was destined to struggle on for a further nineteen months without ever really regaining full fitness. Oldham finished a disappointing sixteenth.

After two relatively quiet seasons, there was no sign of what was about to happen at Boundary Park in 1989-90. In what Joe Royle still calls his ‘pinch me season’, Oldham were destined to finish only eighth in the Second Division, but there were a few distractions. Further to that astonishing run to the League Cup Final, they also reached the semi-final of the FA Cup, going down 2-1 to Manchester United in a replay. In all, they played nineteen cup ties and 65 games in total. It was little wonder that a run of only fourteen points from their final twelve league games saw them miss a playoff spot by an agonising three points.

Curiously, Oldham had not beaten a top-flight club in a cup tie for 66 years, yet that season they beat four in four months (Arsenal, Southampton, Everton and Aston Villa), all at Boundary Park. Critics have pointed to the fact that Oldham played on an infamous plastic pitch between 1986 and 1991, resulting in an unfair home advantage. They certainly enjoyed a golden age during those years and only tore the pitch up due to Football League rules when they eventually reached the First Division. Whatever the reasons, it was undoubtedly a special team that got them there. Unfortunately, that is where it ended for Frankie Bunn: having missed the majority of the second half of that special season with that knee injury, he called time on his professional career at the age of 27.

He made a playing comeback in 1992 with newly-promoted Conference side Stalybridge Celtic, although he was always unable to train due to the knee injury. He then moved on to Radcliffe Borough in 1994 where he was appointed player-coach. After two more seasons, he hung the boots up for good in 1996 and joined Wigan Athletic as Community Development Officer.

With his coaching career underway, Frankie moved to Manchester City in 1998 as a youth team coach, turning down a similar offer from Oldham at the same time. The long-serving senior youth team coach at Maine Road was Steve Eyre (son of Lincoln legend Fred), with whom Bunn would build a lengthy working relationship. He enjoyed a spell as reserve team manager under Stuart Pearce before graduating to working with the first team. In February 2007 he moved to Championship side Coventry where he worked as both reserve and first-team coach under Iain Dowie. When Dowie was sacked in February 2008, Bunn enjoyed his first taste of management when he took joint control of the side for two games. After a 0-0 draw with Cardiff in the league and a 5-0 home defeat by West Brom in the fifth round of the FA Cup, Bunn reverted to his coaching role under new manager Chris Coleman. He remained at Coventry until May 2010 when his contract was not renewed.

His next job was at Newcastle as U18 coach in March 2011, but his stay was to prove very short. He quit Newcastle on 24 June 2011 to join Rochdale as assistant manager to his former Manchester City colleague Steve Eyre. Unfortunately things did not go well for the rookie management duo, and they were sacked on 19 December 2011 after one win in ten league games had left Rochdale 22nd in the table. Eventually they were to be relegated to League Two in bottom place.

Frankie joined up with Steve Eyre for the third time on 14 July 2012, at the Huddersfield Town Academy where Eyre had been appointed senior professional development coach a few months earlier. Initially placed in charge of the U18 side, Bunn had immediate success in leading the side to two Professional Development League II play-off finals after winning their North section, beating Crewe in the 2014 final. The side also reached the FA Youth Cup quarter-final that season. His success led to his promotion to Senior Professional Development Coach in July 2014, at which point he also took over coaching the U23 team. Bunn then reached two more PDL II play-off finals, winning in 2016 with a 2-1 victory over Sheffield United.

In May 2016 he was linked with the vacant manager’s job at former club Oldham when John Sheridan left for Notts County. Having decided to remain loyal to Huddersfield, that loyalty was not reciprocated when he was made redundant from his job as U23 coach at Christmas 2017. Huddersfield had decided to downgrade their academy from Category II to Category IV because manager David Wagner felt that too few players were being developed for the first team. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise: on 13 June 2018 he was finally appointed manager of relegated League Two side Oldham on a one-year contract. Former Oldham team mate Andy Rhodes joined as his assistant.

After a year of turmoil at Boundary Park, it would be fair to say that the man named by Paul Scholes as his favourite ever player has a big job on his hands. Frankie Bunn has an impressive coaching record, especially recently at Huddersfield. If he can translate his obvious skills with development players into first-team success, there is no reason why Oldham cannot halt their current slide. But Frankie is another unknown quantity in League Two this season with no track record in senior management from which to judge him. It could be a very interesting season ahead.

Key:

P = Promoted; R = Relegated; SF = Lost in play-off semi-final; F = Lost in play-off final; PO = Won play-off final; D = Demoted.

Figures are league games only; cup matches and playoffs are not included.

League position shown is either the position at the end of the season or the position at the time of departure.

* Joint caretaker manager with John Harbin.

Writer: Scotimp