Forget the man hugs and high fives, Roy Hodgson is back on the touchline immaculately dressed in jacket and tie and marking his first win as Bristol City boss for 44 years with firm handshakes all round.
First for his own backroom staff and then deflated Charlton boss Nathan Jones, then out onto the pitch where he joined his players as they walked towards the Jimmy Seed Stand to salute the 2,400 jubilant travelling fans.
Hodgson politely declined suggestions he might like to go to the front of the pack. Instead, he picked his moment to discreetly make his retreat towards the tunnel at the other end of The Valley.
His players threw their shirts into the crowd and punched the air in relief having ended a tricky spell and moved up to 13th in the Championship.
The former England boss was almost out of sight when he stopped in his tracks. He might be 78 but there’s nothing wrong with his hearing.
Bristol City fans were singing, ‘Roy Hodgson’s red-and-white army’. Hodgson turned back towards them, lifted his hands above his grey hair, clapped again and disappeared out of view.
Hodgson, immaculately dressed in jacket and tie, marked his first win as Bristol City boss for 44 years
‘The cult of the manager is something I tend to play down,’ he said when asked if he was proud of his impact upon his return more than two years since his last game as a manager
‘The cult of the manager is something I tend to play down,’ he replied, when asked if he was proud of his impact upon his return more than two years since his last game, eight miles across south London at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace lost late to two late Chelsea goals.
‘It’s football players who win it. If you’re going to win you need quality in your team.
‘There is desire and determination and sometimes as a coach you can be proud if players show that and if they keep the shape. I would advise young coaches not to be too proud every time they win a game because they’re going to lose a lot.’
Victory though, and with it, a form of acceptance, must have been sweet.
Hodgson’s return last week had been greeted in Bristol with bewilderment.
Fans have been crying out for investment in players not managers to propel them into the Premier League after more than a decade in the middle of the Championship.
They had nothing much against Gerhard Struber. They rather liked his honesty, in fact, and appreciated key players had been sold in January, including Anis Mehmeti to Ipswich for £3m and Zak Vyner to Wrexham for £1.5m.
There was a brief chorus of Struber’s name from those in the away end early in the game.
Charlie Boss, the new chief executive at Ashton Gate, wants a sporting director to come in and lead the search for the next permanent head coach and interim Hodgson says he can advise on both appointments.
Charlie Boss, the new chief executive at Ashton Gate, wants a sporting director to come in and lead the search for the next permanent head coach and interim Hodgson says he can advise
City fans want their club to get it right. That matters more to them than the nice narrative arc that appeals to those in the press box or watching from afar.
Hodgson completed a successful return to Palace, where he failed to make the grade as a young player and dropped into non-league before launching into his remarkable coaching adventure.
Now here he is, back at the club he managed for four months in 1982, then his first managerial role in English football, although there is no nostalgic affection for those days from Bristol City fans.
They were the worst of times. Hodgson took over from Bob Houghton with City beset by financial crisis and the legend of the Ashton Gate Eight, eight players who tore up their contracts in February 1982 so the club could survive.
Hodgson’s job was to fulfil the remaining fixtures with the remaining players but won only three of 20 games and was relieved of his duties before the end of the season with City on course for relegation, completing the rapid descent from the first to the fourth tier in successive seasons.
He reappeared to the fading final notes of Charlton’s ‘Red Red Robin’ walk-on music and made his way along the touchline, zipping up his black-and-grey winter coat with hair wafting in the breeze.
He acknowledged polite applause from the Charlton fans and made a few owlish turns of the head in response to calls in his direction as he passed Jones in the modern manager attire, a snug bomber jacket and white trainers.
Back in the corner of his technical area, he was soon rubbing a hand across his face having seen his centre forward Emil Riis burst clean through and inexplicably miss the target.
‘You have to probably divide it up into five-minute periods,’ said Hodgson when asked if he had enjoyed the game
‘You have to probably divide it up into five-minute periods,’ said Hodgson when asked if he had enjoyed it. ‘There were a few five-minute periods when I thought this is fantastic and few when I thought what on earth are you doing here.
‘Also, to be fair, I stopped two years ago before the long throw became a big thing again. I only came across that in the ‘80s when we played Wimbledon.’
There was barely a flicker when Scott Twine put City ahead. Hands in coat pockets, Hodgson exchanged words with those on his bench, and joined the protests when they conceded an equaliser.
Charlton fans taunted him about his Palace past when Noah Elie bundled in the winner, and the visitors survived a late pressure in a thrilling finish.
One final piece of wisdom. ‘Football is not a science,’ said Hodgson. ‘But one thing I would say is if I can trust players to keep working as they did today with the same degree of determination to show the fans they care, I shall be happy enough in these last six weeks or five weeks – one’s gone now isn’t it – only five before I get the slippers back on.’
