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THIS WEEKEND last year Peter Taylor broke off from guiding the England Under-21 side towards the perfect qualification programme which led them to their European Championship finals, in which they face Italy in Bratislava tonight.
Accompanied by the likes of Frank Lampard and Kieron Dyer, Taylor sat back in a Leeds hotel to watch the Second Division play-off final and cheer on Gillingham, the team from his home county, whose captain, Andy Hessenthaler, had played under his tutelage at Dartford.
Manchester City's injury-time recovery from two goals down, and their subsequent shoot-out victory was a stunning reverse. But Taylor's world was also turning upside down. A week later, following the Under-21s' fifth straight victory, he was the sacrificial lamb to the Football Association's restructuring programme. In a messy turnaround, Sunderland's Peter Reid was initially announced as Taylor's part-time successor before it emerged that Howard Wilkinson, the FA's technical director, would take charge.
Gillingham, fresh from their own devastation and the loss of their manager, Tony Pulis, offered alternative employment. Twelve months on, the angst of his England exit purged, this former Dover and Southend manager has enhanced...