The way it finished for Stuart McCall is testament to the guy.

As I said in the T&A last week, when it came to the fore he would never hold Bradford City to ransom. He cares too much for the club.

Put 100 managers in a room and 99 of them would have dug their heels in and demanded a substantial pay-off. Stuart’s the exception.

He recognised the club’s financial position and would only take a nominal sum.

I don’t know anyone else who would do that. But that’s what the guy is about.

There were tears all round on his final day from the staff and everybody else. He is so popular with so many people.

The results haven’t been what he would have wanted. I know how desperate he was to make a success of it with City.

At the end of the day, every decision he made he’s felt has been the right one for the club and not Stuart McCall.

Everything is a knee-jerk reaction in football but when the dust settles people take a proper view.

That’s my experience from when I was at Barnsley.

It turned out to be a terrific move for me in the twilight years of my career. At 33, I ended up being player of the year and getting them into the top flight for the first time in the 110-year history.

But then Danny Wilson jumped ship on the back of getting relegated and the board offered me the job to appease the fans.

I wanted to carry on playing but the job was pushed my way. I was a bit young but I took it.

I jumped above the youth-team coach, reserve-team coach and first-team coach to get it. Were they all batting for me? Far from it.

There was a bit of resentment and I never had my own team in there. But I could look in the mirror every day knowing that I gave everything.

We got to the FA Cup quarter-finals and were only beaten by a David Ginola wonder goal for Spurs.

But 13th in the league wasn’t seen as good enough by the directors and I was out the door. Eleven years on Barnsley have probably had another ten managers… The worst thing was the effect on my family. My daughter took flak at school and even got spat at.

Eighteen months later I went to a Barnsley cup game away from home and took her with me.

We had to go round to the far stand and walked past the Barnsley fans. Each and everyone stood up and started chanting my name.

My daughter was five yards behind me and when I turned round she was crying. She thought they had hated me.

“Lorne,” I said, “don’t let the events of one bad day destroy the memories of some magical years.”

And I still go down to Oakwell to this day and the people are different class. It’s like a long-lost son coming back.

Stuart is a hero at Bradford and that will never change. Some might be pleased that he’s gone as manager but I’m sure they will still respect everything that he has done.

* John Hendrie, who was talking to Simon Parker, is a sports consultant with www.lawblacks.com