PATGOD would like to add its voice to the tributes being paid to Peter Mallinger, who died on Friday. After the turbulence of the Mark English period he came in and for over a decade he proved to be a steady hand on the tiller. Once the Club's future post-English had been secured in Court by the Poppies Supporters Trust and the appointed Administrators, Mallinger became the new owner and delivered Conference level football for several seasons. Even when we were relegated he backed Carl Shutt to enable us to bounce straight back.
He was an "old school" Chairman who backed his Manager, was always working hard behind the scenes, on hand for the media and effectively smooched with the sponsors. On a one-to-one basis with the average supporter he was charming and every inch the benign club Chairman.
He was less comfortable when dealing with supporters en-masse, and famously tarred Poppynet users as the "Lowest of the Low" (not a bad assessment in many cases!!!) I honestly believe this slight schism was caused more by his generational unfamiliarity with message boards, and the spectrum of opinions that can arise from a group of people who all believe roughly the same thing.
To prove he was nothing if not a glutton for punishment, he took over at Corby after he sold the Poppies to Imraan. It must have been a pleasant change for him to finally deal with a council who understood the value of a vibrant football team to the community. It is a shame he never lived to see the new football ground he had tried to have built for almost 20 years, finally open.
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