Sadly his managerial record was an unmitigated disaster. Eustace had been Howard Wilkinson’ s assistant and he was given the chance to manage the club when Wilkinson moved to Leeds United. It was a surprising move since there had been persistent rumours of differences between Eustace and some first team players, during his time as assistant manager. While he was in charge 1988-89, Wednesday won just two of their 19 league games. They were beaten in the League Cup by Third Division Blackpool and went out of the FA Cup to Blackburn Rovers, who at that time were a mediocre Second Division team.
In December 1990, he went to Leyton Orient as assistant manager to Frank Clark, taking over as manager in 1991. The following season they almost made the play-offs. It was Eustace who sold Chris Bart-Williams to Wednesday. In fact The O’ s became something of a Wednesday Old Boys club with Chris Turner, joining Eustace as player-assistant manager, and a mention too for the incomparable Colin West. In 1994 Eustace handed over the management responsibilty to Chris Turner & John Sitton and like Frank Clark before him, moved ‘ upstairs’ . When the Orient chairman ran into financial problems, Eustace was fired and the arrival of Barry Hearn as the new owner of the club meant that Turner’ s contract would not be renewed.
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