At the time we were on a downwards slope. For several seasons before we had flirted with relegation, with league positons (15th, 16th, 19th) and points (57, 54, 53) steadily declining. At the end of one particularly bad season we got relegated by a point (22nd, 52 pts)!
We were a rather poorly run club then. Granted, Holloway did a poor job, too, but there was a certain inevitability at the time, so I don't think you can make him out as the sole culprit.
Edited to say that the situation Holloway came into was a totally different proposition to the one a certain Peter Taylor faced and messed up completely.