I don;t know about Atkins, but I definitely prefer Boothroyd over Curle. I find the tactics exasperating, but we are competing!
Never really understood the negativity towards Boothroyd. We did well under him, but I think the Cardozas' thought he could work miracles and didn't continue with the support required. I understand the frustartion after Wembley against Bradford - a real downer. Unfortunately, he and Bayo didn't get on, resulting in Bayo being on the bench because he was on Soccer AM the week before when the rest of the team were playing a training match.
I can remember the Atkins era as clear as a bell, but the Boothroyd era only stands out for a couple of games, one mentioned above!
With Atkins I liked the fact that the effort was always there, we didn't really have any stars, more of a squad and team ethic of everyone pulling in the right direction for each other, and that came from the manager too. Sure the football wasn't great, but in my eyes it was 10 times better than we are seeing now. There were the odd 0-5 blips, as there always will be but in the main I look back fondly on the Ian Atkins era and enjoyed it a lot more.