‘It’s a novel experience to see genuine football thinking being put into practice at lowly Bath’
– Bath Weekly Chronicle, September 1963
Set among the genteel countryside of Somerset, the city of Bath, with its Roman history and Georgian crescents, had never been what anyone would describe as a hotbed of football, the game of the working-class, industrial masses. It was the local rugby team that held sway when it came to grabbing the attention of local sports followers, even in the days before professionalism and any kind of national competition. By the time the 1962–63 season approached, however, Bath City Football Club could at least count themselves among the premier non-League teams in the country.
The Southern League, of which Bath had been members since 1921, was acknowledged to represent, along with its Northern Premier League counterpart, the highest level of football outside the full-time professional ranks. Having won the title in 1960 and recently finished runners-up behind Oxford United, Bath could rightly claim to be among the elite in their field. These were the days when the Football League was still a closed shop, with the club finishing in 92nd place forced to apply to their peers for re-election – going up against the best of the non-Leaguers in a ballot to determine their status in football’s hierarchy. League clubs were rarely reckless enough in their thinking to ignore the fact that they could find themselves in a similar position in future years, so they tended to look after each other. When Oxford were given the key to the locked door of the Football League it was because the bankrupt Accrington Stanley had tendered their own resignation.
Bath looked forward to the new season with optimism, the ascent of Oxford having left them as de facto favourites for the Southern League championship. It was, therefore, a disappointment to the Twerton Park fans to have to wait until the fifth game of the season for their first victory. Injuries to key players didn’t help and as the end of 1962 approached, and the first gnawing of a harsh winter began to bite, the club found itself closer to the foot of the table than the top.
At the end of November, manager Arthur Coles resigned – an action that, if nothing else, drew the sting of disgruntled fans. Representatives of the supporters’ club had been due to meet the board on that same day, although they went ahead and told the press what they would have said had the showdown taken place. The directors and management, they claimed, were taking the club in the wrong direction. They argued that the fans’ attempt to buy 500 shares at £1 each had been rebuffed, while the supporters’ donations of £36,000 over the previous six years had been squandered.
As is often the case, the change of manager – even though there was no permanent replacement – brought improved results, with six unbeaten games straddling a six-week period of inactivity caused by one of the iciest British winters on record. Naturally, speculation had grown during the barren weeks about the identity of the new man in charge. Former Bath goalkeeper Ian Black, who had left the club for Canterbury the previous summer, was reported to be the favourite.
Meanwhile, Malcolm Allison’s experience with Romford and Cambridge University had served to convince him that a full-time job in football was what he craved. His job search was aided by Daily Express writer Bob Pennington, who questioned in his newspaper why one of the country’s three best coaches, as he put it, was not employed in the Football League.
Allison, who had played no further games for Romford after the end of the 1961–62 season, had been contacted by Bristol Rovers with a view to joining the coaching staff when Bath City approached him with an offer to become manager. In years gone by, Allison had seen non-League football as a ‘wasteland’ inhabited by has-beens and those who never-would-be. But Romford had been an enjoyable experience, broadening his mind to the opportunities the semi-professional game could offer. Allison was late for his meeting with club president Arthur Mortimer after misjudging the time it would take to drive from London, but he got there in time to be impressed by the local businessman’s ambition for Bath City, which included taking on the big clubs in FA Cup ties. He eagerly accepted the position.
Arriving in his office in the middle of March, Allison learned a quick lesson about the life of a non-League manager. ‘I came in that morning and opened three letters. As the players were all part-time I couldn’t do much training until the evening so in the afternoon I went to the pictures and saw On The Waterfront, thinking that if this is management then it’s a doddle.’
Bath winger Ron Walker had played against Allison for Doncaster Rovers during Malcolm’s West Ham days. He recalls that his first thought upon meeting his new boss was, ‘He is too good for Bath,’ adding that ‘it was obvious he was a chap who wanted to get on’.
Allison’s first game in charge brought a 2–1 victory at league-leading Cambridge City, and a couple of three-goal wins against Clacton and Rugby lifted Bath into the top half of the table. The club’s unbeaten run, now standing at nine games, came to a shuddering 4–1 halt at Romford. In a move typical of Allison’s belief that a team that looked and felt right on the field would produce improved performances, the players had arrived in the visitors’ dressing-room to find a modern new kit laid out for them. The fact that it didn’t work on this occasion did little to alter Allison’s thinking.
The season finished with the team in 10th place, and the club reported a £1,551 profit on the season, due largely to the supporters’ donation of £14,000. As he planned for his first full season in charge, Allison was determined that the players should benefit from the healthy bank balance and had their pay increased from £13 to £15 a week. They would have to earn it, though. They had already felt the hard edge of the new manager when he ordered them in for Sunday training after dropping a point against champions-elect Cambridge and now he would be demanding extra practice sessions. The part-time nature of his squad, which had at first forced him to seek out the company of Marlon Brando at the local cinema, was something that Allison could capitalise upon. Often he would have only small groups to work with but far from being a hindrance, he found it helped him spend time on specialised skills and tactics and offered additional opportunities for individual tuition.
Allison turned out for the club in a friendly in Holland and even hinted that he might play some games at centre-half once the season began. There were, however, plenty of new faces for him to select from. Ex-Portsmouth and England wing-half Len Phillips joined the club on a free transfer from Chelmsford at the age of 41 and other new arrivals included goalkeeper Ray Drinkwater from QPR, defender Tony Gough, who returned to the club that had released him as a 16 year old, and forward John Cartwright, one of Allison’s former West Ham pupils, who had just left Crystal Palace. Cartwright comments, ‘When Malcolm left West Ham I got lost – from being, at one stage, the biggest young signing at the club, my career went backwards – for various reasons. Malcolm had got me interested in coaching and I had got my certificates and started coaching at various schools. I had just left Crystal Palace when Malcolm called me and said, “Come and play for me down at Bath.” He said I could train in London and arranged for me to work a couple of nights a week with the youngsters at West Ham. I wouldn’t have gone down there other than to play for Malcolm.’
Despite his new signings, the pivotal player in Allison’s plans was one he inherited, club captain Tony Book. One of Allison’s first engagements as Bath manager had been to visit the building site where his skipper was working as a bricklayer. A formal introduction took place and Book recalls that, ‘Malcolm just looked at me as if to say, “What are you doing?”’ Book, meanwhile, was equally unsure of the man in front of him, noting his expensive jacket and thinking him a ‘flash sod’. His first impression was that ‘this fish was definitely too big for our pond’.
Allison’s affection for Book quickly grew when he saw the pace and professionalism of the slight, angular-looking defender. ‘I was simply astonished by his quality the first time I saw him play. He was one of the best and quickest defenders I had seen in any class of football. There was a timing, poise and a tremendous recovery rate. I knew too that he looked after himself. I reckoned there was ten years of professional playing life in him.’
For his part, Book was won over by the professional approach Allison took towards the new campaign, which included taking the team to Weston-super-Mare for a training camp. ‘We used to train on Tuesday and Thursday, but Malcolm came in and changed it to four nights a week. It didn’t go down too well at first and I think people were a little suspicious of him. He had that West Ham swagger about him. You could see it when he came out training. He had these great big legs, shorts pulled up high and showing off all the muscles in his thighs. But once he got into the football you respected what he said. All he was doing was trying to improve results and looking for new things. The players accepted it when they saw it was producing results.’
Impressive form in the club’s pre-season friendlies had fans talking excitedly about the versatility of the systems Allison was trying out and had the players appreciating the value of the new training regime. Book continues, ‘A few times after sessions he’d pull players to one side and tell them he wanted to do an extra 20 minutes one-on-one, if he felt there was something he could improve. He showed an interest in me and undoubtedly made me a better player. The whole place lit up in a short space of time and only Malcolm could have had that effect.’
Ron Walker explains further, ‘He clearly knew what he was doing. He didn’t change things too much but he got the players wanting to play. He thought a lot about the game and he used to take the trouble to find out about the opposition and play to their weaknesses. He would get us together whenever he could and we would do extra training for special matches.’
When the competitive season kicked off at Wellington, Bath included six summer signings, although it was veteran Charlie Fleming whose hat-trick led them to a 5–2 win. The Bath Weekly Chronicle recorded that ‘the influence of new manager, FA qualified coach, Malcolm Allison, was clear enough’ – although when Yeovil were beaten only 1–0 two days later the paper accused Bath of ‘returning inexplicably to the “rush and bother” methods of last season’, describing the team as an enigma. In general, however, the Chronicle was clearly impressed by Allison’s credentials and appeared to be feeling a touch of awe at the great force within its midst. The publication was at pains to explain Allison’s methods when, after drawing with champions Cambridge City in their third game, he made several changes for a Southern League Cup first-leg tie at Poole and lost 2–1:
When City’s new manager Malcolm Allison, a man wedded to the ideas of modern coaching and enlightened management, made a few surprising changes in the City XI in midweek, he wasn’t just picking names out of the hat.
At first sight the changes in the side that met Poole from that which played with such spirit against champions Cambridge City were surprising . . . it was to be the new 4-4-2 line-up common on the Continent but out-favoured in Britain by the much-vaunted 4-2-4 formation.
The fact that City lost may set that wise old man on the terraces shaking his head in sad dismissal of the side’s Southern League chances. Less experienced but more hopeful fans might give a new manager the benefit of the doubt. After all, Allison has concrete evidence that he knows full well what he is doing. He is a qualified Football Association coach and you don’t earn that honour just for doing physical jerks.
His unusual choice for the Poole game was all part of the kind of realistic attitude towards matches that characterises so much competitive football in the Sixties . . . it’s a novel experience to see genuine football thinking being put into practice at lowly Bath.
Such thinking, Cartwright recalls, included the nurturing of a style of play that was advanced even for professional teams, let alone a group of part-time players. ‘You can only do so much with the players you have got, but Malcolm was moving towards the Dutch idea of Total Football,’ he explains. ‘He got people from the full-back positions getting forward; front players dropping out; and players going on beyond them from midfield. Some of the stuff we were doing was quite innovative.’
A 2–0 victory at Hinckley meant seven points from four games and a brief spell on top of the Southern League table although, once their unbeaten start to the season had ended, Allison’s team settled into a long stint tucked in just behind the leaders. It was the FA Cup that provided the club, and the town, with its real excitement. Drawn at home against Falmouth in the fourth qualifying round, they gained revenge for defeat by the South Western League team a season earlier with a 2–0 victory in front of more than 4,000 fans at Twerton Park.
Allison and Bath City officials gathered in the offices of the Bath Chronicle to see the ticker tape from the news agencies reveal that a trip to Athenian League Maidenhead United awaited them in the first round proper. An unconvincing display produced a two-goal victory against a team that had little ambition beyond earning the financial boost of a replay. Cartwright broke the deadlock with an individual goal after 64 minutes, setting up a second-round tie against more non-League opposition, FA Amateur Cup holders Wimbledon.
The game at Plough Lane, where the Dons were unbeaten for two years, attracted a crowd of 8,000 – approximately 3,000 of whom had travelled from Bath. Allison was clearly achieving success in diverting the town’s attention towards his team, as Walker remembers. ‘Bath was a rugby town, but when Malcolm was down here football certainly got more attention and more supporters. There were two train-loads travelling to the Cup games.’
Those fans saw a 30-yard effort from Cartwright give Bath a 2–1 lead in the second half, only for a late header to save the home team. A crowd of 5,627 saw the replay three days later, by which time the draw for the third round had identified a home game against First Division Bolton Wanderers as the reward for the winners. Keith Sanderson, whom Allison had signed after coaching him at Cambridge University, followed up a rebound to put Bath ahead after 24 minutes. A good move late in the half saw the ball move through three players before Fleming cut in from the left to score the second goal. Ken Owens and Cartwright added second-half goals for a 4–0 victory that left Allison saying, ‘It was the professionals against the amateurs. I played on the weakness of their centre-half.’
Allison, who by now had taken to wearing a Russian fur hat to games – early echoes of the ‘lucky’ fedora he would sport at Crystal Palace more than a decade later – relished the prospect of testing himself against a team from the highest level of English football. Typically, he stated, ‘I wanted to play a good team and I’m quite happy about this draw. We could pull off the shock win of the Cup.’ He also took great pride in having realised Arthur Mortimer’s long-standing ambition of bringing First Division opposition to Twerton Park. Mortimer greeted his manager after the Wimbledon victory with the words, ‘That’s it. I don’t care what happens now.’
Cartwright credits much of Bath’s success that season to the positive environment Allison created for his players. ‘We had some big players down there but Mal was such a big personality that they responded to him. He created the right atmosphere and team spirit. Everybody liked him and enjoyed playing for him. He had this ability to set people at ease. He was a real good friend to players, although he was a hard person if necessary. No one wanted to get on the wrong side of him, though, because they all enjoyed what he stood for. He wanted to play the game the right way.’
Allison missed his team’s loss at Cambridge – their first league defeat for almost three months – to watch Bolton draw against West Bromwich Albion, but he was at pains to keep the build-up to the big game as near normal as possible. There was no disguising the temporary stand that was erected at the Bristol end of the ground, nor the special all-ticket arrangements put in place, but Allison stressed that he would not be getting the players together for a special pre-game meal. ‘It creates an atmosphere,’ he said. ‘I want the players to arrive at Twerton Park as relaxed as they would be if we were facing a Southern League team.’
Although his players needed no additional motivation for the biggest game of their lives, Allison felt that his club had a point to make to Bolton manager Bill Ridding, who had angered him with derisory comments about his club’s ticket allocation arriving in a biscuit tin. ‘Bath was a little club without pretension,’ said Allison. ‘And it was filled with people who loved it for its own sake.’
In front of 12,779 packed into all corners of the ground, Bath had the better of a game in which Bolton never performed near their top-flight capabilities. Book, whose participation had been in doubt until that morning because of injury, marshalled the defence calmly with Gough, while Bolton needed England keeper Eddie Hopkinson in top form to keep out the home team. With 17 minutes left, Phillips played in Owens, whose dummy freed Fleming. He rounded the keeper and squared for Owens to finish the move from close range. But with an unlikely victory in their grasp, Bath sat back and Bolton at last roused themselves. Ironically it was their young, blond forward, Francis Lee, so important to Allison’s future success, who denied him on this occasion. Within six minutes of Bath scoring, the game was level after Lee was brought down in sight of goal by a desperate Ian MacFarlane. Lee converted the penalty himself, although he admitted later, ‘I have never wanted to take a penalty less. Picture the scene with the crowd close in around the goal, standing right beside the post. All I could see were anxious faces. In addition was the fact that the pitch was heavy and lumpy, the ball like a sphere of lead and there was a slope slanting across the goalmouth.’
As Lee celebrated, he had time to notice Allison’s anguish, spotting his future manager throwing his hat in the air and then stamping on it. Even Bolton boss Ridding felt some sympathy for the non-League team, heading to the dressing-room after the game to tell them how unlucky they had been. ‘We should have won, but we gave away that stupid penalty,’ says Walker, as if the game were four days ago, not more than four decades.
The great adventure ended with a 3–0 defeat in the replay at Burnden Park later that week. Playing in front of more people than any Bath team had ever experienced – almost 27,000 – the non-Leaguers were, according to the Chronicle, ‘majestic in defeat. They carried on where they left off at Twerton Park on Saturday, producing a blend of footballing craft that Bolton never reached.’ That might have been a slightly one-eyed view but Bath did again stifle Bolton’s forwards in a tight first half and even finished the opening 45 minutes with the upper hand. According to Walker, ‘We played well enough, but they got the breaks and we didn’t.’
Bolton began to convert their possession into chances after the break. Teenaged winger Gordon Taylor cut in from the left and caught out Ray Drinkwater from a narrow angle. A penalty decision against Drinkwater for a foul on Peter Deakin allowed Lee to score another penalty, and a third goal arrived via Welsh centre-forward Wyn Davies three minutes from time.
Bath’s handsome consolation for their efforts was a £4,482 share of the gate receipts, and while the directors counted the cash, Allison pointed his team back in the direction of the Southern League title. He saw his side gain momentum with a 2–1 win at leaders Romford when Walker scored twice to turn around a deficit. In the next game Cartwright scored a hat-trick in a 6–2 win against Cambridge, a feat he repeated a couple of games later when Rugby were beaten by the same score, Fleming also scoring three times. That result left them one point behind Romford with three games in hand, and they hit the top two games later when a late penalty salvaged a point against Guildford.
Easter, however, saw the wind taken out of Bath’s championship sails and, not for the last time in his career, Allison’s team selection at a crucial stage in the season was questioned. Facing a home game on Good Friday against Nuneaton, Allison opted to rest four first-team regulars, saving them instead for the next day’s game at fourth-placed Chelmsford. A second-string forward line wasted chance after chance in a frustrating 2–1 loss. A day later, the full strength team was unable to regain momentum in a 3–1 defeat. An Easter Monday victory at Nuneaton left them in third place behind Yeovil, but the tide had turned against Allison’s team. Only three of their final eight games were won. The last match was memorable as a statistical footnote, with Allison pressed into service because of absentees and helping Bath to a 6–3 win. The Bath Chronicle said of Allison, ‘Although not match fit he prompted the City attack with a stream of man-finding passes.’ The result saw Bath close the season in third place, six points behind champions Yeovil, but having achieved enough throughout the campaign to send the fans into their summer holidays with hopes of good things to come. Allison, however, would not be around to deliver them.