Authors: Paul Harrison
‘We had come a long way from being the team everyone looked forward to playing to being worthy and feared opponents. We finished the season in a respectable twelfth place. It had taken a full season to partially get to grips with it but I was beginning to enjoy the management game and believed we were creating a decent team and infrastructure at the club.
‘The following season I targeted promotion and was laughed at by the directors of the football club, who said they admired my positivity but that to expect the team to win promotion I must be living in dreamland. That was it, they had thrown down the gauntlet and I wanted to show them how influential Billy Bremner the manager actually was.’
With the hugely influential Dave Bentley becoming full-time coach, replacing the outgoing Cyril Knowles, who was moving to Middlesbrough as assistant manager, Bremner was appointing from within and displaying similar ethics to those of his great mentor Don Revie. He realised the importance of a close-knit team spirit and the togetherness that had so influenced his game and time at Leeds:
‘Cyril Knowles (yes, he of “Nice One, Cyril” fame) was a solid player and a very good coach, too. He was never going to be a permanent fixture here, and was always going to move on. So in anticipation of that I prepared for his departure and had David Bentley working with us, initially as player-coach, but later as full-time coach. David knew the club, the area and the players as well as anyone; he was well respected by everyone within the football club and by the supporters, which was important. For me though, he understood the game so well and was fully behind what I was trying to achieve.’
By the end of the 1980-81 league season Billy Bremner's Doncaster Rovers proudly sat in third place in the Fourth Division league table, winning the promotion the manager had so wanted and anticipated:
‘It was a great feeling to have turned it round so quickly and to see the joy that success bred amongst our supporters. The players had performed magnificently all season – I had no criticism of any of them for the effort they put in for me. I had the feeling we could win promotion, but didn't really start to believe it until the end of February, when we visited promotion rivals Southend and Lincoln City in consecutive away fixtures. We came away from Southend with a 0-0 draw, that was a really big result for us. Just over a week later we went to Sincil Bank, where Lincoln City were unbeaten, and we won 1-0. That really proved our credentials as genuine promotion contenders. We lost just two of our last sixteen games and lost less away games than champions Southend United. I felt very proud but was not yet content.’
The average home attendance had significantly increased too, and to Billy Bremner he hoped that meant more money coming into the club and to him for team strengthening:
‘Of course it would have been great to have a couple of hundred thousand to spend on players, but we are talking about Doncaster Rovers here; the reality of life in the Third and Fourth Division of the football league is vastly different from that in the First Division. I managed to do a bit of wheeling and dealing, and to bring in a couple of players who I felt would do a good job for us in the Third Division and also become assets to the club. A big centre forward, Colin Douglas, arrived from Glasgow Celtic and a certain full back called Terry Cooper joined from Bristol Rovers. I knew the potential of both players and that they would do a good job for me. Terry may have lost a bit of pace but he still had an excellent football head on him and his timing in tackles was still impeccable.
‘I didn't want it to be a Leeds Old Boys reunion. I wanted players who gave me total honesty. In fact, I had brought in Mick Bates the season before, but sadly Mick struggled with his fitness and by mutual consent we cancelled his contract before Christmas as we couldn't afford to carry players who didn't give us that additional strength. I signed another ex-Leeds player, Keith Parkinson, in the summer of 1981; that didn't work out
either, and I cancelled his contract after five games – says it all I think. The situation with Terry was far different, he was a proven athlete and a footballer who maintained a desire to achieve and he genuinely wanted to help me and Doncaster Rovers to succeed.’
Early life in the Third Division wasn't proving too difficult for Bremner and his team, and at one stage, in September, they went on a six-game unbeaten run, actually winning five games in succession without conceding a solitary goal. Thereafter things got decidedly tougher, as the team dropped down the league table, not helped by a spell devoid of any victories that ran through all of November to mid-February, a total of eight defeats:
‘I always had faith that we could avoid relegation but it was difficult keeping the players focused and believing in themselves, especially when the fans began to question some of our performances and my own abilities as manager.
‘I have always believed that the best way to deal with your critics is to meet them head on, face to face. So I would get the players, along with myself, to meet and talk with supporters, and to talk and listen to them. I think we won a lot of respect for that and, ultimately, there were never any real problems between the fans and players. I wouldn't have prima donna type footballers in my club. They were all good-mannered working-class lads who had done well, or had aspiration to do well for themselves in the game, and saw it as a privilege to represent Doncaster Rovers Football Club.’
Relegation was avoided as the team finished sixth from bottom, and several points clear of the drop zone: ‘It was a success, no matter what anyone may say about it. We survived that first season in a higher division and managed to hold our own against some very decent teams.’
Despite his success at Belle Vue, the media had him inextricably linked with issues involving one of his previous clubs, Leeds United. I met with him at a Doncaster Rovers club function at the end of the 1981-82 season. While he was basking in the relative
glories of life at Doncaster, approximately fifty miles up the A1, Leeds United had suffered relegation to the old Second Division, finishing an ignominious twentieth in the then First Division, under the management of Allan Clarke.
Bremner talked about the Leeds situation:
‘It's difficult at Leeds at present. Allan Clarke and I are close, I feel so sorry for him, he's done everything he could to save that team and the club from relegation. It is going to have to be a complete rebuild now and some of them players at Leeds won't want to play in the Second Division, they will see it as being beneath them. There are too many prima donnas in that side, I am afraid. I feel sorry for everyone connected with the club – management, players and supporters, it's a real shame. No one can blame Allan for what has happened. Off the field, you don't always know what you are getting when you sign new players. Dressing-room agitators are damaging and de-motivating. They are the quickest route to a sudden drop in form, along with a heavy injury list, and in too many instances that has just one outcome, the sack for the manager.’
The phrase ‘Leeds United’ and ‘relegation’ simply weren't part of the Billy Bremner vocabulary. It was obvious to me that he felt much hurt and pain by the situation, but it was out of his control and he could do nothing about it but support his good friend through a tough time. Clarke was to suffer dismissal for not being able to replicate the glories of past years and, sadly, he was not to be the last ex-Leeds player to meet such an ignominious fate at Elland Road.
Unfortunately, at the end of the 1982-83 season, Doncaster Rovers suffered relegation too:
‘We had an incredible amount of genuine and crippling injuries that affected the first team and really rattled our consistency. That whole season we just didn't get things going for us and disappointingly we were relegated back down to the Fourth Division. I wasn't about to hide nor was I going to allow my players to run away. During the summer we took stock of what we had, reviewed where it had all gone wrong and assessed our
options to strengthen and improve the team, mainly through free transfers.’
By the end of the following season, and typical of the man, his side bounced back to win promotion back to the Third Division. They eventually finished as runners-up to York City, attaining their highest points total for thirty-seven years – eighty-five points. Belle Vue became a fortress and incredibly Rovers did not lose a game at home until the end of that season in May 1984:
‘It was a good feeling to get back to winning ways and achieve honours. I did strengthen the team and got much in the way of backing and support from the boardroom. I made sure we got the right players in.’
Billy was alluding to people like John Philliben, who signed for a then club record fee of £70,000 from Stirling Albion. A Scotland youth defender, he arrived in March 1984 and added extra defensive strength. Also joining was midfielder Jim Dobbin, a Scottish schoolboy international signed from Celtic. A lumbering centre forward, Ernie Moss, was also signed from Lincoln City in the summer of 1983. Moss was a proven goal scorer at every club he joined and was joint-top scorer with fifteen goals in his solitary, promotion-winning season at Belle Vue.
Bremner knew the size of the task he faced at Belle Vue:
‘Getting promoted back to the Third Division, with essentially the same nucleus of players, was an achievement in itself and I new we were all better prepared for the challenge at the second time of asking. The Snodin boys were both looking very sharp in pre-season, and I had high hopes that they would really impact and settle to life in the Third Division.’
It was another season of achievement as Rovers quickly settled into life in the higher league, and at one point sat in fourth place, before finally settling for a mid-table finish of fourteenth: ‘We were a big strong side but lacked that little bit of extra class that would have made us consistent. Young Ian Snodin had a terrific season and Glynn weighed in with twenty-one goals. Aiden Butterworth, a youngster who once left a first-team place at Leeds in order to pursue his education, joined us and did a
workmanlike job up front. There was a good mix of youth and experience, and again I was looking at a promotion push for the following season.’
In the summer of that year, Ian Snodin was sold to Leeds United for a transfer fee of £200,000:
‘It was a great piece of business for the boy and for Doncaster Rovers. The boy had cost us nothing and had been an integral part to a previous promotion. He had been impressive to say the least and was too good a footballer to stay in the Third Division. The move to Leeds would suit him well, it wasn't too far from his home and was commutable. I was confident that he would do well at Leeds and told their manager, Eddie Gray, that he had got a real gem, and to look after him.’
15
MANAGERIAL MERRY-GO-ROUND AT LEEDS
In October 1985, completely out of the blue, I received a telephone call from someone at Doncaster Rovers who informed me that Billy had asked them to call me, and I was to listen to the BBC Radio Leeds news. There was no intimation as to what I was listening for, or at what time. I knew it had to be something of importance for Billy to get a member of the Doncaster Rovers staff to call me, so naturally I tuned in. I was immediately greeted by speculation about Eddie Gray's future as Leeds manager. Rumours were rife as to what was happening at Elland Road but nothing was confirmed. I got back onto Doncaster in a flash, and asked to speak with Billy. I was told that he was busy. I tried every fifteen minutes thereafter, but was knocked back on each occasion. It was mid-afternoon before I finally got through to him, and asked for his take on the news story. Billy told me to come to the ground where he would talk to me.
Without hesitation, I jumped in the car and drove down the A1 from my Leeds home, to Belle Vue. Billy looked stressed and was puffing on one cigarette after another. I was first sworn to secrecy, and he then went on to tell me that the directors of Leeds United had been in touch with him and asked if he would be interested – should the manager's position become vacant – in taking over as manager of the football club. Like Allan Clarke before him, Eddie Gray was struggling to take the team forward. The words Billy next uttered remain with me as testimony to his loyalty and honesty to his friends:
‘It's all wrong. Eddie, like Allan before him, has done
brilliantly since he took over and I don't really want to go in there to replace him. I would far rather he stayed on and turned it around. He's not getting the full support of senior people at boardroom level. The thing that concerns me is that if they can act like this behind Allan and Eddie's back, they could do it to me too.’
The reason Billy had asked me to Belle Vue, as I was to quickly find out, was to ask if I had heard of any circulating rumours in the media as to other potential managerial contenders should the role became vacant. I could offer Billy no advice. Selfishly, I wanted him to take the Leeds job, but it was a decision for him and his family to make.
I made a few telephone calls but the only information I could obtain was anecdotal and of no real use. The rumour was that the Leeds board, Leslie Silver in particular, had already talked to Keith Mincher, who was the youth team coach at Leeds. Apparently Mincher had watched the first team in League Cup action at Walsall on 8 October, with a view to taking over.
Within twenty-four hours of my conversation with Billy, Eddie Gray was dismissed from the player-manager role at Leeds United. Rumours were rife, and once again I heard the name Keith Mincher mentioned. It was claimed that shortly after Gray's departure, Leslie Silver took Keith Mincher into the Leeds dressing room after a training session, announced the dismissal of Eddie Gray and introduced the players to the manager elect. There was uproar as players unanimously refused to play for Mincher and expressed their concerns as to what was happening to the football side of matters at the club. It was alleged that the Leeds chairman had no option but to withdraw the appointment, and Mincher moved on. Worse still, there was dissent in the boardroom, where several board members disagreed with the sacking of Eddie Gray, and how the entire situation had been handled. One director resigned in disgust. The club placed coach Peter Gumby in temporary charge for the following day's Elland Road fixture against Middlesbrough.