Allen Batsford (9 April 1932 – 28 December 2009) was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

manager. He was appointed manager of Walton & Hersham in 1967 and led them to the

Athenian League The Athenian League was an English amateur football league for clubs in and around London. The league was originally to be called the Corinthian League,Athenian Football League minutes 1912-1921 (National Football Museum, Preston). but this nam ...

title in 1969 and the

Amateur Cup An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History Hi ...

in 1973. Batsford first tasted glory in the FA Cup when Walton held

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

's Brighton to a draw before beating them 4-0 in the replay. Before the game, Clough had described the pairing as "donkeys against thoroughbreds", but the result from Batsford's team spoke for itself. In 1974, he left to join

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, then a semi-professional club in the Southern League. He led them to three consecutive league titles and ultimately election to

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

in 1977. Most famously, he steered Wimbledon to the fourth round of the FA Cup in 1975, having beaten Burnley in the third round, at that time one of the strongest clubs in Britain. It was the first victory by a non-League club at the ground of a First Division team for 54 years. In the fourth round, they travelled to

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The g ...

and held the mighty

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

, then League Champions, to a heroic goal-less draw before narrowly losing the replay 0-1 due to a deflected own goal from

Dave Bassett David Thomas Bassett (born 4 September 1944 in Stanmore) is an English football manager and a former player. During his career he has managed Wimbledon, Watford, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest, Barnsley, Leicester City and ...

. Only six months after achieving Football League status, Batsford resigned from Wimbledon following disagreements with the club chairman,

Ron Noades Ronald Geoffrey Noades (22 June 1937 – 24 December 2013) was an English businessman, best known for his investments in football clubs. He was the chairman of Southall, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace and finally Brentford. He was also the manager of ...

, and was succeeded by team coach

Dario Gradi Dario Gradi, MBE (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-English former amateur football player, coach and manager. He was associated for more than 36 years with Crewe Alexandra, where he was variously manager, director of football and director of the ...

. Batsford then returned to managing in non-league football, first with a short stint at

Hillingdon Borough FC Hillingdon Borough Football Club are a semi-professional football club based in Ruislip, in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The club is affiliated to the Middlesex County Football Association. Its name was revived in 1990 from the original c ...

before thriving once more with

Wealdstone FC Wealdstone Football Club ( ) is an English semi-professional football club based in Ruislip, London Borough of Hillingdon, and affiliated to the Middlesex County Football Association. They currently play in the National League, the fifth tier o ...

, whose squad included the future England international

Stuart Pearce Stuart Pearce (born 24 April 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach for Premier League club West Ham United. He was nicknamed "Psycho" for his unforgiving style of play. ...

. In 1981-82, Batsford led Wealdstone to success in both the Southern League's championship, which secured promotion to the Alliance Premier League (the equivalent of the current Conference Premier) and its challenge cup, then to third place in their first season in the Alliance. In the 1984-85 season, the club, now under the management of Batsford's assistant and former Wimbledon coach Brian Hall, became the first in history to achieve the non-league double of being Alliance Premier League champions and

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

winners. Batsford suffered heart trouble and decided to leave Wealdstone, but he recovered sufficiently to coach at Queen's Park Rangers, then serve as general manager of Dulwich Hamlet before running the Millwall youth team again and also acting as a talent scout for

during his former protégé's managerial stints with Watford, Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest. In 2004-05 he held the honorary position of President of his first club, Walton & Hersham. He died at the age of 77 having suffered a fatal heart attack on his way home from watching Chelsea play Fulham at Stamford Bridge.

References

2009 deaths 1932 births Wimbledon F.C. managers English Football League managers Queens Park Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Wealdstone F.C. managers Millwall F.C. non-playing staff Watford F.C. non-playing staff Sheffield United F.C. non-playing staff Nottingham Forest F.C. non-playing staff {{England-footy-manager-stub