Allan Duncan Brown (12 October 1926 – 20 April 2011) was a Scottish
football player and
manager. Brown played as an
inside forward
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
for
East Fife,
Blackpool,
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
,
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
and
Wigan Athletic. He also represented
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
, scoring six goals in 14 international appearances, and the
Scottish League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...
. Brown was
player/manager of Wigan Athletic, and also managed
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
,
Torquay United,
Bury,
Nottingham Forest,
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
Southport lies on the Iris ...
and
Blackpool.
As a player, Brown won the
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...
with East Fife in 1949–50. As a manager, he guided Luton Town to the
Fourth Division title in 1967–68.
Playing career
Brown, who was born in
Kennoway,
Fife,
started his professional playing career at
East Fife, joining them in 1944 from his local side Kennoway.
[http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/player/allanbrown.html Independent site profile] Brown made 62 league appearances for the Fifers, scoring 20 goals as well as numerous cup appearances. He left in December 1950.
Brown made his full
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
debut whilst with East Fife in April
1950
Events January
* January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.
* January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...
, a 3–1 win over
Switzerland at
Hampden Park. This was followed in the same season by two further games away to
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
and
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
, as well as helping his club team win the
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
.
Brown moved to
Blackpool for a fee of £26,500 (then the largest fee received by a Scottish club),
joining compatriots
Jackie Mudie,
Ewan Fenton,
Hugh Kelly and goalkeeper
George Farm
George Neil Farm (13 July 1924 – 18 July 2004) was a Scottish professional football goalkeeper and manager.
Born in Slateford, a suburb of Edinburgh, Farm represented his country on ten occasions, the last three of which occurred after a g ...
, where he earned the nickname ''Bomber''. At Blackpool he enjoyed success; however, he missed the Seasiders'
1951 FA Cup Final appearance after injuring his knee ten days earlier. He also missed the famous
1953 FA Cup Final victory after breaking his leg whilst scoring an 88th-minute winner in the quarter-final against
Arsenal on 28 February 1953. On 22 October 1955, Brown was placed on the transfer list of his own volition, reportedly telling club manager
Joe Smith he would "only sign for a Scottish club
..I want to get back over
the Border". Brown was inducted into the
Hall of Fame at Bloomfield Road, when it was officially opened by former Blackpool player
Jimmy Armfield
James Christopher Armfield, (21 September 1935 – 22 January 2018) was an English professional football player and manager who latterly worked as a football pundit for BBC Radio Five Live. He played the whole of his Football League career at B ...
in April 2006.
Organised by the Blackpool Supporters Association, Blackpool fans around the world voted on their all-time heroes. Five players from each decade are inducted; Brown is in the 1950s.
While at Blackpool, Brown won a further eleven international caps, scoring against
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
at both the start of the
1952–53 and
1953–54 seasons. Brown was selected for the 22-man squad for the
1954 World Cup finals. The
Scottish FA
The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for ...
decided to take only 13 of the 22 to the finals. Brown was among those who travelled. Brown's final two games came in the finals against
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
and
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
.
Brown moved to
Luton Town
Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...
in February 1957,
for a fee of £8,000, scoring on his league debut at
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...
. He scored five goals in the Hatters' successful
1958–59 FA Cup
The 1958–59 FA Cup was the 78th staging of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Nottingham Forest won the competition for their second time, as of 2022, beating Lut ...
run, including scoring the only goal in their sixth-round victory over his former club, Blackpool. He at last played in a
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
final, as Luton lost 2–1 to
Nottingham Forest in the
1959 FA Cup Final
The 1959 FA Cup Final was contested by Nottingham Forest and Luton Town at Wembley. Forest won 2–1, with goals from Roy Dwight and Tommy Wilson just four minutes apart. Dave Pacey scored Luton's consolation goal. Forest were playing in th ...
. He scored 51 goals in 151 league appearances for Luton.
Brown moved to
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
in March 1961.
Managerial career
In August 1963, Brown joined then
non-league
Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...
Wigan Athletic as player-manager, replacing
Johnny Ball
Johnny Ball (born Graham Thalben Ball; 23 May 1938) is an English television personality, a populariser of mathematics and the father of BBC Radio 2 DJ Zoe Ball.
Early life
Ball was born in Bristol and attended Kingswood Primary School on th ...
. He remained at Wigan until July 1966. In November 1966, he returned to Luton, this time as manager of a side struggling in the
Fourth Division. He soon changed the fortunes of the Hatters, leading them to the Fourth Division title in
1968. They started the next season promisingly (and were eventually to finish in third place); however, Brown was sacked in December 1968 after it was discovered he had applied for the vacant managerial post at
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
. Brown's departure from Luton is memorialized at the 47:51 mark of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", when the character Campbell can be seen reading a newspaper with the prominent headline "Why Brown had to go".
He was not out of work for long, joining
Torquay United as manager in January
1969. He kept the Gulls comfortably in
Division Three
The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the fo ...
during his first two-and-a-half seasons in charge (finishes of sixth, thirteenth and tenth), but after a poor start to the
1971–72 season, he was sacked in October 1971. Torquay would eventually be relegated later that season.
On 20 June 1972, Brown became manager of
Bury, leading them to twelfth place in Division Four at the end of his first season in charge. The following season, 1973–74, Bury started brightly, and would eventually be promoted in fourth place; Brown, however, had left on 19 November 1973, to manage
Nottingham Forest, and took them to seventh place by the end of the season. The following
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
, Forest started badly and Brown upset the fans by selling
Duncan McKenzie to
Brian Clough's
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 ...
. He was sacked on 3 January 1975, shortly after a 2–0 home defeat to local rivals
Notts County
Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...
. Clough replaced Brown at Forest.
On 5 May 1976, Brown was appointed manager of another of his former playing clubs,
Blackpool, who at the time were in the
Second Division. The following
season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
saw them battle for promotion and eventually finish in fifth place, missing out on a return to Division One by two points. During the next season the club were again challenging for promotion, but after an argument with chairman Billy Cartmell, on 6 February 1978 Brown was sacked. Cartmell had made remarks in a daily newspaper about Brown's job being on the line despite five-goal home wins in recent games, to which Brown responded by calling the chairman a "back-stabbing rat", which the board felt was unacceptable.
After his departure, Blackpool won only one more game, dropped down the table, and were narrowly relegated at the end of the season.
Later that year he moved to
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
to manage Quadsia, but returned to manage
Blackpool in March 1981 as a replacement for
Alan Ball; however, he was unable to prevent their relegation to Division Four for the first time in their history. The following season saw a mid-table finish, and Brown left Blackpool in May 1982.
Death
Brown died on 20 April 2011,
[ at the age of 84."Allan Brown dies, aged 84"]
– ''Blackpool Gazette
The ''Blackpool Gazette'' (locally marketed as simply ''The Gazette'') is an English daily newspaper based in Blackpool, Lancashire. Published every day except Sunday, it covers the towns and communities of the Fylde coast. It was founded as '' ...
'', 20 April 2011 A
wreath
A wreath () is an assortment of flowers, leaves, fruits, twigs, or various materials that is constructed to form a circle .
In English-speaking countries, wreaths are used typically as household ornaments, most commonly as an Advent and Chri ...
was laid behind the South Stand goal before the fixture between Blackpool and
Newcastle United at Bloomfield Road three days after his death.
Honours
As a player
;East Fife
*
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...
winner:
1949–50
As a manager
;Luton Town
*
Division Four championship:
1967–68
References
;Sources
*
*
*
External links
*
Brown in East Fife historyBrown at ForestAllan Brown at BlackpoolBrown in the Blackpool Supporters Association Hall of Fame
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Allan
1926 births
2011 deaths
Footballers from Fife
Scottish footballers
Scotland international footballers
Blackpool F.C. players
East Fife F.C. players
Luton Town F.C. players
Portsmouth F.C. players
Wigan Athletic F.C. players
Scottish football managers
Blackpool F.C. managers
Bury F.C. managers
Luton Town F.C. managers
Nottingham Forest F.C. managers
Southport F.C. managers
Torquay United F.C. managers
Wigan Athletic F.C. managers
1954 FIFA World Cup players
Scottish Football League players
Scottish Football League representative players
English Football League players
English Football League managers
Association football inside forwards
People from Kennoway
FA Cup Final players