Benjamin Robert Vincent Fenton (28 October 1918 – 29 July 2000) was an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and manager. He played for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

and

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

, making over 400 appearances in

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 ...

for all four clubs. He managed

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

and spent eight years at

, before holding various positions at

Career

Playing career

Fenton represented West Ham, Essex and London as a schoolboy. He signed for Colchester Town in 1934, moving to

a year later. Fenton served in the same Territorial Army unit as his West Ham teammates and played mainly as

outside-left 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 ...

with the east London club. He made his professional debut for West Ham United on 9 October 1937, playing alongside his older brother

Ted TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

, 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 ...

in a match against

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

. He played three times that season, and managed nine goals in his eighteen games in 1938–39. The two brothers played together in the same team on four occasions, the only brothers to do so at first team level for West Ham. Fenton was not retained by the club and joined

in March 1939, where he was utilised as a

wing half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Fenton joined the

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

during the Second World War. He guested for former club West Ham United in November 1944, and also played for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

, Charlton Athletic,

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York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

, and

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

as a

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. Fenton never gained full international honours, but toured South Africa with the FA in 1939, making three appearances, and also represented an FA Services XI team against Switzerland on 24 July 1945. Fenton joined Charlton Athletic of the First Division in January 1947. He became club captain in the 1950–51 season, and made 264 League appearances at inside forward and wing half during his nine seasons with the club, before leaving in February 1955.

Coaching career

In 1955, Fenton joined

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

club

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

and switched to defensive duties. He played his first game for the club on 5 March 1955, a home match against

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

that the U's won 3–2. He narrowly missed out on success in the 1956–57 campaign, after finishing a single point behind both

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. He played on into the 1957–58 season, playing his final game for the club on 1 May 1958, a 4–2 home win against

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, aged 39 years, 185 days. Colchester United finished 12th in the 1957–58 Third Division South campaign, thereby earning the right to compete in the newly merged

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

the following season. After relegation in 1960–61, he led the team to promotion after finishing as

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

runners-up in 1961–62. Fenton joined

as manager on 1 November 1963. He was sacked after 56 games in charge in December 1964. He went on to take the manager role at

on 1 May 1966, towards the end of the 1965–66 season. The season saw the south London club win promotion to Division Two (the club's second promotion in succession), and the club would set a record of 59 home League games unbeaten in December 1966. Millwall spent the rest of Fenton's tenure in England's second tier; the closest the Lions came to promotion under Fenton was in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

, with a point separating them from second-place Birmingham City. He left the club on 3 October 1974, as the club's longest serving post-war manager. In January 1977, he rejoined Charlton as secretary. He became assistant manager of the Addicks in March 1980 and progressed to the position of general manager in June 1981. He stayed in with the club until June 1982.

Managerial statistics

Outside football

Fenton also played

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

for Essex County. He married wife Winnie on Christmas Day 1939, with whom he had one daughter, two grandchildren and one great grandchild. In later life, he lived in Dorset, where he died, aged 81.

References

External links

*
The Book of Football 1972 – The Beginning of No One Likes Us
''millwall-history.org.uk'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenton, Benny 1918 births 2000 deaths Military personnel from Essex Footballers from West Ham English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders British Army personnel of World War II Essex Regiment soldiers Colchester Town F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players English Football League players Norwich City F.C. wartime guest players Manchester City F.C. wartime guest players Cardiff City F.C. wartime guest players Charlton Athletic F.C. wartime guest players Crystal Palace F.C. wartime guest players West Ham United F.C. wartime guest players York City F.C. wartime guest players English football managers Colchester United F.C. managers Leyton Orient F.C. managers Millwall F.C. managers English Football League managers Charlton Athletic F.C. non-playing staff