Bertram James Head (6 June 1916 – February 2002) was an English professional
football player and manager.
Playing career
Head was born in
Midsomer Norton and began his career with his local team before joining
Welton Rovers. He moved to
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 ...
in October 1936 and made his debut, at right-back, in a 1–0 win at home to
Aldershot
Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...
on 7 November 1936. He was not a regular for his first two seasons with Torquay, but was an ever-present in the 1938–39 season before his career was interrupted by
War
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
. When league football resumed in August 1946, Head was again a first choice in the Torquay team, although by now had moved to the centre of defence. He went on to make over 200 league appearances for Torquay before joining
Bury
Bury may refer to:
*The burial of human remains
*-bury, a suffix in English placenames
Places England
* Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village
* Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire
** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...
in February 1952.
He played eleven times for Bury that season, with a further eleven league appearances the following season before retiring to the Bury coaching staff.
Coaching and managerial career
After beginning his coaching career at
Gigg Lane
Gigg Lane is a football ground in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, built for Bury F.C. in 1885. The first match was played on 12 September 1885 between Bury and a team from Wigan. One of the world's oldest professional football stadiums, G ...
, Head progressed to Chief Scout and then Assistant Manager with the club before taking over as manager of
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...
in October 1956.
It was an unenviable job. Swindon finished the season just one place off the bottom in the 1956–57 season, and having to apply for re-election. With the league being restructured at the end of the 1957/58 season, it would be crucial for the Town to finish in the top half of the table – to avoid having to become founder members of the newly created Fourth Division. Against all the odds, Swindon finished just three points behind the leaders,
Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...
in fourth place, and took their place 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 ...
. In contrast, Head's former side, Torquay, had finished runners-up to
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 ...
on goal average the previous season, but finished fourth from bottom in 1957–58 and found themselves in the new
Division Four
The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...
.
With little money available for transfers, Head set up a youth system, which aimed to develop young players in some of the local leagues. Gradually, these players were blooded in the first team. Shortly before the 1960/61 season, Head arranged a trial match between the "Probables" and the "Possibles" – the Probables were the older, experienced players, the Possibles were a team of youngsters. When the Possibles won the game convincingly, it persuaded Head to start the season with a young team, which included the youngest ever full-back pairing of
John Trollope and Terry Wollen – both of whom were aged just seventeen.
This system produced many future Swindon greats – Trollope,
Mike Summerbee
Michael George Summerbee (born 15 December 1942) is an English former footballer, who played in the successful Manchester City side of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Club career
Summerbee was born in Preston, Lancashire, and raised in Ch ...
,
Bobby Woodruff,
Ernie Hunt
Roger Patrick "Ernie" Hunt (17 March 1943 – 20 June 2018) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Swindon Town, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton, Coventry City, Doncaster Rovers and Bristol City, and for the Los Angel ...
,
Keith Morgan,
Roger Smart
Roger Smart (born 25 March 1943 in Swindon) is an English retired football inside forward.
He made his way from schoolboy teams to work up through the youth ranks at Swindon Town before making his début in the reserves in April 1960.
He s ...
,
Rod Thomas
Rod Thomas (born 11 January 1947) is a Welsh former professional footballer who represented Wales at International level.
During his career Thomas played for Gloucester City, Swindon Town, Derby County, Cardiff City, Gloucester for a second ...
,
David 'Bronco' Layne and
Don Rogers to name but a few – and, as they gradually climbed the league table, the team earned the nickname, "Bert's Babes". After finishing 9th in 1961/62, Head guided Swindon to their first ever promotion the following season.
Swindon's first season in
Division Two started brilliantly. The young side won their first six games, leaving them three points clear at the top of the table – and didn't lose until the tenth game, when they were brought crashing back down to earth with a 4–0 defeat at
Northampton Town
Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...
. Suddenly, their form deserted them and in November 1963, they went five games without scoring a goal. They finished the season in a respectable mid-table position.
The 1964–65 season started as it meant to go on. An early injury to goalkeeper Norman Oakley sent Town crashing to a 6–1 defeat. As the season went on, more players succumbed to injury – and crucially, the highly rated forward Ernie Hunt was missed most often – firstly with
appendicitis
Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a ru ...
, then with a broken foot. Gradually, Town were sucked into a relegation battle, and, when the final day of the season came, Swindon and
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 ...
were level on points, with the Town having superior goal average.
Both teams were away – Swindon at
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 ...
, Portsmouth at Northampton. Amazingly, the League allowed the Pompey game to kick off later in the evening, and when Town lost 2–1 at
The Dell, Portsmouth knew they needed only a draw to keep them up. With Northampton already promoted, Pompey got their draw, and condemned Town back to Division Three. They had been unlucky – but the Town board showed no mercy, rather harshly sacking Head in August 1965 – the man who had previously turned the fortunes of the club.
Head returned to Bury as manager the same month, where he was forced to sell
Colin Bell to
Manchester City, a move that infuriated many Bury fans.
He left Bury in April 1966 to manage
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
, having been identified by Palace chairman
Arthur Wait
Arthur John Wait (5 April 1910 — 27 June 1981) was an English builder and life president and former chairman of Crystal Palace F.C.
Wait was a local builder who joined the board of Crystal Palace F.C. as a director sometime between 1948 and 19 ...
as the right man for the job.
Although he had limited financial resources at his disposal he guided Palace into the top flight in 1969 for the first time in their history, and kept them up for the following three seasons. In March 1973 he was moved upstairs to a general manager's post until the end of the season, replaced by the flamboyant
Malcolm Allison who took Palace back to Division Three over the course of the next two seasons. Head left Palace in May 1973 and also managed
Bath City
Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club have ...
for a spell in the same year.
He became a director of Bath City in 1975, resigning from the board in 1982. He also worked as a scout for Swindon Town.
Head died in February 2002 in
Reading, Berkshire
Reading ( ) is a town and borough in Berkshire, Southeast England, southeast England. Located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the rivers River Thames, Thames and River Kennet, Kennet, the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 mot ...
, aged 85. His wife Ginny had died eight years previously, but he left two sons, David, who played professionally for
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...
, and Roger and a daughter, Sue.
References
External links
Manager profile at Swindon Town FC*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Head, Bert
1916 births
2002 deaths
People from Midsomer Norton
English footballers
Association football defenders
Welton Rovers F.C. players
Torquay United F.C. players
Bury F.C. players
English Football League players
Watford F.C. wartime guest players
English football managers
Swindon Town F.C. managers
Bury F.C. managers
Crystal Palace F.C. managers
Bath City F.C. managers
English Football League managers
Southern Football League managers