The Southern League Internationals (Part One)

The first part chronicling the ex-international stars to have graced the league.

As I have mentioned before in previous historical columns, during the 1940s, 50s and 60s especially, it was commonplace to see well-known former stars of top-level football plying their trade in the Southern League.

It was the foremost non-League competition and players could often earn more playing part-time than being with League clubs.

These days it`s rare to see a former international player dropping into the non-League game, but back then there were a plethora of stars you could see close up with your local team, rather than in grainy back and white photos.

I have covered some of these old stars in previous articles as they managed teams in the Southern League – players such as Tommy Lawton, John Charles, Jack Froggatt, Bobby Smith and Jackie Milburn in the `Famous Southern League Centre Forwards` article.

But there were plenty of other former international stars who graced our league.

The career of JEFF ASTLE, of course, has been highlighted since his sad death at the age of just 59 in 2002 due to a degenerative brain disease because it was later blamed largely on heading those heavy leather footballs.

Astle started his playing career with Notts County as an amateur in 1958, turning professional in October 1959.

After playing 103 games and scoring 31 goals for the Magpies, he joined West Bromwich Albion in September 1964 for £25,000 and went on to make 395 appearances and scored 169 goals for the Baggies.

He also won 5 England international caps between 1969 and 1970.

After leaving the Hawthorns in 1974, Astle played for Hellenic FC in South Africa until being signed by Barry Fry for Southern League Dunstable Town in July 1974.

It was a great time to be a Dunstable supporter as not only did they sign Astle but, memorably, they also had George Best briefly wearing the blue on a reputed wage of £200 a week!

They also paid a fair bit of chairman Keith Cheeseman`s money on buying Trevor Peck and John Hawksby from Kettering Town and George Cleary and Jackie Scurr, who followed Fry from Bedford Town.

Although Best swiftly departed for the United States, Astle stayed to complete a season in which his 25 goals helped them finish runners-up (ironically to Bedford) and win promotion to the Premier Division.

But Astle moved to Southern Premier Division rivals Weymouth at the end of the 74/75 season and enjoyed two good campaigns with the Terras when he became a hugely popular figure at the Old Rec.

He came to live in a flat near Weymouth’s seafront with his wife and was well-liked who thrilled the fans with his outstanding performances, and he made many friends in the town with his excellent attitude and always played with a smile on his face.

He also greatly helped in the fledgling career of a young Anniello Iannone, who became a Weymouth legend

Astle returned to the Midlands by joining another Southern Premier Division side, Atherstone Town, late in 1976, to play alongside the likes of former Coventry star Ernie Hunt and ex-Birmingham defender Malcolm Beard.

Joined Hillingdon Borough on loan in February 1977, before retiring in late 1977.

EDDIE CLAMP`s England four-cap international career was a rather unique one in that three of those caps came in the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden.

Renowned for being a `tough` right half, Clamp was no one-dimensional clogger, and the Midlander had considerably more to offer in terms of ball control and passing ability.

Having won international honours as a schoolboy, Clamp turned professional with Wolves in 1952, then developed rapidly under the aegis of Molineux's martinet manager, Stan Cullis.

He made his senior debut as a 19-year-old wing-half, against Matt Busby's Manchester United at Old Trafford, as Wolves were closing in on the First Division title in the spring of 1954. And although he did not play enough games to earn a medal that season, there was to be no shortage of honours coming Clamp's way.

By 1955/56 he was a regular member of Cullis's all-action team, and he went on to make 214 appearances for Wolves and score 23 goals.

Having distinguished himself in the famous old gold and black, Clamp accepted a new challenge in September 1961, joining Arsenal in a £34,500 deal.

He had been bought to instill steel into what was then a rather languid Gunners combination, but that very combativeness was to prove his undoing.

Six months after Clamp's arrival in London, his former Molineux skipper Billy Wright became Arsenal manager and took exception to `chopper Eddie's` aggressive style. The final straw was a brutal tackle on Aston Villa full-back Charlie Aitken, perpetrated right under Wright's nose, and Clamp was on his way out.

Next stop was Stoke City, who he joined for £14,000 in September 1962, and that season he assisted a Stanley-Matthews-inspired team of veterans to top the Second Division.

Two years on, by now aged 30, he served a short stint with Third Division Peterborough United before entering non-League circles, firstly with Worcester City in the Southern League Premier Division in 1965/66 and 1966/67.

His first season saw City finish eighth, but the second campaign finished with the club in third-bottom spot and relegated to the First Division.

Clamp left at the end of that season and he finished his playing career with a couple of seasons in the West Midlands (Regional) League with Lower Gornal Athletic.

RAY CRAWFORD joined Portsmouth as an amateur in June 1954, turning professional the following December.

After just 19 league appearances, and 9 goals, Ipswich Town boss Alf Ramsey signed Crawford in September 1958 for £6,000.

He made 197 league appearances and scored an astonishing 143 goals as Ipswich stunned the football world, in 1961/62 achieving something similar to that of Leicester City some 50-odd years later.

Crawford went on to join Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 1963 for £42,000, where he made another 57 appearances and add another 39 goals to his tally.

West Bromwich Albion signed Crawford in February 1965 for £35,000. But after only 6 goals in 14 league matches, he returned to Ipswich in March 1966 for £15,000 and made another 123 appearances and scored 61 more goals for the Tractor Boys.

In March 1969, Charlton Athletic signed him for £12,500 and he played 21 matches and scored 7 goals.

However, in October 1969, a fee believed to have been something similar took him into the Southern League Premier Division with Kettering Town.

Despite playing in a relatively struggling side that eventually finished 15th, Crawford top-scored for the Poppies with 18 goals.

But in June 1970, Fourth Division Colchester United paid Kettering £3,000 to take him to Layer Road and he subsequently scored 24 goals, including a couple in that infamous FA Cup win over champions Leeds United.

Crawford later joined Durban City in South Africa from August to October 1971 and went on to manage Fareham Town and Winchester City.

HARRY CLARKE (pictured) played schoolboy football in Woodford and junior level in Woodford Green.

He played for the RAF during his wartime service, representing his command and after the war, he was turning out for Lovell's Point until Tottenham Hotspur signed him for £1,000 in March 1949.

He remained for a decade, making 295 appearances, scoring 4 goals and winning just the one full international cap for England in 1954, before returning to Wales to become the player-manager at Llanelly in February 1959 until 1962.

Clarke took over at Southern Premier Division side Romford in March 1962 from former Spurs and England team-mate TED DITCHBURN and led them to the title at the end of the 1966/67 season.

Ditchburn, capped six times and noted for making 247 consecutive appearances for Spurs, stayed in goal after Clarke took over from him but had left the season before the title win to play for Brentwood.

In Clarke`s thirteen years in charge of Romford, he also brought in another ex-England player in PETER BRABROOK, formerly with Chelsea and West Ham and capped three times, another former West Ham forward in Alan Sealey, goalkeeper Dave Hollins, brother of John, Ray Harford, later to manage Luton and Blackburn and a certain Barry Fry.

KERRY DIXON was one of the few to have become an international player AFTER starting out in non-League football.

His career turned full circle.

He started out at Isthmian League Division One side Chesham United before really coming to the fore with Dunstable in the Southern League South Division.

His potential saw Reading part with £20,000 to take him to Elm Park in 1980.

In three years with the Royals, Dixon netted 51 times in 116 games and was sold to Chelsea for £150,000 plus an additional £25,000 if Dixon ever played for the England national side.

His goals helped Chelsea win promotion back to the First Division and he went on to play 335 times for the Blues, net 150 goals and cost them that extra £25,000 as he earned eight caps for England, including being part of the 1986 World Cup Finals squad.

Short spells with Southampton, Luton Town, Millwall, Watford and Doncaster Rovers followed – returning to the latter briefly as player-manager in 1997.

After spells coaching at Boreham Wood and Letchworth, he took over as manager of Dunstable Town in the Southern League Western Division in 2005 after a year in charge of Isthmian Premier Division outfit Hitchin Town.

RON FLOWERS won three league titles and an FA Cup with Wolverhampton Wanderers and was also part of England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad.

He was part of Wolves' three title-winning squads in 1953/54, 1957/58 and 1958/59 and won the FA Cup in 1960.

Flowers played 512 times for Wolves, scoring 37 goals, in a 15-year career at Molineux.

In 2009, he was finally awarded a World Cup winners' medal after an FA campaign, but few people know that Flowers was actually close to featuring in the final in 1966.

Manager Alf Ramsey gave Flowers a sleepless night after informing him on the evening before the final against West Germany that he should stand by to play as Jack Charlton was suffering from a cold.

However, a cold wasn`t going to prevent Charlton from playing in the biggest game of his life, so Flowers remained a non-playing squad member.

Just over a year after that memorable day, Flowers finally ended his Wolves career and signed for Third Division Northampton Town as player-coach with former Spurs and Juventus man Tony Marchi as team manager.

But at the end of the 1967/68 season, Flowers took over as player-manager.

However, the Cobblers suffered another relegation to the Fourth Division and Flowers left in the summer of 1969 to take the reins at Southern League Premier Division Wellington Town.

It quite a close season at the club, who also changed their name to Telford United due to the emergence of the `new town`.

Flowers, whose major signing was that of his former Wolves team-mate Jimmy Murray, led Telford to the first-ever FA Trophy Final in May 1970 against Northern Premier League side Macclesfield Town.

A crowd of 28,000 saw the Silkmen win 2-0 with goals from Brian Fidler and David Lyon.

But Flowers and Telford were back at Wembley a year later in an all-Southern Premier Division final against Hillingdon Borough.

This time the Bucks won a thrilling game 3-2 with goals from Joey Owen, Micky Fudge and the prolific Jack Bentley.

Flowers retired after that and opened a sports shop in Wolverhampton, which still stands in Queen Street to this day, although it is his son who now runs the business.

Interestingly, another ex-international player appeared in both of Telford`s Trophy finals.

That was goalkeeper BOBBY IRVINE, who won eight caps for Northern Ireland between 1962 and 1965, replacing Harry Gregg.

Irvine spent five seasons with Irish side Linfield and three with Stoke City, making 25 League appearances, before moving into non-League football with Northern Premier League side Altrincham and then Wellington/Telford in 1967, where he stayed until 1974.

Very few, if any, football clubs have had three World Cup winners as their manager but Telford United hold this proud record.

However, as well as Flowers, GEOFF HURST and Gordon Banks also took the reins at Telford.

Upon his retirement from his stellar playing career, Hurst moved into management and spent three years as player-manager of Telford from 1976 in the Southern League before being recruited by Ron Greenwood in the England coaching set up in 1979.

After a poor first season when they only just avoided the drop, Hurst`s Telford side finished ninth in 77/78 and then third the following season.

Telford became founder members of the Alliance Premier League and Hurst left to join his former West Ham United mentor Ron Greenwood.

His successor though was his World Cup-winning team-mate Gordon Banks.

The Bucks finished in 13th in 1979/80 and in November 1980, Banks left Jackie Mudie in temporary charge of team affairs whilst he underwent surgery, who led the club to defeat in the FA Trophy at the hands of a lower league club.

On his return to the club Banks was sacked!

NEIL FRANKLIN was arguably the finest centre-half England ever had.

After losing his early prime to the Second World War, he became an automatic choice for his country, only to scupper an apparently gilded career by one disastrous, if understandable, decision.

When he walked out on Stoke City, turned his back on England's first World Cup campaign, and flew to Bogota in the summer of 1950, Franklin believed he was heading for a pot of gold and securing his family's financial future.

No more would he be a slave to the English game's iniquitous system which made players little more than appallingly paid slaves to their clubs.

But the hoped-for El Dorado in Colombia - then acrimoniously outside the jurisdiction of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) - proved to be a sorry illusion, and in less than two months he was back home in the Potteries, chastened, largely ostracised and destined for virtual oblivion for the rest of his time as a player.

He made 142 league appearances for Stoke and made 27 international appearances for England. to England after only two months.

After his return to England from Colombia, a suspension from League football followed, after which he joined Hull City in February 1951 for - at that time - a world record fee for a defender of £22,500 (95 appearances).

He made 95 appearances for Hull and moved to Crewe Alexandra in February 1956, playing 66 times, and was signed by Stockport County in October 1957 where he made 20 appearances.

He was signed by Southern League Premier Division side Wellington Town as their player-coach in July 1959.

He helped them to 15th place before joining Cheshire County League outfit Sankeys of Wellington, a year later, playing alongside former England team-mate Henry Cockburn once more, and was their player-manager for the 1961/62 season and until his retirement in December 1962.

JOHNNY HANCOCKS was yet another ex-England player to later play for, and manage, Wellington Town.

One wonders if Hancocks would have made it through modern football`s academy system, being just 5`4” and wearing size 2 boots!

He started out though in the tough Birmingham League with his local team, Oakengates Town before signing for Walsall in 1938.

Yet another player to have been robbed of seven years of his playing career due to the war, upon leaving the army he was signed by Wolves for £4,000

And Hancocks became a leading player for the old-gold-and-black combination that finished the 1940s as a major power, then vied for supremacy with Manchester United's `Busby Babes` during the next decade.

He played a key role in the FA Cup Final triumph over Leicester City in 1949, helped Wolves finish runners-up in the First Division the following season and blaze the British trail into Europe in a series of stirring friendlies.

It was also during this time that he won his three caps for England.

But best of all was his contribution as the club lifted the First Division championship for the first time in 1954 as the 34-year-old Hancocks finished joint top scorer with 25 goals.

Thereafter he continued as buoyantly prolific as ever, topping the Wolves strike chart in two more campaigns before, in 1956, Cullis decided younger blood was needed.

So, after 343 appearances and 158 goals, Hancocks left Wolves and was appointed as player-manager of Wellington Town, then in the Cheshire County League.

The following season they were elected into the Southern League North West and Hancocks guided them to seventh place.

But he left at the end of that season and he played a few games for Cambridge United in the Southern Premier Division at the age of 40 and finished his career back in the Cheshire League with Oswestry Town and then with Sankey of Wellington.

ERIC CALDOW`s spell in the Southern League was all too brief but he still left Corby Town supporters with a feeling that they had seen a genuine quality player in their ranks.

It`s not often that a team in the Southern League Premier Division could boast possessing a player once rated as being `the best in his position in the world`, but that was how Caldow was thought of during the height of his career with Glasgow Rangers and Scotland.

Former Celtic and Scotland star Jimmy Johnstone once said of Caldow: “The only time I ever got past Caldow, was when he was walking down the street and I drove past him in my Jaguar!”

He was certainly a brilliant full back, who was equally at home on either side.

He made his debut for Rangers in 1953 at the age of 19 and ended his Ibrox days in 1966 with 265 games and 17 goals to his name.

He also played in a European final as Rangers` skipper in the Cup Winners Cup Final of 1961 but they lost 4-1 on aggregate to Italian crack outfit Fiorentina.

Caldow played 40 times for Scotland – 29 at left back and 11 at right – and captained them for three years.

He won his first international cap in a 4-2 victory over Spain in May 1957 and the next year played in all three of Scotland’s games in the World Cup in Sweden.

However, his international career was ended in horrific circumstances at Wembley in 1963 – ironically the day when the man in front of him, Jim Baxter, secured victory for the Scots.

He broke his leg in three places after only 6 minutes of the game when tackled by the England centre forward Bobby Smith.

It took Caldow a long time to recover and the following season he played only three league games. His place at left back was taken by Davie Provan.

By 1964/65 Caldow had fought back and re-established himself. Provan switched to right back and Caldow played 26 League games on the left.

In turn, Caldow got his third League Cup winners’ medal as Rangers beat Celtic 2-1 in the Final.

That was to be his swansong. Caldow was 32 and played only three games in his final season of 1965/66.

He had a season with Stirling Albion before moving `south of the border` to join Corby Town as player-manager in March 1968.

However, despite his undoubted quality still as a player, ten of the thirteen games he was in charge of that season were lost and the Steelmen were relegated to the First Division.

In the summer of 1968, Caldow signed some decent players, such as fellow Scot Bertie Black, who, whilst not capped by his country at full international level, was good enough to be selected three times to represent the Scottish League during a long career with Kilmarnock and Ayr United.

He and fellow forward Dixie McNeil, who went on to become a cult hero at Wrexham and Hereford United, scored 68 goals between them as the Steelmen finished fifth.

However, they ended the season with ex-Arsenal, Peterborough and Kettering Town manager George Swindin in charge after Caldow had returned to Scotland in the New Year of 1969.

Caldow later managed Scottish Junior side Hurlford United and then Stranraer before retiring in 1975.

LEN GOULDEN began as an amateur with West Ham United in 1931.

The Hammers sent him to then Eastern Counties League side Chelmsford (then simply FC) and Athenian Leaguers Leyton FC before he became a professional back with the Hammers in 1933.

And he remained at the Boleyn Ground until the Second World War and won 14 England caps between 1937 and 1939.

He guested for Chelsea during the war and signed for them afterwards, in December 1945, for a £5,000 transfer fee.

He remained at Stamford Bridge until his retirement, despite re-joining Chelmsford City briefly to manage them in the Southern League in June 1949 but returned to Chelsea after receiving a better offer.

He became manager of Watford in 1952 but, despite guiding the Hornets to fourth place in the Third Division (South) in 1954, he proved too easy going for management and was dismissed in 1956.

There followed three years as a sub-postmaster before a three-season return to Watford as part-time coach, two years passing on his knowledge in Libya as a coach and a spell in charge of Banbury United – including one season in the Southern League First Division.

A final coaching post with Oxford United in 1969 signalled his farewell to the game.

JIMMY GREAVES` career and life is very well documented as is his 44 goals in just 57 appearances for England and his non-appearance in the 1966 World Cup Final line-up.

And after his marvellous career as a top striker with Chelsea, Spurs, AC Milan and West Ham, scoring over 350 goals, he went on to play non-League football.

After his well-known problems with alcoholism, he started playing for his local side, Brentwood, in the Essex Senior League and made his debut in December 1975.

His return to football was successful enough that he signed for Chelmsford City in the Southern League Premier Division for the 1976/77 season.

He played for the Clarets for only a few months but was still struggling with alcoholism and delirium tremens and sought out help from Alcoholics Anonymous.

He was also hospitalised in the alcoholics' ward of Warley Psychiatric Hospital.

In August 1977 and still coping with alcoholism, Greaves made his debut for another Southern Premier Division outfit, Barnet, in a 3–2 win against Atherstone Town.

Playing in midfield, Greaves still netted 25 goals (13 in the league) and was the Bees player of the season.

He chose to leave Barnet early in the 1978/79 season to focus on his business interests and beating his alcoholism, despite manager Barry Fry's attempts to get him to stay at Underhill and play in the newly-formed Alliance Premier League.

But Greaves went on to make several appearances for Athenian League side Woodford Town before retiring.

EDDIE HAPGOOD became one of the best-known footballers in the country in the 1920s and 30s.

He started out playing junior football in his native Bristol for St Phillips and became an amateur with Bristol Rovers when he was 18 but didn`t play any first team matches.

Instead he was signed by former Scottish international Bill Collier for Southern League Eastern Section side Kettering Town in 1927.

The Poppies went on to win the overall championship after beating Western Section winners Bristol City reserves 5-0 in play-off.

However, Hapgood had left well before then as, after just 12 appearances for Kettering, he was signed by the legendary Herbert Chapman for Arsenal in October 1927 for £950.

After making 393 appearances, scoring just twice and making 30 international appearances for England, he left Highbury in 1944 and managed Blackburn Rovers for three years before, he returned to playing with Shrewsbury Town, captaining them in the Midland League in August 1947 until February 1948, when the Shrews released him so he could become Watford's manager.

He was sacked by the Hornets in March 1950 but then spent six good seasons in charge of Bath City in the Southern League.

In slightly more modern times, LEE HENDRIE was one of those `one cap wonders`.

However, in the peak of his powers in the late 1990s, he was an exciting box-to-box midfielder who scored his fair share of goals.

He came through the Aston Villa ranks to go on to make over 250 first team appearances and scored 27 goals.

He played in the 2000 FA Cup Final and had earlier made his one full international appearance for England in 1998 against the Czech Republic.

He went on to have spells with Sheffield United, Derby County, Bradford City and Indonesian side Bandung.

In 2011 he signed for Southern League Division One Central side Daventry Town, who at the time were managed by his former Villa team-mate Mark Kinsella.

But later that season he moved up to the Conference National with Kidderminster Harriers.

He had spells with Chasetown in the Northern Premier League, Redditch United in the Southern Premier, Tamworth back in the Conference, Corby Town, Highgate United and Basford United.

And then, at the age of 39, he signed for another ex-Villa colleague, Darren Byfield, back at Redditch in 2016.

He hung up his boots after a few months at the Trico Stadium to concentrate on his own academy and media commitments.

GERRY HITCHENS was a coal miner, playing for Highley Youth Club and then Highley Miners Welfare between 1952 and 1953 and it was when he was appearing in a county cup final for the Miners that he earned his first professional contract.

The final was being held at Aggborough, the home stadium of local Southern League club Kidderminster Harriers.

His performance was being watched by the then club secretary, Ted Gamson, who went on to offer a contract.

After several seasons in the reserve team, Hitchens only played 14 times for the first team, scoring 6 goals, when he was sold to Cardiff City in January 1955 for £1,000, despite alleged interest from West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa.

After three seasons, 95 appearances and 40 goals), Hitchens did join Aston Villa for £22,500 in December 1957 and added 78 goals and 132 games to his tally.

His form for Villa attracted the attention of leading Italian club, Inter Milan, that and the fact he scored twice against Italy for England in Rome – one of his seven full international caps - and he joined Milan in June 1961 for a massive £80,000 fee.

He played 39 games and scored 17 goals for Inter but it wasn`t enough to keep him there longer than seventeen months, and he was sold to Torino in November 1962 in a player exchange deal.

He made 89 appearances and scored 28 goals for Torino before being sold onto Atalanta in June 1965, for whom he made 58 appearances, netting 10 goals and Casteddu in 1967, where he scored 4 goals in 19 games after spending a short period on loan to the North American Soccer League with Chicago Mustang, also in 1967.

Hitchens returned to England in November 1969 when he signed for Southern League Premier Division side Worcester City, playing 51 times and scoring 25 goals.

He briefly joined City`s Southern Premier rivals Merthyr Tydfil, playing 6 times before retiring in April 1971.

STEVE HUNT was capped twice by England during a career which included two spells with Aston Villa, a 200-game stint with Coventry City, two years with West Bromwich Albion and a successful time with the New York Cosmos where he played alongside the great Pele and Italian star Giorgio Chinaglia.

In 1988, after retiring from his second spell with Villa, he became player-manager of Southern League Midland Division side Willenhall Town.

In July 1989 became the youth team coach at Port Vale and took up the same post at Leicester City in June 1991.

He later moved to the Isle of Wight and had a role with AFC Bournemouth's Community Sports Trust.

He spent part of 1996 as co-manager of Southern Division One Midland outfit VS Rugby alongside David Jones.

But he returned to the Isle of Wight in April 2017 and was appointed as manager at Wessex League club Cowes Sports.

He resigned as manager in August 2018, just four games into the 2018/19 season, citing a wish to take a break from the game.

BOBBY HOPE was rather unfortunate to have been around in an era when Scotland possessed a plethora of midfield talent such as Jim Baxter, Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner etc.

He was a silky midfielder who made 350 appearances for West Brom, scoring 33 goals, between 1960 and 1972.

He went on to have spells with Birmingham City and Sheffield Wednesday and spent a number of seasons in the United States, mostly with the Dallas Tornados.

In 1979, he signed for Southern League Midland Division side Bromsgrove Rovers and spent three years at the Victoria Ground as a player before taking over as player-manager in 1983.

He guided them to the Midland Division title in 1985/86 and to runners-up spot in their first season in the Premier Division.

After a fourth-place finish in 1987/88, Hope quit Bromsgrove due to business commitments and he did a bit of scouting for Wolves.

However, later in 1988, Hope got the management `urge` again and returned to management with Southern League Premier Division side Burton Albion.

But his spell with the Brewers was a brief one and he went back to Bromsgrove and was there for five years as they rose from the Southern League to the upper reaches of the Football Conference.

Despite being one of the division’s smaller clubs, they narrowly missed out on promotion as Martin O’Neill’s Wycombe Wanderers pipped them to the title in 1992/93.

He departed Rovers again in 1994 and returned to West Brom to become youth development officer and then chief scout.

The name of DEREK DOUGAN was very well-known, especially in the 1970s after his often-outspoken appearances on the ITV World Cup panel.

Capped 43 times for Northern Ireland in a colourful and flamboyant career with Portsmouth, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, Peterborough United, Leicester City and Wolves, where he made over 250 appearances and scored 100 goals, he surprised the football world by taking the player-manager role at Southern League Premier Division Kettering Town in 1975, taking over from Geoff Vowden who had been given the unenviable task of replacing Ron Atkinson at Rockingham Road.

Dougan ran the whole show at Kettering as chief executive as well as playing and managing.

And, despite managing a non-League club, there was no keeping Dougan out of the national (and international) spotlight!

In a Southern League game against Bath City in January 1976, Kettering became the first British club to play with a sponsor's name printed on their shirts after signing a deal with local firm Kettering Tyres.

The Football Association ordered the club to remove the slogan, but Dougan changed the words on the shirts to `Kettering T` and claimed that the T stood for `Town`. Nonetheless, the FA ordered the club to remove the words, which the club did due to the threat of a £1,000 fine.

Shirt sponsorship was eventually legalised within the English game in 1977 and, of course, has become huge business for the top clubs especially.

He left Rockingham Road in 1977 having finished third in the Southern Premier and was eventually replaced by Mick Jones, who led the Poppies to Wembley in the FA Trophy Final in 1979.

WILLIE FAGAN`s appearance here amongst former internationals may be a little tenuous!

Fagan was yet another player who lost a great deal of his prime due to the Second World War.

He started out with Celtic before moving `south of the border` to Preston North End in 1936.

He played alongside the likes of Bill Shankly and appeared in the 1937 FA Cup Final against Sunderland, which Preston lost 3-1, before being sold to Liverpool later that year.

He eventually made over 160 appearances for Liverpool, scoring 47 goals before being placed on the open-to-transfer list at the end of the 1951/52 season.

He left Anfield to become player-manager of Weymouth, members of the Southern League in which they were runners’ up the previous season.

As Fagan was joining a non-League side, Liverpool received no fee but, in any case, the figure they had on him was a purely nominal one.

He resigned as manager after three years to join the Prison Service but continued to play for the Terras on a part-time basis.

His international career involved playing three times for Scotland during the war. However, they were classed as being `unofficial` by FIFA.