| Bob 70-71 Home
Latest
News
70-71
Teams
A-Z
Players
Quiz
Thirty
Years Ago!
Articles
Where
are they now?
Quizlet
Links
Guestbook
E-mail me
Chat
|
Ivan Crossley (Coventry City)
Ivan
Crossley
This news item appeared
in the 24 June 2001 edition of 'The Non- League Paper'
(No.66)
IVAN CROSSLEY, popular
player/coach of Bury-based Finnair Manchester League club
Elton Fold collapsed and died on Monday while playing in
a five-a-side. He was 48. Ivan was on Coventry's books in
the late 1960s, before becoming a member of the great
Altrincham side of the 1970s and early 1980s. He played
in tbe FA Trophy finals of 1978 and 1981 and also in the
FA Cup ties against Everton and Spurs. He returned to his
roots in Bury when he signed as a player for Elton Fold
at the start of the 1983-84 season before becoming a
valuable and enthusiastic member of the coaching staff. A
post mortem is being held. The funeral will be on Tuesday
at Guardian Angels RC Church, Newbold Street, Bury
followed by cremation. The family have requested no
flowers except from immediate family.
Ronnie Allen
West Bromwich Albion News -
Allen tribute has the following touching
tribute:
The Club has today
received the sad news of the death of one of our
greatest players, Ronnie Allen, who passed away on
Saturday 9th June, at the Hardwick Court Nursing
Home, Great Wyrley, aged 72.
Ronnie made his name in the wonderful Albion side of
the 1950s, after moving to The Hawthorns from Port
Vale, in March 1950 for 20,000 pounds. The move came
after he had completed his term of national service
in the RAF, and he immediately endeared himself to
post-war Baggies fans by grabbing the equaliser on
his debut, at home to Wolves.
Allen was the consummate footballer in the days when
the WM formation, featuring five forwards, was the
tactic of the time. Ronnie appeared in every position
across the forward line, as both outside right and
outside left and inside right and inside left,
illustrating that here was a two footed player of
rare gifts, tactical awareness and quality.
But it was as a centre-forward that Ronnie really
made his name, in spite of his diminutive stature
compared with the huge centre-forwards of the time
Ronnie stood 5 feet 9 inches tall, a full four of
five inches shorter than the norm.
What he lacked in height, he more than made up for in
football intelligence, and it was that sharp brain
that made him such a top class player and a pivotal
member of what remains one of the very best club
sides that England has ever produced Albion of the
1953/54 vintage.
Playing in a team that included such celestial
talents as Ray Barlow, Johnny Nicholls, Len Millard
and Frank Griffin, his ability was allowed to flower
to the full under the imaginative eye of Albion boss
Vic Buckingham. Buckingham, who later had an
important role in the creation of Ajax's total
football, took the familiar push and run style
pioneered by Tottenham Hotspur and fused that to a
continental approach, notably that of the Puskas
inspired Hungarian national side.
Allen was especially taken by the style and quality
of the Hungarians and often played as a deeper lying
centre-forward himself, creating space by losing his
marker, making use of his ability to link the play,
before suddenly appearing unmarked in the penalty
area to unleash unstoppable shots with either foot.
Though some would argue that it was Manchester City
and the Revie Plan that first brought this tactic
into the domestic game, it was Ronnie and the Albion
that were quickest off the mark.
The 1953/4 season saw Ronnie at perhaps his greatest,
certainly his most successful. Playing a quick
passing game that relied on teamwork, movement,
creativity and intelligence, Albion cut a swathe
through the First Division, and led the way going
into April, as they also began to prepare for an FA
Cup Final appointment with Preston North End.
Albion suffered terrible injuries through that month,
a situation exacerbated when Allen, along with
team-mate Johnny Nicholls, was called up for
international duty against Scotland, forcing them out
of a crucial league game at the beginning of April
the home derby with Wolves.
Albion lost 1-0, in what was the pivotal game of the
season. That was especially galling since Allen, like
Barlow and Nicholls, was otherwise scandalously
overlooked by the national selectors throughout his
career, collecting a total of just five caps. Had he
been overlooked one more time, that result could have
been very different.
Albion stuttered thereafter, never recapturing their
sparkle, winning just one of their final six games,
surrendering the title to Wolves who played a more
typically rugged English style of game under Stan
Cullis, and who triumphed by four points a reverse of
that April derby result would surely have seen Albion
become the first club to capture the League and Cup
double in the 20th Century.
Still, there was handsome consolation when we
collected the FA Cup for the fourth time in May.
Preston were the opponents in a game trailed as the
Finney Final in succession to the Matthews Final of
the previous year. But Finney was snuffed out of the
game and it was Allen who was the star of the show,
scoring twice in the 3-2 win, including a crucial
penalty, which spawned that legendary panoramic photo
of Wembley - Allen, ice cool at the one end, and
goalkeeper Jimmy Sanders, turning away, unable to
watch, at the other.
Allen continued to enhance his reputation as one of
the true Albion greats throughout the 1950s, though
he continued to be ignored by England, being left out
of the side despite scoring in a 3-1 win over the
World Champions, West Germany, in December 1954, a
bizarre decision given that he completed that season
as the First Division's top scorer with 27 goals.
But Baggies supporters knew Ronnie's true worth,
including current club secretary, Dr John Evans.
"Ronnie was my first hero when I was a
youngster. I had many years of pleasure watching him
play, and then several more privileged years after I
joined the club in 1989 when I came to know him
personally. One of the first things I did when I met
him was to ask him to autograph a copy of his
autobiography, 'Goals That Count', which I'd had as a
Christmas present about 35 years earlier! Today is a
very sad for the club and our supporters."
Allen finally severed his Albion connections in May
1961 when he was transferred to Crystal Palace, where
he was a central figure in their rise from Division
Four through to Division Two. Hanging up his boots at
the age of 36, he had a career record of 637 League
games, harvesting 276 goals, with his Albion record
alone looking quite exceptional. He played 415 League
games, all in the top flight and scored 208 goals, a
total second only to Tony Brown. To that, you can add
42 FA Cup games and another 23 goals, and a hat-trick
in the 1954 Charity Shield game, a 4-4 draw with
Wolves.
It's a tribute to how well loved Ronnie was that his
reputation among Baggies fans even survived his
decision to take up a coaching, and then managerial
post at Molineux, taking over from Andy Beattie and
helping pilot them back into the First Division.
His interest in European football saw him make the
move to Athletic Bilbao in March 1969, leading them
to the Spanish Cup, and also bringing them to The
Hawthorns as the opponents for Bobby Hope's
testimonial fixture, where he enjoyed a rapturous
reception from the home supporters.
After spells with Sporting Lisbon and then Walsall,
Ronnie returned to the club as a scout and advisor,
and was central in the recruitment of both Laurie
Cunningham and Cyrille Regis among others. Cyrille
recalls, "Ronnie heard I was this big, raw,
black guy, and came to see me playing for Hayes. He
told the story that he saw me go up for a ball and
put the ball in the net along with four defenders and
decided that'll do for me! He had to persuade the
board to buy me and eventually said that if they
wouldn't pay, he'd buy me with his own money!"
Ironically, just a few weeks after persuading the
board to buy Regis, they were trying to persuade him
to take over as Albion boss after Johnny Giles walked
out on the club. Ronnie took charge in the summer and
built on the work that Giles had done, sensibly
leaving much of the balance alone, but adding a more
attacking dimension to the game. From a side that
looked comfortable in the top half of the table,
Albion stepped up a gear and became genuine
challengers, Allen collecting a Manager of the Month
award early in his tenure.
Having got his dream job, it was ironic that Allen
should then be made an offer he couldn't refuse as
football advisor to Saudi Arabia, a post as lucrative
as any in the game. He spent a couple of years out
there but, following a brief stay at Panathinaikos,
the lure of The Hawthorns proved too strong, and he
was back in the hot seat after Ron Atkinson set off
for Old Trafford.
It was a transitional time for the club as Robson and
Moses followed Atkinson north, but in his only full
season in charge, Ronnie took the Baggies to the
semi-finals of both the League Cup and FA Cup, where
we were unfortunate to be defeated by Spurs, and then
by QPR in a dreadful game at Highbury.
At the end of 1981/2, Ronnie became general manager
of the club, a short-lived experiment that suited few
an ended quickly. Despite that, he maintained his
Albion connections and was a regular at the Club well
into the 1990s, as youth coach Richard O'Kelly
recalls.
"He came in every day to train, and went along
with Alan Buckley and Arthur Mann as an advisor, and
to oversee training, even though he was starting to
show the signs of his illness already. One day Ronnie
came in, but the first team were off, and it was a
horrible day. Back then, if the weather was very bad,
we'd take the boys to the gym, so he came with us. By
then he couldn't walk so well, it was like a shuffle,
but we were warming up in the corner and Ronnie got
hold of a ball, and he was kicking it against the
wall left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot it
was brilliant to watch. I had to stop the lads, just
so they could watch him. He actually joined in a
couple of games and obviously the lads took it easy
on the challenges, but he was still brilliant. It
didn't matter how the ball came to him, he'd strike
it first time. He scored a few goals, the quality of
his striking of the ball at that age, and he must
have been 67, 68, it was incredible, a great example
for the youngsters."
And that's how we should remember Ronnie, as a great
example to youngsters, a great ambassador for the
game of football, a marvellous player, and a true
gentleman.
He'll be sadly missed.
I've still
to confirm Ronnie's whereabouts in 1970-71
Thanks to David Pickersgill for drawing my attention to
this news.
See more June 2001 news
at the following ...
|
