Going Up...
Promotion was not long in coming for Albion after their League Cup win, but the mastermind behind it was not at Eton Park to witness the success he had engineered. Peter Taylor had been lured to Hartlepool to the job of Assistant Manager to a former Middlesborough and Sunderland player by the name of Brian Clough. The pair of them would go on to win Championships with Derby and European Cups with Nottingham Forest, but Taylor would go down in Eton Park folklore as the man who presided over one of the most fondly remembered teams in their history.
Peter Taylor, later of Clough and Taylor fame - here in his less well-known role as eighth manager of Burton Albion
Meanwhile the team Taylor had built was storming towards promotion in the 1965-66 season, with that famous forward line at the height of their powers. Stan Round notched up 59 goals, Ritchie Barker 56 as Albion finished the season unbeaten at home to clinch the third promotion spot, behind Barnet and Hillingdon Borough, to what, in those pre-Conference days, could claim to be the Premier League of non-league soccer. Albion , still a relatively young club, were now competing with the long established giants of the semi-pro scene, including future Football League clubs Wimbledon and Cambridge United, and the Brewers found themselves struggling for air at this new high-altitude. After just about climbing to respectable mid-table berth in their first season, the Brewers only escaped relegation the following year thanks to Stevenage Town going bust. And Albion came close to such a fate themselves, as financial worries once again threatened the club's future. Stan Round was sold to Worcester City, and though exciting young striker Ian Hutchinson (a future First Division star with Chelsea) arrived as a replacement, Ritchie Barker was summoned to the Derby where Clough and Taylor were now installed. As a new golden age was beginning 11 miles down the road at the Baseball Ground, at Eton Park it was the end of an era.
Future Stamford Bridge idol Ian Hutchinson (light strip) bearing down on goal in front of a packed Popside (Notice the advert for now forgotten Truman's Beer)
Going down..up...err down again...
When ex-Leicester City player Richie Norman took over as player manager in the New Year of 1970 the Brewers were already heading for relegation from the Premier Division, and the new man, hampered by the continuing financial storm under which the club had to operate, could do nothing to steer a course to safety in his first season. Albion fans did, at least, have a run in the FA Trophy to lift some of the gloom from their season. They reached the Quarter Final where they were beaten in a replay, after a draw at Eton Park, by eventual winners Macclesfield Town - the scorer for the Silkmen that day a striker called Brian Fidler, who -in one of those quirks of fate football tends to throw up -would later lead Albion on their own Wembley-bound crusade.
Norman worked hard to build a team to revitalize the club's fortunes, bringing in players such as keeper Mick Allsopp and tough defender Phil Annable who would give years of service to Albion. Annable in particular, a Nottinghamshire miner, went on to chalk up a record 567 appearances in over a decade at the club. The Brewers missed out on a return to the Premier Division at the first attempt by the skin of their teeth, but made sure of Promotion the following season. However, following a pattern which would prove all too familiar throughout the seventies, the Brewers lasted only one season back in the Premier Division, and Norman resigned, after receiving a vote of no confidence from the board.
Albion, under Norman's successor - tough disciplinarian Reg Gutteridge- continued to have something of an up and down existence, as they immediately bounced back out of Southern League Division One (North) in 1974, with a determination this time not to come back. Gutteridge strengthened his squad for Premier Division football by bringing in two of the star names of the seventies -young forward Pete Ward, another Eton Park striker who went on to bigger and better things with Brighton and later Nottingham Forest (the Clough-Taylor connection evident again), and, most sensationally of all ex-Forest star- Ian Moore. Moore had hit the headlines in 1972 when -that man again- Brian Clough had introduced him to the Baseball Ground crowd as his new signing, only for Forest to veto the move. Moore ended up signing for Manchester United in a £200,000 deal. However, his promising professional career as one of the top wingers in the country had been cut short by injury, and in signing for Albion, Moore was taking his first tentative steps back into competetive football. However, the winger still had the sublime skills and blistering pace to make him one of the most talented players ever to tread the Eton Park turf.
Trophy Bitter
Manager Gutteridge did not last until Christmas of that first season back in the Premier Division -he resigned over a row with Directors over the transfer of Ward, and another highly rated young player Frank Corrigan to Brighton. It would not be the last time behind the scenes goings-on would drive a manager from Eton Park. Meanwhile on the pitch Albion were enjoying their best ever season in the League -they finished fifth behind Wimbledon, Nuneaton, Yeovil and Kettering. Albion also enjoyed their best run so far in the FA Trophy, coming tantalisingly close to a trip to Wembley. Mexborough Town, Atherstone, South Bank, Mossley and Dagenham all succumbed to rampant Albion, stars Moore, Ward and Corrigan all finding the net more than once as the Brewers marched towards Wembley. And Albion had the twin towers clearly in their sights after a 1-0 victory to send the Burton hordes home from the Derbyshire peaks happy after a hard-fought derby battle against Matlock Town, in the first leg of the Semi-Final. More than 10,000 witnessed the two matches but the Brewers fans at Eton Park for the second leg watched in horror as their team threw away their precious goal start to lose 2-1 on aggregate, and Albion were put to the sword at the last by the Gladiators, in the cruellest manner imaginable.
Moore please!
Albion lasted two more seasons in the Southern League Premier Division, as a succession of managers passed through the revolving door at Eton Park. Ian Moore was absent as the Brewers narrowly missed out on another instant return to the Premier and a trip to Wrexham in the FA Cup First Round, but when the vacancy came up for the Eton Park hot seat during the 1978-79 season, his was the first name on the list for Albion Chairman Ben Robinson. And Moore, who had thrilled the crowd in his first spell at the club as a player, did not disappoint in his second - as player manager. Luck also seemed to be on Moore's, and Albion's side as, after finishing mid-table in Southern League Division One that year, they still managed to acheive a kind of promotion. How did they do that? Well, after years of talking about it, the powers that be had finally got around to creating a single top-flight of Non-League soccer -the Alliance Premier League (now the Conference). Albion's lowly status at the time meant they could forget about being a founder member of this new elite, but the gaps that were left in what were now the feeder leagues to the Alliance meant that Albion could move upwards, without having to earn promotion on the pitch. So when they were offered the chance to join the Northern Premier League (their relatively Northern geographical position made this possible), Albion seized what appeared a golden opportunity to revive their fortunes.
Pride of the North
Albion playing in stripes in 1979-80 - the way it should be (back l-r) Jon Nixon, Steve Dolby, Phil Annable, Barry Alcock, Clive Arthur, Drew Ferguson, Mick Fletcher (front)-Andy Harrison, Peter Hindley, Ian Moore, Kenny Blair, Kevin Hector
The Brewers first season in the NPL was a resounding success as Albion under Ian Moore produced some vintage football. Moore himself was still doing the business on the park, and now had alongside him another famous name - ex-Derby and England striker Kevin Hector, and this season also saw the arrival of a man who would later write his name into Albion history as a manager- Neil Warnock. The Brewers had no trouble adjusting to their new status (although admittedly the standard was not as high now that the top teams had de-camped to the Alliance). Nevertheless, the public will always turn up to see a winning side, and this was proved true as, with Albion riding high in the table, the crowds (which had slumped to an all-time low of two and three hundreds the previous season) came flooding back to Eton Park. The Brewers finished the season in highly respectable fourth position, and also enjoyed another run to the First Round Proper of the FA Cup, where they lost at Bury.
But the promise of that season was not fulfilled the following year. Kevin Hector was surprisingly whisked off back to Derby, and in February 1981, frustrated that his ambitions for the club could not be matched by the board, Moore walked out, leaving supporters to ponder what might have been. However, far from returning to a slumber, as the 1980's came into full swing, the giant was about to awaken, and Burton Albion were about to embark on the most successfull spell in their history.