Broken dreams and unkept promises
The immediate post-Wembley years were a time of almost constant upheaval at Albion. A seemingly never-ending succession of managers came through the revolving door of Eton Park management promising great things, and claiming to have landed "the best job in non-league football", only to have gone within months, or even weeks. Wembley boss Brian Fidler managed to cling on to his job into the New Year of 1988, but with Albion having moved back to the Southern League (now called the Beazer Homes League) to maintain the regional balance, his team looked unsuited to their new more refined climate. The Brewers briefly promised a repeat of some of the glory of the previous season by taking York City to an Eton Park replay in the First Round of the Cup, but as the Wembley team began to break up (Paul Groves going to Leicester, Paul Bancroft to Kidderminster for £12,000 each), it was clear that a change was needed if the club was to acheive the potential which had been evident in the far off days of that magical May. The man brought in to replace Fidler was the Burton-born hero of Sunderland's FA Cup giant killing of Leeds in the '73 Cup Final - Vic Halom. And Halom also wrote himself into Albion history...as their shortest-serving manager ever, lasting just 21 days before challenging Chairman Sam Brassington to sack him - he did. And the following incumbent, former West Brom player Bobby Hope also did not see eye to eye with Brassington. He resigned just weeks into the 1988-89 season.
Late 80's Eton Park action
Brassington, the charismatic Chairman who had, in his own words saved the club from financial ruin in 1986, was constantly in the local press and match programme predicting Conference, and ultimately League football at Eton Park within five years, promises which proved to be hollow, as a continuing stream of Albion managers splashed around money on players, without ever acheiving consistency. Bobby Hope had brought in a clutch of top quality signings, including classy defender Alan Kurila and strikers John Gayle and Mark Whitehouse, and his successor Chris Wright moulded the team he'd inherited into a force to be reckoned with in the Beazer Homes League. But by the time the 89-90 season got underway all had gone, Eton Park resembling a railway station as arrivals and departures continued to flow through the club at pace. Gayle, along with one of Brian Fidler's last signings Steve Cotterill, went on a big money deal to Wimbledon, Whitehouse and Kurila were sold off to Kidderminster after Albion refused to meet their pay demands, and promising winger Darren Carr was sold to Crystal Palace for a record £60,000.
Life was never dull at Eton Park. Chris Wright had been sacked for financial misconduct (he'd been paying players out of his own pocket), and when former Albion favourite and Brian Fidler's old assistant Ken Blair was appointed manager in September 1989, he found himself with money to burn in an attempt to satisfy the insatiable appetite for success at Burton Albion. At the merest sniff of some more Cup glory the Albion fans turned out in force - 4,135 turned out in driving rain to witness a re-run of the Trophy Final against Kidderminster in a Second Round Replay of the competition in 1989. And the Kidderminster connection was again evident in the arrival of Jon Pearson and Rob Jones from Aggborough for £10,500 each, making them the clubs record signings. More than £40,000 was spent on players, but still Albion could not produce a consistently good side capable of winning the league. When Kenny Blair was ordered to trim his wage budget, yet another clash between manager and Chairman ensued, and in January 1990, Blair walked out. By now, many fans were of the opinion that the problems in the club were not in the dressing room, but the board room. Ten coachloads of fans made the trip to Telford to see another FA Trophy campaign fall at the first hurdle on January 13th, and by the end of the game "Sack the Board" was the chant ringing around the Bucks Head ground.
Amazingly, there was still a line of candidates queueing up to take on what must now surely have resembled the impossible job of non-league football, and former Derby County player Steve Powell was the next to accept the challenge, after a short spell in charge by Caretaker boss Frank Upton. (or "Frank Who?" as he is better remembered, or not remembered to be more accurate). The 1990-91 season was enlivened by two big local cup derbys. An all-ticket crowd of 2,500 watched the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round replay at Tamworth, to see Albion take a seemingly unassailable first-half lead thanks to two goals from Simon Redfern (the brother of Wembley striker Dave Redfern), only to lose 3-2 in Extra-Time. And the old rivlary with Nuneaton, now well and truly in the doldrums and playing in the Beazer Midland Division, was restored in the FA Trophy in December. Albion won 2-1 on an incident-packed day at Manor Park which included sendings-off, penalties, and a brick through the Albion team coach window on the way out. Again though, the Brewers failed to hit the Trophy glory trail, crashing out at a snowbound Stroud in February. And before the season was out, Steve Powell was out too.
The lives of Brian
By the time the 1991-92 season began, Sam Brassington had finally parted company with Albion, after presiding over five of the most eventful years in the club's history. And whilst all his brash promises and bold visions had begun to grate after a while, in the following years Brewers fans could be forgiven for feeling nostalgic for the "Brasso" era as...well..not much happened really. Local businessman Jock Gordon was now Chairman at the club and his first managerial appointment needed no introduction to Albion fans - it was Brian Fidler! The man who'd earned a place in the club's hall of fame by taking them to Wembley obviously didn't believe in the old saying "Never go back". Perhaps he should have done - he was out of the door again by February. The frantic comings and goings at Eton Park had by now calmed down to something resembling calm, and new manager Brian Kenning, a blunt-talking Brummie (today managing Bromsgrove) lasted a whole season before being shown the door. The highspot of his reign was probably the 4-0 thrashing, on Boxing Day 1993, of Albion's upstart neighbours from across the border in South Derbyshire, Gresley Rovers, promoted to the Southern League Premier Division for the first time in their history. 2,409 crammed into the Moat ground for the first Albion-Gresley league derby since the Birmingham league days of the 1950's, witnessing the start of a renewed rivalry between the two clubs. (see special Albion v Gresley section) Another red-letter day of Kenning's managership was August Bank Holiday Monday of 1993, when Nuneaton, promoted back to the Premier Division, and managed by a certain John Barton, received a 6-1 drubbing at Eton Park.
Aged Gresley keeper bob Aston quivers before another Albion attack, as the Brewers romp home 4-0 - The Moat Ground (a splendid view as ever) -Boxing Day 1993
Valley of tears
Which, in a nice roundabout way, brings us almost up to the present day in the topsy-turvey life of Burton Albion Football Club. Just as Brian Fidler had knocked Albion out of the FA Trophy as a player, only to join the Brewers some years later as manager, so John Barton, a member of the Kidderminster team which foiled Albion at The Hawthorns in 1987, would arrive at Eton Park in the summer of 1994 as the 25th man to manage Burton Albion. It's hard to judge the success or other of someone who is still in the job, but compared to what went before him, John Barton's Eton Park reign must be considered a success. Whilst never attaining the dizzying heights of 1985 or 1987, nor acheiving the Championship-winning consistency which has eluded Albion throughout their 48-year history, the John Barton era has seen steady progress on and off the pitch. In his first season as manager, the club's highest ever league position -third- was acheived. The following season saw an appearance in the First Round of the FA Cup , and almost an upset which would definitely have gone down in the annals of Albion history.
Having been 2-0 and 3-1 down against Second Division Bradford City at Valley Parade, a second goal from promising local-born midfielder Darren Stride levelled the scores at 3-3, all of them in the first-half, in an astonishing Albion fightback. Spurred on by Stride and influential Captain Simon Redfern -by now the club's longest-serving player- the Brewers continued to defy the gulf between the two sides, and came within a crossbar's width of going in front from a Dougie Keast lob in the second half. But once again luck was not on Albion's side, and as the travelling fans began to look forward to a lucrative Eton Park replay, Ian Ormonroyd snatched a winner for Bradford with just two minutes left on the clock. It was a bitter pill to swallow.
Darren Stride scores his first goal as Albion storm back at Valley Parade, November 11th 1995
A new dawn
By now, there had been more changes in the boardroom. local millionaire businessman Stan Clarke had taken over the club. But whilst he did pay off some of the club's debts, Clarke was no benefactor in the mould of a Jack Walker. Stan Clarke was more of a hunting and fishing man than a football enthusiast (although he would later invest in Stoke City's new stadium), and it appeared that his main interest in Albion was selling Eton Park for housing, and moving the club to a new ground. The plans that were put forward were totally inadequate for a club of Albion's stature, and if the millionaire businessman could not see much potential in the club that is hardly surprising, as he was hardly ever there. In 1997, the Chairman under Clarke, Ben Robinson -who'd returned to the Albion boardroom after many years away- took full control again, and at last, Albion seemed to have a Chairman who was willing to put words into action, to give them the best chance of acheiving their goal of Conference football. A share issue was launched to raise money, and the redevelopment work needed to bring Eton Park up to Conference standard, was, at last begun. Hopes of a late push for promotion behind surprise Champions (It was a bloody surprise to me anyway) Gresley Rovers, who's ground was definitely not up to Conference standard, faded away, but the club did at least end up with some long-overdue silverware.
Local rivals Tamworth , Champions of what was now the Dr. Marten's Midland Division, were beaten at the Lamb Ground to win the Birmingham Senior Cup, and Sudbury Town, headed in the opposite direction after volunteering to leave the Dr. Marten's League, were defeated over two legs to bring the Southern League Cup back to Eton Park, 33 years after Peter Taylor's team had first won it. In those days winning two such trophy's would have been seen as a major acheivement, but today's Albion fans, whilst enjoying the novelty of seeing us actually win something, know that the real treasure lies elsewhere.
Burton Albion FC - Southern League Cup Winners 1997
Back to the present...