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Allan Harris 1942-2017

11/28/2017

His Cambridge United career may have been fairly brief and unspectacular, but Coconuts joins the rest of the football family in mourning Allan Harris, who died on November 23 at the age of 74.

Like his younger brother Ron, Harris was a full back who made his name with Chelsea and played in the 1967 FA Cup final against Tottenham. Unlike ‘Chopper’, he made his biggest impact on football after his playing career had finished, as a coach and manager.

He arrived at the Abbey Stadium on a free transfer from Plymouth Argyle in the summer of 1973, at the age of 29. He pulled a muscle in a pre-season friendly at Soham and lost his place to John O’Donnell, but made his debut in a 3-2 home defeat of Watford on September 19. Four games later O’Donnell replaced him again.

He played twice more for the first team, between Christmas and New Year, then spent the rest of the season in the reserve team before being released.

He joined Hayes as player-manager and later played with Terry Venables at St Patrick’s Athletic. He was Venables’ assistant manager at Crystal Palace, QPR and Barcelona, where the duo won La Liga in 1985 and reached the 1986 European Cup final. He then took Al-Ahly of Egypt to three African Cup successes and coached Malaysia from 2000 to 2004.

London-born Harris had risen through the Chelsea youth set-up and represented England at schoolboy and youth level. After 70 first-team games for the Pensioners he joined Coventry City in November 1964, but returned to Stamford Bridge 18 months later. He joined QPR in 1967 and moved to Plymouth four years later.

Ron Harris told the Chelsea website: ‘One of the reasons I went to Chelsea was that [Allan] went there two years before me and then we progressed through, and the highlight was being brothers who played together in an FA Cup final. My mum and dad were really proud and so were me and Allan.’

Allan Harris in amber and black, summer 1973.

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Review: Risen from the Dust

11/23/2017

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Andrew Stephen, editor of the CFU fanzine Amber News, gives his impressions of volume two of Celery & Coconuts, Andrew Bennett's history of Abbey/Cambridge United.

I find it almost impossible to like books about sport in general and about football in particular. Most writers who know about their sport find it difficult to convey the sense of excitement generated by a live event. Being there, when something that matters to you is happening, is a deeply personal thing. Football writers increasingly kill off their subjects with a kind of trainspotter’s approach to statistics, or, in the case of the tabloid ‘journalists’, a desire to dwell on celebrity and gossip rather than the nuances of the game.

Of course, Andrew Bennett has been writing match reports, with flair, insight and no little humour, for years. And he is a man who can be trusted with the history of the world’s greatest football team.

I was nearly seven when the fifties came to an end but this book brings that vital decade vividly to life, explaining how Abbey United were gradually transformed into a much more professional outfit ready to dominate the Southern League. Those watching games in that era will tell you that Wilf Mannion, even at 38 years old, was the greatest player ever to play for Cambridge United. Volunteers continued to develop and sometimes build parts of the ground, players of pedigree came and went and the club’s directors became ever more ambitious.

For me, the acid test for this book covered the games between 1967 and our election to the Football League, my first three years as a fan.

Leaving aside scores and their significance, I was taken back to paying 1/6d at the turnstiles as a Junior, the smell of sweet pipe tobacco at the Newmarket Road End, buying pies from the Supporters’ Club on the terrace which is now the Disabled Enclosure and the expectation of winning every game.

As the pages turned, I could see once again Ian Hutchinson’s booming long throws, the bravery of Rodney Slack, the elegance of Robin Hardy and the class of George Harris. Life was simpler then; cash on the gate, only one manager, no ‘simulation’, no corporate pressures or obsession with image – but I digress.

And there were the downsides, like the fateful Easter when we lost twice to our big rivals Chelmsford City. The following season, having bought their four best players, we were ready to storm into the Football League. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Andrew is a fine writer and a real fan. If you like football, nostalgia and the story of a little club which became great because of its people, you’ll love this.

Risen from the Dust: The story of Cambridge United Football Club; 1951-1970 by Andrew Bennett. Published by Lovely Bunch. £19.99 (£1 discount for CFU members). Available online at cambridgefansunited.org/store/c4/Books.html and from the CFU caravan on a match day.

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Blessed Brian

11/21/2017

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An edited version of this article appeared in the Cambridge United matchday programme for the FA Cup match against Sutton United on 5 November 2017.

In the memory’s eye, the image is crystal clear: a opposition right winger, believing he has got the better of United’s left back, is scampering towards the byline and scanning the penalty area for a forehead on which to plant his cross.

He should have heeded the words of the poet Burns: The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/Gang aft agley. A booted foot, attached to a swinging left leg, appears out of nowhere and sweeps the ball out of harm’s way, into the Habbin or an Elfleda Road garden. The winger curses and furrows his brow.

The boot belonged to Brian Grant, one of the best exponents of the sliding tackle ever seen at the Abbey. His right hip must be worn smooth, so many times did he swivel on it.

‘I have a bit of a reputation for my sliding tackles and my swinging left leg,’ he once remarked, ‘and I must say this knack of turning on to the ball has got me out of trouble a few times during my career.’

As Andrew Bennett shows in Risen from the Dust (available online at the CFU store and at the caravan on match days), Brian played a big role in the late-60s Bill Leivers team that dominated the Southern League and showed the Football League what it could do.

He was the type of player managers were always looking for, said Leivers: ‘He always seems to be happy and is very big-hearted. On the field he is strong and very brave and his amazing recovery often gets us out of trouble …’

It was great to see Brian in rattling form, telling tales and cracking jokes, at a recent former players’ association get-together. He doesn’t look a day older than when he was snapped with fellow decorator Mick Coe by the Cambridge News in 1981 (right).

One of his stories related how, in 1966, he became Brian Clough’s first signing as a manager. Cloughie, newly installed at Hartlepools, paid Nottingham Forest £2,000 for the Coatbridge native’s services.

‘Tiger’ had been 15 when scouts from Forest and Manchester United spotted him. He opted for Forest and played 18 League games for Clough’s future club.

After Hartlepools he dallied briefly at Bradford City before arriving in Cambridge in the summer of 1967 and making his debut in a 3-1 Southern League Cup win over Kettering. He was to play 182 full games for the U’s, making five sub appearances and chipping in with two goals. That scoring feat cost teammate Roly Horrey £2; in contrast, the less than prolific Brian had only to fork out a penny when Roly netted.

The end of his time at the Abbey came in 1971, when he asked for a transfer after being dropped – some crunching tackles on Leivers in five-a-side had resulted in a punch-up – and he joined Kettering Town. Managerial posts at Histon, Bishop’s Stortford, Cambridge City and Saffron Walden followed, and he was in charge of the Cambs county side for three years.

Brian’s last Abbey appearance was in the company of Bobby Robson, John Bond, John Docherty, Rodney Slack and the Atkinson brothers Graham and Ron in 1977. The occasion was a game marking the queen’s silver jubilee and the result against a Showbiz XI was 7-7. Sorry, I honestly can’t remember if the famous Grant slide was on show that day.

Cheerio
Harry

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Allan Harris 1942-2017

Review: Risen from the Dust

Blessed Brian

Happy Harry's blog

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