Who Are The League Two Managers? No.21: Phil Brown (Swindon Town)

Now one of the elder statesmen of football management, Phil Brown has recently completed forty years in professional football as a player, coach and manager. Despite accumulating 788 games as a player and 508 as a manager, he is perhaps better known for singing a song, of which more later.

In terms of his athletic development, Brown could not have had a better role model than his chemistry teacher at school in Hebburn – a certain Brendan Foster. Having started his career in local football in his native South Shields, Brown joined perennial Fourth Division strugglers Hartlepool United in 1978. Hartlepool had barely clung on to Football League status that summer, having applied for re-election for two seasons in a row. Perhaps it was only due to the poor form of Workington and Southport that kept Hartlepool in the League, with Pools surviving by just seven votes in 1978. It was the twelfth occasion they had been forced to seek re-election, and they had survived every time – a charmed life that would eventually come to an end almost forty years later.

Brown was undertaking an apprenticeship as an electrician at the time, and initially played on a non-contract basis. Once the apprenticeship was completed, Hartlepool gave him a five-year contract and he went on to make 243 appearances at Victoria Park. Hartlepool’s uncomfortably close shave with non-league football led to an improvement in 1978-79 with a thirteenth-place finish, although Brown did not make an appearance that season. Brown made his debut in 1979-80 as Pools finished just two points above the bottom four; a third application for re-election in four years would surely have been curtains. He was ever-present in 1980-81 as they missed promotion by only six points, but normal service was resumed in 1981-82 with another bottom half finish. Another re-election bid followed in 1982-83 with Pools gaining only ten more votes than challengers Maidstone United. A fourteenth bid for re-election followed immediately the following season, and it was some relief when they again won ten votes more than Maidstone. It was another case of panic stations the following season as eleven defeats from their last fourteen games saw them avoid a third successive re-election bid by just two points. If his time at Hartlepool gave him nothing else, Phil Brown certainly learned what survival was all about.

On 30 July 1985 he departed for Halifax Town, another of football’s traditional Houdini clubs. Indeed, Halifax had just survived two successive re-election bids themselves. In that respect, it was business as usual for both club and player as Halifax avoided a third successive bottom four finish on goal difference; had Exeter taken a point at home to Crewe on the final day instead of losing 2-1, Halifax may well have become the last club not to be re-elected to the Football League; automatic promotion and relegation came into force from the following season 1986-87, and we all know what happened then. With the need to finish above the bottom four reduced to the need to finish above the bottom one, Halifax moved into relative comfort over the next two years, although still well in the lower half of the table.

Despite playing in a struggling side, his 158 appearances in three years earned Brown a move to Bolton Wanderers on 23 June 1988 for a fee of £17,000. Wanderers had just been promoted to the Third Division under former England defender Phil Neal, and it was the start of a period of success for Brown. At the age of 29 he must have thought football consisted of re-election scraps and nothing else, but his first season at Burnden Park saw a tenth-place finish and a trip to Wembley for the Sherpa Van Trophy Final against Torquay. Bolton dominated to win 4-1, with one of their goals coming from former Lincoln defender Dean Crombie; also in the Bolton team that day were Lincoln Legend David Felgate and striker John Thomas. Bolton made the Third Division playoffs the following season after finishing sixth, but the promotion bid ended in the semi-finals with a 3-1 aggregate defeat to eventual winners Notts County.

Bolton missed automatic promotion on goal difference in 1990-91, with Grimsby Town taking third place. Two Tony Philliskirk goals gave them a 2-1 aggregate win over Bury to take them back to Wembley. This time the trip would prove unsuccessful, beaten 1-0 in extra time by Tranmere. There was also a run to the fourth round of the FA Cup where they were narrowly beaten 1-0 by Manchester United at Old Trafford. Another promotion challenge was mounted in 1991-92, but severe fixture backlog caused by another FA Cup run saw them collect just four points from ten games through March and April to finish thirteenth. The FA Cup run this time took them to the fifth round where they were beaten 3-2 in a replay by Southampton.

Manager Neal departed at the end of the season, replaced by Bruce Rioch. Having started 1992-93 inconsistently, an upturn in form from the end of October saw Wanderers seal automatic promotion in second place. There was yet another FA Cup run which included a famous 2-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield; it ended in the fifth round with a 3-1 defeat at Derby. It was at this time that Brown started to study for his coaching badges at the behest of manager Rioch. Bolton finished a creditable fourteenth in the newly-named First Division in 1993-94, and had another run in the FA Cup including a 3-1 win at Sincil Bank in the second round, the first time a Lincoln City game had been televised live. Bolton went all the way to the quarter-final, going down 1-0 to Premier League Oldham.

After 334 appearances for Bolton, Brown moved to Second Division Blackpool on a free transfer on 25 July 1994, becoming the first signing by new manager Sam Allardyce. He was also appointed assistant manager and began to make fewer appearances accordingly. After a twelfth-place finish in his first season, Blackpool made the playoffs in 1995-96 by finishing third. Unfortunately a 3-2 aggregate defeat to Bradford ended both their season and Phil Brown’s playing career at the age of 37. In spite of his relatively high profile as a manager today, Brown never appeared in the top flight as a player.

In the close season of 1996 he was on his way back to Bolton as first-team coach under Colin Todd. The 1996-97 season was one of unmitigated success, strolling to the First Division title by an eighteen-point margin despite a run of eight games without a win. A 6-1 win over Spurs also saw them reach the quarter-final of the Coca-Cola (League) Cup. They started the 1997-98 season in their new stadium, but life in the Premier League was a much tougher proposition. Wanderers needed a win from their final game at Chelsea to stay up, but they were beaten 2-0; Everton picked up a point from their home game against Coventry to move above Bolton on goal difference, and Bolton were down. It was also notable for being the first time that all three promoted clubs had been relegated (Bolton, Barnsley and Crystal Palace). Bolton made a good start to 1998-99, unbeaten for the opening eleven games, and secured a play-off place in sixth. An away-goal victory over Ipswich in the semi-finals (4-4) took them to Wembley where they were beaten 2-0 by Watford.

When Todd resigned on 22 September 1999 in protest against the sale of Per Frandsen, Brown took over as caretaker to give him his first taste of management. He won three league games out of four to maintain the promotion challenge until his Blackpool manager Sam Allardyce was appointed on 18 October. Brown stayed on as assistant manager, and so began a period of sustained success (and crippling debt) at the Reebok Stadium. The playoffs were reached after a great run of eight wins from their last ten games, but this time Ipswich gained revenge with a 7-5 aggregate win. More heartbreak came in the cups, with a 4-0 aggregate defeat to Tranmere in the semi-final of the Worthington (League) Cup. Unbelievably, the jinx struck again in the FA Cup when they lost 4-1 on penalties to Aston Villa in the Wembley semi-final. Sixty-two games had ended with nothing.

It was business as usual in 2000-01, with Bolton finishing third to reach the playoffs yet again. A 5-2 aggregate win over West Brom took Bolton to the Millennium Stadium where a 3-0 win over Preston carried them back to the Premier League. Bolton got off to a great start in 2001-02 with three straight wins taking them to the top of the table at the end of August. It took them twenty-three more games to win the next three, but Bolton struggled to a sixteenth-place finish and survival. The following season followed a similar pattern with a run of three wins from twenty-five games leaving the facing relegation. A sudden upturn in form saw them lose just twice in twelve games, and they went into the final day needing a win to stand any chance of survival. They beat Middlesbrough 2-1 in a tense game while West Ham could only draw at Birmingham; Bolton had survived by a two-point margin.

Bolton got off to another poor start in 2003-04 with only one win in the opening ten games, but form improved dramatically to see them finish eighth, their highest league placing since 1960. They also reached the Carling (League) Cup Final where they were beaten 2-1 by Middlesbrough in Cardiff. Things got even better in 2004-05 with a sixth-place finish ensuring qualification for the UEFA Cup, the first time Bolton had ever qualified for European competition.

In a conversation with Bolton chairman Phil Gartside, Brown had been told he would not be appointed manager unless he cut his managerial teeth elsewhere first, so Brown began to look for a suitable post. That opportunity came at Derby County in June 2005. Derby had just missed promotion back to the Premier League with a play-off semi-final defeat to Preston, and hopes were high for a successful campaign. After a good start of two wins and two draws, Derby embarked on a run of one win in fifteen games. Despite improved form through December, too many draws left Derby in the bottom six of the Championship. After a 6-1 defeat at Coventry and a 3-1 defeat to Colchester in the FA Cup, Brown was sacked on 30 January 2006 after just seven months in the job.

His next job came at Championship strugglers Hull City in October 2006 where he was appointed first team coach under Phil Parkinson. Six weeks later Parkinson was sacked, and Brown took over as caretaker manager with Colin Murphy. Three wins from their first five league games took Hull out of the bottom four, and Brown was appointed until the end of the season. Hull continued to struggle, but a 1-0 win at Cardiff at the end of April ensured survival. Hull got off to a slow start in 2007-08 and sat seventeenth in mid-October. Hull then embarked on a great run that saw them finish fourth, just four points off automatic promotion. Watford were dispatched 6-1 in the semi-final, and incredibly Hull reached the Premier League for the first time in their history with a 1-0 Wembley win over Bristol City.

Brown was handed a three-year contract and set about the unlikely task of keeping Hull in the top flight. After nine games, Hull had a record number of points for a side promoted to the Premier League and Brown was named Manager of the Month for September 2008. They were sitting third in the table, only off the top on goal difference, but that was as good as it got. Controversy was never far away as Hull slid down the table. A series of FA charges brought Brown into the spotlight for the wrong reasons, and he again made headlines on Boxing Day when he conducted his half-time team talk on the pitch at Manchester City with his side 4-0 down. A run of just two wins in twenty-eight games left Hull in danger of relegation going into the final game of the season, at home to champions Manchester United. Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Hull and Sunderland could all still occupy the final two relegation spots with West Brom; as it happened, all four lost and Newcastle were relegated with Middlesbrough. Brown celebrated by ‘singing’ a mangled version of Sloop John B on the pitch at the end of the game.

The 2009-10 season was a struggle from the word go, and Brown was placed on garden leave on 15 March 2010 after a run of four straight defeats had left Hull second from bottom. His departure was confirmed on 7 June after Hull had been relegated.

He was not out of the game for long, appointed manager of the Championship’s bottom club Preston North End on an eighteen-month contract on 6 January 2011. Things were very slow to pick up and, despite three successive wins in March, North End never looked likely to escape the drop. A 1-0 home defeat to Cardiff on 25 April sent them down to League One. Preston got off to a great start in 2011-12 with seven successive wins leaving them second in the table at the end of September. Preston then lost eight of the next nine games to dump them into the bottom half. Despite a win and a draw from the next two games, Brown was sacked on 14 December 2011.

Brown filled a lengthy spell out of the game with a series of media commitments, appearing on a number of television and radio channels as a pundit and commentator. In November 2012 he was set to be named manager at former club Hartlepool before the appointment broke down over the cost of the backroom team Brown wanted to bring in. On 25 March 2013 he was appointed manager at League Two Southend United on a two-year contract. One of his first jobs was to take Southend to Wembley for the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final, which they had reached under previous manager Paul Sturrock. Southend lost 2-0 to Crewe, and Brown went on to win just one of his eight league games to see his side finish in eleventh place. The playoffs were reached with a fifth-place finish in 2013-14, but Southend were beaten 3-2 on aggregate by Burton Albion in the semi-finals. At the end of the season, Brown was linked with a return to Bolton as manager, but the move did not materialise.

Southend challenged for automatic promotion in 2014-15, and a run of seven successive wins took them into the final day needing a win at Morecambe to take third place. They lost 3-1 while Bury won 1-0 at Tranmere to leapfrog Southend into the final promotion place. The disappointment was not to last long, a 4-2 aggregate win over Stevenage taking them back to Wembley where promotion was secured with a 7-6 penalty shootout win over Wycombe. Consolidation was the name of the game in 2015-16 with a fourteenth-place finish. During the summer of 2016, Brown was again linked with a return to Bolton and also with England after former mentor Sam Allardyce was appointed manager, but again nothing happened towards either role.

Another promotion challenge followed at Roots Hall in 2016-17, but two defeats from their final three games saw Southend just miss the playoffs by a point. Great things were therefore expected in 2017-18, but Southend never got going. After a run of seven defeats from eight games had left the side just two points above the relegation zone, Brown was placed on garden leave on 17 January 2018. On 12 March 2018 he was named manager of League Two side Swindon until the end of the season. The intention was to revive Swindon’s promotion challenge, having slipped to ninth with ten games remaining. The revival never materialised, with Brown winning just two of those ten games to leave Swindon seven points behind the play-off spots. Despite the disappointment, he was named manager on a two-year deal on 10 May 2018.

In a roller coaster forty-year career as a player, coach, assistant manager and manager, Phil Brown has qualified for Europe, won promotion from the fourth tier, won promotion from the third tier, won promotion from the second tier (five promotions in total), been to a League Cup Final, three major cup semi-finals, two Football League Trophy finals (won one), been involved in nine playoff campaigns, five play-off finals (three wins), has been relegated once, and was subject to two bids for re-election. It would be true to say he has seen the good times and the bad times at both ends of the Football League.

If experience equated to success, Phil Brown would be managing France. All of which makes it extremely likely that Swindon will not be in League Two for very long. Whether their stay ends this season or not is another question.

Key:

P = Promoted; R = Relegated; SF = Lost in play-off semi-final; F = Lost in play-off final; PO = Won play-off final; D = Demoted.

Figures are league games only; cup matches and playoffs are not included.

League position shown is either the position at the end of the season or the position at the time of departure.

Writer: Scotimp