Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November....
Town supporters certainly remember, because sixty years ago, on the Fifth of November 1956, Bill Shankly was appointed Manager of Huddersfield Town. He did not come in from another club, because about a year earlier he had joined Huddersfield Town as Assistant Manager, having been persuaded to come by his old friend Andy Beattie, the former Preston North End full-back.
From that earlier date, Shankly had been in charge of Town Reserves, who played in the Central League and also looked after Town Juniors, who played in the Northern Intermediate League (with home matches at Beck Lane, Heckmondwike).
His role was to bring forward young professionals and give them the right grounding before they graduated to the first team – and Bill had excellent credentials for such a job.
Bill Shankly was born in Glenbuck, a tiny Ayrshire coal mining village, on September 2 1913. He was the youngest of five boys, all of whom played professional football, both in Scotland and in England with one of his brothers, Bob, also becoming a successful manager.
After Bill left school in 1928, he started work at the local pit alongside his brother Bob, but it closed two years later.
He had however played football from an early age and had acquired a name as a skilful player, so much so that he was only unemployed for a month or two before Carlisle United came after him and was signed after just one trial match for the Reserves against Middlesbrough Reserves - which Carlisle lost 6-0!
He quickly gained a reputation as a hard running and gritty right-half and played 16 first-team matches for United in the 1932-33 season. At the end of that campaign, he was asked to sign for Preston North End.
Reluctant at first (characteristically, he wanted more money) he eventually signed up and never regretted it - going on to make 297 appearances for “Proud Preston” between 1933 and 1949, with six wartime years denying him more. He was also capped five times for Scotland before the war.
For Town fans, of course, any Preston connection is suspect - Shankly was the Preston No 4 (and Beattie the No 3) against Town in the 1938 Cup Final at Wembley, with its dubious penalty in the last minute of extra-time. The men from Deepdale have always since then been Town’s least-liked opponents, a tradition carried forward with renewed vigour on Wednesday 19 October 2016.
When he retired from playing in 1949, Shankly was determined to go into management. During his playing career he had prepared for it by soaking up knowledge about the game and creating ideas he wanted to try. He never had the slightest doubt that he was destined to be a good manager.
He began his managerial career at Carlisle United, the club where his playing career had begun. Shankly's work ethic and enthusiasm transformed the team who finished successively fifth, ninth and third.
He moved on to manage Grimsby Town in June 1951, and then Workington in January 1954 before leaving the latter on November 15, 1955 to join Beattie at Town, relishing a new opportunity and recognising he had climbed several rungs up the managerial ladder.
It was not announced at the time, but there seems little doubt Beattie had chosen his own successor. The great team which Beattie had guided to promotion in 52/53 had followed that by finishing third in the First Division in 53/54, then a respectable twelfth in 54/55.
But a spate of injuries took their toll, new players were not sought, and a complacent Beattie made some strange team selections. Town were dragged into a relegation scrap and Andy Beattie did not have the stomach for it.
So at the end of Shankly’s first Town season, his new club were relegated on goal average, with Aston Villa staying up. [Historical note: Goal Average was used from season 1988/89 to season 1978/79, after which Goal Difference was adopted]
Beattie stayed for three months as the team made a stuttering start to season 1955-56 and then finally handed over to his old team-mate in November. He retired from football to run a post office in Preston.
He has an honourable place in Town’s history, but he was tired and jaded and should have left during the previous season - the energy and insight that Bill Shankly would have brought to the job would surely have secured that single extra point.
Over the years Town supporters have got used to reflecting on “what might have been”, but this one was the hardest to bear.
Bill Shankly must have been devastated, but he knuckled down to the job and the team finished 12th in his first season, ninth in his second and 14th in his third.
These positions do not reflect the quality of the team that Shankly could field, week after week. Bill McGarry and Vic Metcalfe were still there, Ronnie Simpson, Ken Taylor and Kevin McHale were already established, Ray Wilson and Les Massie were coming through and John Coddington came in to stiffen the defence. Last but not least Ray Wood, a top class goalkeeper and Munich Survivor was signed from Manchester United.
Good players all, but they were about to be eclipsed.... I remember going to watch Huddersfield Town Reserves on September 1, 1956. Les Massie, who was on the team sheet at number 10, had been called away to make his debut in the first team at Craven Cottage.
A fair-haired, fragile-looking lad trotted onto the field wearing the number 10 shirt instead and proceeded to give a football masterclass. He was only 16, but he was already touched with genius. His name, of course, was Denis Law and he soon made his first-team debut against Notts County at Meadow Lane on Christmas Eve, 1956.
Law first appearance in the FA Cup came in his fifth match, against non-league Peterborough United in the Fourth Round at Leeds Road on January 26, 1957.
Peterborough (from the Midland League) were that season’s “Giant Killers”, coming through from the fourth qualifying round to reach the fourth round proper. Town (entering the competition as usual in the third round) had taken a draw and two replays to overcome Sheffield United and the pundits had picked out Shankly’s team as another potential Posh victim.
The match had stirred enormous interest, Peterborough brought twenty train-loads of supporters and the recorded gate was 48,735. It seems unbelievable today, but I was there and counted them! The noise was louder than anything I have ever heard at a football ground since, including Wembley.
The Peterborough contingent roared their team on, but Town did most of the early attacking with centre-forward Dave Hickson prominent.Peterborough, however, were finding it difficult to get into the Town half, despite the frantic urging of their supporters. The tension was almost unbearable for both sets of supporters.
After ten or twelve minutes, Dave Hickson again got free on the right and squared the ball into the danger area. Like quicksilver, Denis Law was on to it and shot into the corner of the net. A sixteen-year old boy had tamed the upstarts and a huge crowd had seen the future of football. Law’s nerveless goal settled the Town team and they went on to control most of the match and win 3-1..
Law’s confidence and composure were astonishing for one so young, but Shankly nursed him carefully, rationing his appearances: 13 in 56/57, 18 in 57/58 and 26 in 58/59. Every Town fan knew (as did Shankly) that Law was the discovery of a lifetime and that if the Board of Directors would wake up and splash out on two more top class players, we would have a successful team again. But the Board slumbered on.
Disillusioned and disheartened, Bill Shankly was becoming ripe for an approach by another club. The Chairman of Liverpool, Tom Williams asked Bill if he would like to manage "the best club in the country", to which Shankly replied: "Why, is Matt Busby packing up?”
By chance, Town played Liverpool on 28 November 1959 and, whilst Town might have won the match 1-0, they lost their manager, because he resigned at a Board meeting on December 1.
Bill Shankly’s legendary achievements as Manager of Liverpool Football Club speak for themselves.
With the right backing and financial support, he could have achieved similar great things at Town. When opportunity knocked on the Town Club door, however, answer came there none. So Town’s most charismatic manager departed, and three months later, so too did Denis Law.
