DON McEVOY Possibly Barrow's most successful ever manager
When the list is made of the best ever Barrow managers, the same two names are always at the top of the page. One is Ray Wilkie, who took us to Wembley in 1990 and gave us our finest moments as a non-League club. The other is Don McEvoy, who gave us our best moments in the Football League when he took the club to promotion from the old Division Four in 1967. Following the resignation of Ron Staniforth as manager before the start of the 1964-65 season, the directors asked McEvoy, Staniforth's former coach, to return to the club as manager. Fortunately, he accepted, to initiate what is Barrow's most successful period as a Football League club. Though Barrow had to apply for re-election that season, in the summer McEvoy set about rejuvenating the squad. He signed players including Jim Mallon at full back, Jimmy Mulholland at inside right, and best of all, half-back Mick Hartland. At the end of the 1965-66 season Barrow finished twelfth in the league and reached the final of the Lancashire Cup, which they lost to Burnley. But by now McEvoy's team was almost complete, and with the signing of two experienced players in the close season, ex-Blackburn goalie Fred Else and ex-Irish international defender Billy McAdams, it all came together. Don now lives in Huddersfield and although he suffers from Parkinson's disease, and also recently lost his wife, he was only too pleased to reminisce with us about the Barrow AFC of the 1960s. How did you come to join Barrow in the first place? I first came to Barrow just before the start of the 1960-61 season as player-coach and club captain. The Barrow manager at that time was the England full back, Ron Staniforth, whom I'd played with at Sheffield Wednesday. From there I'd gone to Lincoln and I was doing some coaching with the schools. I met up with Ronnie and he told me he was at Barrow and about how he was struggling to get players to go there; how he wished he could find some good, young, local players and how the club had absolutely no money at all. I thought it might be a challenge to see what I could do in that situation. I don't think problems come any bigger than that in football. You need a bit of steel about you. Ronnie couldn't really do it. But it was good for me and I relished it! What it was like when you arrived? That first season, 1960-61, was very difficult and we finished third from bottom, although we were only a point away from avoiding re-election altogether. But I met up with Dickie Robinson who did most of the coaching. He was a great lad, though he couldn't understand why he was on only £20 a week. Most of the players got more than he did! When you became manager, did you have to change the team much, or were the basics already there? There was no money, no players and no future when I came back. But I knew what I wanted; good, young players, either locals, like Brian Arrowsmith who was already with the club, or those who couldn't get regular first team places elsewhere. I tried to mix them with experienced professionals like [ex-Burnley and England winger] Brian Pilkington. In that first season I persuaded Brian to join us, found Roy McCarthy for the right wing, Malcolm Edwards as full back, local lad Bobby Knox who could play anywhere, including goalkeeper, and George Smith at centre half. At the end of 1965-66, did you expect that next season Barrow would be capable of mounting a promotion challenge? I wanted them to play in a certain way. I knew that if they did, we'd get promotion and in the end, when I got through to them, it started to happen. I told the experienced players, Billy McAdams and Fred Else, to let young Georgie Smith play where he wanted to and to fit in around him. I told Brian Pilkington to play 15 yards in from the touch line and to always stay in space so that when he got the ball, he could have a run at the defence. Roy McCarthy did the same on the right wing. Although I knew I could rely on Jimmy Mulholland, I felt we needed a centre forward who would do nothing else but score goals. I got a young lad from Southport, Tony Field. And he was fantastic. That's when it all came together. It worked just as I knew it would. Who do you think was the best player you signed for Barrow? George Smith was a fantastic player. He was at Newcastle and their manager really wanted a transfer fee for him. I didn't have any money, so I said don't worry about a fee, it would be good for Georgie if he could get regular first team football with someone, so why didn't he let me take him off his hands on a free. As we were going down the steps at Newcastle, Georgie turns to me and says, 'Boss, where is Barrow?' I didn't know if he meant where in the league or where in the country! So I told him they were bottom of Division Four and that Barrow was situated somewhere in the middle of a shipyard! But Georgie wasn't bothered. He was a beautiful player, the best signing I ever made. Mick Hartland was a brilliant player, totally mad, but on the pitch there was no one to touch him. There are stories I could tell you about him that would make your hair curl! I used to have to look after him, take his wages home to make sure that he didn't spend them. When he went to Southport I told him that they'd only pick him for one game, his first. After that I knew he'd blow it. And he did. I always thought Jimmy Mulholland was wasted at Barrow, but he always did well for me. Fred Else would infuriate me sometimes by not going for shots. I'd ask him why he left them alone and he'd say why should I bother wasting time trying to get balls that I know I can't get! I told him that sounded like something from Roy of the Rovers and he asked me how I knew that was where he'd got it from! He was a great goalie. He made it look so effortless, but that was because his reading of the game and his positional sense were superb, second to none. When I wanted to get an instruction across to the players during a game I'd always give it to Fred and he'd get it to the individual or to the rest of the team. What was your best memory of the promotion season in 1966-67. Was it the home win over Brentford that secured the promotion position, when the crowd came onto the pitch? I didn't see the game against Brentford that got us promotion. I couldn't stand it. I went to see a Sheffield Wednesday reserve match and phoned up to get the result. How do you recall the two FA Cup Third Round games against Southampton? I remember the first, at Barrow, with over 16,000 people in the ground. It was the most electrically charged atmosphere I have ever experienced in a football ground and when Barrow scored, twice, you could have heard the roar in Manchester. I was in Leeds when I found out who we were playing because one of the lads was having some hospital treatment there. I'd just seen Southampton play at Blackpool the previous Saturday and I said we can beat them. We very nearly did at Holker Street, but in the end they scrambled an equaliser for a 2-2 draw. Their manager asked me how we'd done it. I told him that we'd had to stop his players getting the ball, so we just kept playing it wide to our wingers and they couldn't keep up with us. I was offered the job of Assistant Manager at the Dell after the replay, but I wanted to stay at Barrow. I knew I could get them into Division Three and I thought that the team I had might very well get us into Division Two as well. Why did you leave to join Grimsby in the 1967 close season? Did you not think Barrow would do well in Division Three? Or was it just that Grimsby represented a better opportunity with more potential? What people don't know is that I got the directors to agree to a bonus scheme in that promotion season. We needed twelve points from so many matches and I had to be cruel, but they got it, they got all the wins so I got the bonus doubled and in the last match they were playing for £120 per man on top of their basic wage. I never promised the lads anything I couldn't deliver, but they respect you for that. I knew they'd do well in Division Three and I thought if I had a couple more players, there was a very good chance we'd get a second successive promotion to Division Two. I felt we needed a right back and a left winger (Brian Pilkington had decided to retire). I knew who I wanted; Malcolm Russell from Halifax and a young, fast winger from Rochdale, Dave Storf. The rest of the players wanted to stay. I also knew that a couple of big clubs were interested in our best player, Georgie Smith, but I told Georgie he wasn't going anywhere until I agreed it. I knew Barrow didn't have any money, but I also knew that I could get a good fee for Georgie and bring in the other two lads for next to nothing. But the directors couldn't really see it. Oh, they knew about the game and the money and they had a good, hard working secretary, but you have to keep the players with you. The directors really wanted a new stand. They didn't want to spend money on rewarding the players or on bringing in new players. Portsmouth were interested in Georgie Smith. I told Georgie to wait until the end of the season before putting in his transfer request. He didn't want to do it but I made him. I told the board I wanted Russell and Storf, but they said there wasn't enough money. I said, yes there is, I've got an offer here from Portsmouth for £20,000 and a written transfer request from Georgie. They still said there wouldn't be enough money! They just couldn't see it, and they didn't want to know about increasing the players' wages. I felt I was having to fight them just to get the best for the club and I didn't want to lose the trust of the players. So I accepted an offer from Grimsby to be their manager, but it was a bad move. I walked out of the first board meeting and almost resigned. It would have been a world record, I'd only been in the job eight hours! But I stuck it out there for eight months before moving on to Southport. They were a good side then, with two good players up front. I'd not been there long when the board sold both of them without telling me! Why did you come back to Barrow? Was the club already past saving when you returned? It must have been depressing to see the club in decline compared to 1964-67? My third spell at Barrow was just too late. I don't know why I went back. Maybe it was the scenery, perhaps it was the golf. Or maybe I thought I could recreate the good times of 1966-67. But I was too late to save them from relegation back to Division Four in 1970 I knew I'd have to rebuild the team, and they ended up bottom of Division Four at the end of 1970-71. I left midway through the next season. What did you do then? I went to the labour exchange and asked if they had any manager's jobs. They said what sort and I said football manager. They had a look and said Arsenal have a vacancy so they sent off an application for me. But I didn't get the job! What are your best and worst memories at Barrow? It was always hard to get players to come to Barrow. But I knew if I could let them see the scenery in the Lake District and give them a flavour for the spirit at the club, they'd sign. I used to tell them to get off the train at Grange and I'd pick them up from the station and drive them through all the scenic areas and end up at Barrow Golf Club. There's that lovely view over the north end of Walney out over the Irish Sea. I wouldn't let them see the shipyard! I'd tell the manager at the golf club to lay a table next to the window whenever he saw me because if I'd got that far it meant I hadn't yet persuaded the player to sign! How do you think the game compares now to how it was in the sixties? Are the players fitter, are the tactics different? I don't appreciate what's happening to the game today. Without realising it we've adopted certain features from Italian football, like all this positional play, 4-4-2 and 4-3-3, wing backs and the like. It means players who are good enough having to adapt their game to help the players who aren't good enough. The top players want too much and it's going to put the small clubs out of business. The whole game is out of focus. Out of the top half dozen clubs two or three of them will end up playing in a European league, the rest will be nonentities. There's also too much money in football nowadays, too many things going on, all this money passing backwards and forwards. Do you have any message for the fans at Barrow today? I really enjoyed my time at Barrow. The fans were great. There was a time when we were selling more raffle tickets than there were workers in the shipyard! I always look for their result and I wish them all the best for the future. Thanks, Don, for giving us some of our greatest football memories. All the best. Issue 048 - March 2001