The Ins And Outs of Dicks

Alan Dicks brought the glory days back to Ashton Gate for the first time in 65 years.

He led City into the top flight, landed us a trophy and became the league’s longest serving manager with 13 years at the helm.

His reign gave fans memories including promotion celebrations after Portsmouth in April 1976, and the infamous 2-2 draw against Coventry in May 1977 which was played at a canter and saw both teams avoid relegation after the Sunderland result was announced.

But among his greatest moments was dumping the great Leeds Utd team of the 1970s out of the FA Cup on their own turf.

Alan remembers the bleak midwinter match vividly.

City were given no chance against a United team unbeaten in 29 games, despite being drawn at home.

Against all odds, the Robins drew 1-1, forcing a replay in the north which pundits predicted would be a rout.

Alan recalls: “It was like Custer's last stand. We never got out of our penalty box. Leeds hit the post, hit the bar, absolutely peppered the goal.”

But with 15 minutes to go, City broke down the right.

Alan says: “I'll always remember it. We hit a long diagonal ball, and it came across the face of the Leeds goal.

“Our player has looked up and hit a shot toward the back post. It wasn't hit that well, but their goalkeeper slipped and it went in.”

Alan Dicks was pictured on the front page dancing with delight as pandemonium broke out on the bench.

The reds clung on for a magical 1-0 victory.

Alan is one of few men to make a career in football for half a century, coaching in five different countries.

The infamous quote which rung around Ashton Gate as fans called for his head when his reign finally ended is legendary and became the title of a book about hilarious soccer chants: “Dicks Out.”

Alan laughs: “They wanted me out, and they let me know. But everyone had smiles on their faces while they were singing.”

His last coaching role was managing US team Charleston Battery in South Carolina, where he spent three and a half years before calling it a day and returning to Henleaze.

Londoner Alan was born on August 29, 1934, into a working class family in Kennington, South London, near the Elephant and Castle pub.

Mother Anne cleaned offices before taking her three kids to school and then heading off for a second job as a seamstress.

But he picked up his love of football from his father Bill, an electrician who introduced him to the game.

Alan and his sister Joyce were evacuated to Devon for two years in the war, living with a doctor’s family before the whole family moved up to Scotland to avoid the Blitz.

Alan was 11 when they finally returned to London, and had rarely played football with anything other than a tennis ball in the street.

But after joining a club he was soon picked to play for London schoolboys, following in the footsteps of older brother Ronnie, who went on to play more than 500 games for Middlesbrough.

He quit school at 16 and began working as an accountant, though he still dreamed of playing professional football.

A year later, Millwall were ready to give him a contract when a scout from Chelsea knocked on his door and offered him £250 in cash to sign.

Alan says: “My dad was only earning five pounds a week at the time, so there was no question of turning it down. Money talks.”

He signed on his 17th birthday – but never saw the cash, which was just a ploy to lure him from the Lions.

Dicks was a good passer and tackler, playing in defence and midfield, but lacked the burst of pace needed to become a great player at the top level.

His first game for the Chelsea first team was a baptism of fire – a 5-1 defeat away to Manchester City in front of 50,000 hostile fans.

He was forced to take a year out for compulsory military service in the Air Force but was stationed close enough to Chelsea to continue playing.

He made 35 appearances in six years at Chelsea in the days before substitutes, often travelling as a non-playing reserve.

But he did play one game in Chelsea’s 1955 Championship season.

While playing for Chelsea, he went to a dance and met student nurse Maura – his first wife and mother of his five children.

The marriage lasted 20 years before crumbling under the pressure of the travelling lifestyle.

He says: “It was a scenario for the breakdown of a marriage. I was only home Thursdays and Sundays. However, looking back, I could have behaved a lot better than I did.”

He married and divorced twice more before he visited his daughter on Christmas Day 1997 – and Maura opened the door.

With Alan’s divorce to his third wife Pamela, the two remarried in Charleston in May 1999 – 27 years after first splitting.

In 1958 Alan moved from Chelsea to Southend United, playing a hundred games over four years before moving into coaching.

He moved to Coventry City in 1962 as player coach under manager Jimmy Hill.

Coventry were promoted from Division Three to Division One in successive seasons under the partnership – but Hill then quit to move into television and the board wanted a big name manager.

Hill recommended Alan for the job at City – and he took charge in October 1967 at the age of just 33, becoming one of the country’s youngest bosses.

His reign became a golden age at the Gate

After years building a squad and flirting with relegation to Division Three, he led City into the First Division in 1976 after an absence of 65 years.

That was followed by victory in the Anglo-Scottish Cup final against St Mirren.

City spent four glorious seasons in the top flight and in October 1979 Alan became the longest-serving manager in the Football League.

But after relegation and a poor start to the following season, he was asked to move sideways and quit in September 1980 after refusing.

And beneath the surface the seeds of disaster were also sewn.

Critics blame the culture of long-term contracts which he handed out for crippling the club’s finances when City’s days in the top flight came to an end.

Alan spent the next year as director of a golf and snooker promotional company before pulling on his boots again to coach in Greece.

In the next six years he also managed clubs in Cyprus and Qatar.

Alan says: “Greece was a great eye-opener. I got there, they gave me a cheque and it bounced.”

The players also went unpaid, the fiery owner went berserk whenever they lost and then contrived to throw a game at the end of the season.

After two years in Cyprus, he took charge of Qatar side Al Rayyan Sports Club, guiding them to the championship in his first season in charge.

But he was fired after failing to add to the silverware in the following two seasons.

In 1990 he returned to coach cash-strapped Fulham after being recommended by his old pal Jimmy Hill.

He managed to avoid the relegation which threatened when he joined but was sacked after being dumped out of the F.A. Cup by a non-league team.

Alan moved to the United States in 1992 and began working for a Florida soccer magazine selling advertising.

But before long, he was soon back coaching and took a job coaching Carolina Dynamo in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1995.

Two years later the team folded after losing an A-League playoff final and he moved to become gaffer at Charleston Battery.

He returned to Bristol after three and a half years and at the age of 68 still dreams of returning to coach another team, although arthritis means his days of joining in training sessions are over.

If not, he can look back on a career that took City to heights unknown since before World War II.

Joe Royle rates Alan’s greatest strength as his ability to bring success on a shoestring.

He says: “I had three great years at Bristol and it’s still very dear to me.

“That was probably the most spirited side I've ever played in. Alan Dicks had a team of young lads and a few old pros like me and Norman Hunter trying unsuccessfully to stay in the First Division.

“It wasn't the best team ever, we lost more games than we won, but the spirit was something else, with everyone battling for each other.”

Perhaps for the first time in years that spirit is returning to the Gate and those glory days in Division One can come back once more.