Bobby Seith

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Bobby Seith
Personnel
Surname Robert Seith
birthday March 9, 1932
place of birth Coatbridge ,  Scotland
position External rotor (right)
Juniors
Years station
until 1948 Monifieth Tayside
1948-1949 Burnley FC
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1949-1960 Burnley FC 211 (6)
1960-1965 Dundee FC 134 (5)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1968-1970 Preston North End
1970-1974 Heart of Midlothian
1 Only league games are given.

Robert "Bobby" Seith (born March 9, 1932 in Coatbridge ) is a former Scottish football player and coach . He won the English championship with Burnley FC in 1960 and the Scottish league title two years later with Dundee FC , where he mostly held the position of right wing runner .

Athletic career

Player career

Since then, she grew up in a sporty family. His father had already played in Scottish professional football and his offspring did the same, but at the age of 16 he dared the leap to England to start a career at Burnley FC . He was noticed by the Burnley Scouts in Scotland at a game by Monifieth Tayside , a small youth club in Dundee . Shortly after arriving in Burnley, he signed a professional contract in March 1949. Although he quickly presented himself in very good form in the reserve team as an outside runner , he had to wait a long time for his debut in the first team, which was mainly due to the fact that he could not displace the regulars Jimmy Adamson and Reg Attwell and he also had his Served in the Royal Air Force . He also began training as a medical podiatrist with the Air Force , which he completed in 1955.

Then he made his debut in the first team in October 1953, and although the task against the Busby Babes of Manchester United in Old Trafford was difficult Burnley won with 2: 1. Since then it was initially used alternately on both sides before it stuck on the right side in the 1955/56 season - Attwell had left the club in the meantime and Adamson was either on the left side or in the middle. His strengths lay on the defensive and with a good right foot he could play smart passes, whereas he exuded little offensive urge. In 238 competitive games for Burnley, he scored just six goals, half of them in the 1958/59 season, when he did not miss a single game. In the 1959/60 championship season that followed, he played the first seven games before he had to pause after a foot infection. During this time, coach Harry Potts rearranged the defense, from which the young Alex Elder in particular benefited. There was no doubt that Seith would return to the right side after his recovery, and so he continued to fill this role until April 1960. In the last two games, Burnley conceded nine goals in two games (1: 6 against Wolverhampton Wanderers and 3: 3 against Sheffield Wednesday ) and Seith did not cut a good figure in Sheffield's third goal. So Potts removed him from the team for the next game, whereupon Seith reacted angrily and wanted to obtain clearance for a club change. A dispute developed in which Seith allegedly even got violent against President Bob Lord, and as a result Burnley "banished" his former player. Since then only heard of the course of the decisive game to win the championship on the radio and the official medal to which he was actually entitled was withheld - it was not until 1999 that he received it as part of a "gesture of reconciliation".

Lord wanted to sell Seith to Stoke City , as he had already done with Doug Newlands ( Jimmy McIlroy and Alex Elder followed later in the 1960s ), as he was on friendly terms with the club. Seith did not want to move to Stoke and after a transfer to Blackpool failed due to Lord's veto, Seith began to train in his Scottish homeland at FC Dundee . After a negotiation game in which Seith threatened to resign as a footballer and switch to the podiatry profession, Burnley ultimately agreed to Dundee's transfer fee of £ 7,500. In Dundee he found a team that initially only played in midfield, and with tenth place in 1961 there was little to suggest the subsequent high-altitude flight. Completely surprisingly, Dundee won the Scottish Championship in 1962 ahead of the two top favorites from Glasgow and Seith was considered one of the key figures due to his experience. Milestones were the 5: 4 win against Raith Rovers (after 2: 4 deficit up to 15 minutes before the end), the 5: 1 away win at Glasgow Rangers and the decisive 3: 0 on the last matchday against FC St Johnstone . In the following year, Seith rushed from success to success with Dundee in the European Cup (including an 8: 1 against the German champions 1. FC Köln and a 4: 1 away win against RSC Anderlecht ), before the end against the in the semi-finals later winners AC Milan followed. He continued his active career for a good two more years until 1965. He then joined the club's coaching staff.

Coaching career

The first coaching engagement in Dundee was followed by an assistant position with the Glasgow Rangers. He then took on a head coach role for the first time in 1968 at the English second division club Preston North End . He succeeded Jimmy Milne , but the decline of the club, which in 1970 led to relegation to the third division , he could not prevent. He left the club in the same year and after a short period as coach of the Scottish youth national team hired him in the Edinburgh Heart of Midlothian .

The "Hearts" had sunk into mediocrity in previous years and after Seith's arrival a sporting upward trend began, which culminated in the 1973/74 season with a series of 13 league games without defeat as the league leader. However, this was followed by changeable results and after the narrowly missed qualification for the European Cup and a negative series of eleven competitive games without a win in the early stages of the 1974/75 season , Seith was dismissed.

After his resignation in Edinburgh, he began working full-time as a medical podiatrist, east of Dundee in Broughty Ferry .

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "Bobby Seith" (Clarets Mad)
  2. ↑ a b "Bobby Seith" (Dundee Mad)
  3. ↑ Norrie Price: Gritty, Gallant, Glorious - A History and Complete Record of the Hearts 1946-1997 . 1997, ISBN 0-9521426-3-5 , pp. 57 ff., 180 ff .
personal data
SURNAME Since then, Bobby
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Since then, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION scottish soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Coatbridge