Jimmy Allen (soccer player, 1909)

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Jimmy Allen
Personnel
Surname James Phillips Allen
birthday October 16, 1909
place of birth Poole ,  England
date of death 5th February 1995
Place of death Southsea ,  England
position Middle runner
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
Poole Central
1927-1930 Poole FC
1930-1934 Portsmouth FC 132 (1)
1934-1944 Aston Villa 147 (2)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1933 England 2 (0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1948-1953 Colchester United
1 Only league games are given.

James Phillips "Jimmy" Allen (born October 16, 1909 in Birmingham , † February 5, 1995 in Southsea , Portsmouth ) was an English football player and coach . The two-time international played for Portsmouth FC and Aston Villa in the 1930s .

Player career

Allen, the youngest of eleven children of a beer coach in the 1911 census , came from the lower-class Poole Central club in August 1927 to Poole FC , which had been newly admitted to the Southern League . In February 1930 Allen played as a test player for the reserve team of the first division club Portsmouth FC and convinced those responsible, who were willing to pay a transfer fee of £ 1,200 to Poole. After his debut in the First Division in January 1931 against Birmingham City , Allen established himself on the middle runner position . In the seasons 1931/32 and 1932/33 Allen only missed one league game and recommended himself with convincing performances for appointments in selection teams. At the side of Alf Strange (Sheffield Wednesday) and Wilf Copping (Leeds United) he formed in October 1933 in a 3-0 win against Ireland (IFA) and a 1-2 loss against Wales a month later, the runner row of English national team . In his second and final international match against Wales, he had to leave the field after 36 minutes with a leg injury. He was also appointed to the selection teams of the Football League twice in the 1933/34 season and worked against the Irish League (October 1933) and the Scottish League (February 1934).

The highlight of his time at Portsmouth FC was the final of the FA Cup 1933/34 at London's Wembley Stadium in front of over 93,000 spectators. Portsmouth led 1-0 against Manchester City before Allen suffered a concussion and had to leave the field for treatment. Outnumbered and without their captain and central defensive player, the team conceded the equalizer and as a result, when Allen was back on the field but no longer in full possession of his powers, Manchester scored the 2-1 with double goalscorers shortly before the end of regular time Fred Tilson , who had previously been effectively covered by everyone. It was also Allen's third last game for Portsmouth, just a few weeks later he moved to first division rivals Aston Villa for £ 10,775, a record sum for a defensive player . With the help of the transfer proceeds, Portsmouth FC expanded Fratton Park to include a north stand, which from then on was popularly known as the "Jimmy Allen Stand".

With the fans of Aston Villa , the purely defensive role Allen (in 308 competitive games for Portsmouth and Aston Villa he scored only four goals), the successor to Alex Talbot on the center stage, was controversial. This also contributed that Aston Villa at the end of the 1935/36 season with 110 goals conceded as penultimate in the table had to relegate to the Second Division . Neither Allen nor Tommy Griffiths or Ernie Callaghan managed to bring stability to the team in the middle of the season. With Aston Villa and the Blackburn Rovers, the last two founding members of the league, which have been in the top division since 1888, were relegated.

After relegation Allen came only sporadically in the 1936/37 season , only in the 1937/38 season he was able to build on his services from Portsmouth. As captain, he led Aston Villa to the sovereign win of the second division championship, and the associated promotion. They also managed to reach the semi-finals in the FA Cup, in which Preston North End had to admit defeat 1: 2. After another mixed season in the First Division (12th place), the game operations of the Football League were stopped after the third match day of the 1939/40 season immediately after the outbreak of the Second World War . This ended Allen's career at Aston Villa, who was registered with the club until the end of the war but no longer ran for it, after a total of 147 league and 13 cup appearances.

In the alternate regional Wartime Leagues , Allen was still sporadically active until his injury-related retirement in 1944 and appeared as a guest player for Southampton FC (5 games, 1939/40; 1 game, 1943/44), Portsmouth FC (7 games, 1939/40), Birmingham City (1 game, 1939/40), Crystal Palace (2 games, 1942/43), Chelsea FC (25 games, 1942/43), Fulham (2 games, 1943/44) and Luton Town (1 game, 1943/44) in evidence.

Coaching career and later life

After the war, Allen Sports and Welfare Officer at the Birmingham company Gaskell & Chambers , before he successfully applied for the coaching post of the Southern League club Colchester United in July 1948, prevailing against Tom Bradshaw and Charlie Ferguson . The club had already unsuccessfully applied for admission to the Football League twice and was one of the top teams in the Southern League. In his first season he finished fourth with the club and lost in two finals of the Southern League Cup within ten days. Since there were scheduling difficulties at the end of the preseason, the league cup final of the 1947/48 season was not played until April 1949. The game against Merthyr Tydfil (0: 5) ended in a defeat as well as ten days later against Yeovil Town (0: 3) in the final of the 1948/49 season.

The following season was more successful for the club, the championship went to Merthyr Tydfil only because of the worse goal difference, but the title win in the Southern League Cup with a 3-0 away win and a 3-4 home defeat against Bath City . More important, however, was that Colchester successfully applied for inclusion in the Football League Third Division South , which was increased from 22 to 24 teams for the 1950/51 season . All succeeded in the first two seasons in establishing the newcomer with a 16th and 10th place in the final table in the league and also made use of his connections to Portsmouth, which led to the signing of Jimmy Elder , Bill Rochford , Phil Rookes and Bert Barlow led.

In the 1952/53 season, Allen and his team only finished 22nd in the table and thus barely escaped the need to face re-election to maintain league status. Financially the season ended with a loss of £ 8,000 and the club's board then planned to contest the following season with only a dozen professionals and to replenish the team with part-time professionals. This led to clear differences of opinion between the board of directors and everyone who saw no possibility of putting together a competitive team with the resources made available. There had already been regular disputes before, including the sale of star striker Vic Keeble and the installation of a floodlight system. When a little later Colchester's fan association criticized Allen's management style and recommended a player-coach in his place, he submitted his resignation on May 2, 1953. He then earned his living as the operator of The Festing Arms pub in Southsea .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Englandfootballonline.com: Jim Allen , accessed October 8, 2016
  2. ^ Leigh Edwards: The Official Centenary History of the SOUTHERN LEAGUE . Paper Plane Publishing, Halesowen 1993, ISBN 978-1-871872-08-8 , pp. 158 .
  3. ↑ a b portsmouth.vitalfootball.co.uk: He Played For Them Too: Villa - Jimmy Allen , accessed October 8, 2016
  4. ↑ WALES WIN THE ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIP . In: Portsmouth Evening News , November 15, 1933, p. 14.  (paid link)
  5. ^ A b c Mick Cooper: Pompey People: Portsmouth FC Who's Who (1899-2000) . Yore Publications, Harefield 2000, ISBN 978-1-874427-58-2 , pp. 6th f .
  6. ↑ FA CUP REMAINS IN LANCASHIRE . In: Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer , April 30, 1934, p. 3.  (paid link)
  7. ↑ FA CUP RETURNS TO LANCASHIRE . In: Western Daily Press , April 30, 1934, p. 4.  (link with costs)
  8. ^ Dennis Turner, Alex White: The Breedon Book of Football Managers . Breedon Books, Derby 1993, ISBN 1-873626-32-0 , pp. 74 .
  9. ^ A b independent.co.uk: OBITUARY: JIMMY ALLEN (Feb. 7, 1995) , accessed October 8, 2016
  10. ^ David Goodyear, Tony Matthews: Aston Villa: A Complete Record, 1874-1992 . Breedon Books, Derby 1988, ISBN 978-1-873626-17-7 , pp. 29 .
  11. ↑ ASTON VILLA REINTRODUCE ALLEN AT CENTER-HALF . In: Derby Daily Telegraph , January 4, 1935, p. 7.  (paid link)
  12. ↑ See seasonal overviews in Jack Rollin: Soccer at War 1939–45 . Headline Book Publishing, London 2005, ISBN 0-7553-1431-X .
  13. ^ A b Tony Matthews: The Legends of Aston Villa . Breedon Books, Derby 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-580-7 , pp. 13 .
  14. ^ Hal Mason: Colchester United: The Official History of the U's . Yore Publications, Harefield 1993, ISBN 978-1-874427-50-6 , pp. 36 .
  15. ↑ Dave Twydell: Denied FC Yore Publications, Harefield 2001, ISBN 1-874427-98-4 , pp. 18 .
  16. ^ Hal Mason: Colchester United: The Official History of the U's . Yore Publications, Harefield 1993, ISBN 978-1-874427-50-6 , pp. 44 .
  17. ^ Hal Mason: Colchester United: The Official History of the U's . Yore Publications, Harefield 1993, ISBN 978-1-874427-50-6 , pp. 129 .
personal data
SURNAME Allen, Jimmy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Allen, James Phillips (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Poole
DATE OF DEATH 5th February 1995
Place of death Southsea