When we published Football’s Black Pioneers in 2020 Barnet, something of a yo-yo club, were having a spell outside of the Football League. We researched the story of their first Black player anyway because they were in contention for promotion as we gave the book its finishing touches. Alas our work was wasted. Or was it?
It gives us great pleasure to blow the dust off our research, welcome Barnet (back) to the Football League and introduce their first Black player.
Barnet FC
Barnet FC was formed in 1888, the same year as the English Football League. Barnet were not among the founder members of the League which was very much a northern hegemony with Aston Villa the most southerly team in the competition. Even when a second division was formed in 1892 the northern (and Midlands) dominance remained. It was only in 1893/94 that Woolwich Arsenal became the first southern club to get a look-in and it wasn’t until the early years of the 20th century that other teams based in London established themselves in the League: Chelsea and Clapton (later Leyton) Orient (both in 1905); Fulham (1907); and Tottenham Hotspur (1908). Barnet were still not among them. Indeed, Barnet continued to plough the non-league furrow until 1991.
The intervening years were not entirely fruitless as they won the Athenian League no fewer than seven times and the FA Amateur Cup in 1945/46 (and were losing finalists in 1947/48 and 1958/59). They also played in the first ever televised football match in October 1946 when the BBC broadcast much of their home game against Wealdstone (coverage of the second half had to be curtailed when it got too dark).[1]https://lostmediawiki.com/Barnet_3-2_Wealdstone_(lost_footage_of_Athenian_League_football_match;_1946) So, there is a lot of history to Barnet FC but, before 1991, it was non-league history.
The Football League
Barnet’s first game in the Football League came on 17th August 1991 when they played Crewe Alexandra. Here is the programme cover for that historic game:
Our particular interest is in the first Black player for each team in the Football League so, who was Barnet’s? A Black player features in the photo above, was it him? We believe that is Roger Willis. Roger went on to play in over forty first team games in the 1991/92 season but the opening fixture against Crewe was not one of them.
First Black player – Edwin Stein
Ed Stein, however, did play against Crewe, albeit as a second half substitute, and it is he who earns the accolade.
Edwin (Ed) Stein was born in Cape Town, South Africa on 28th September 1955. He was the son of Isaiah and Lillian Stein both of whom were active campaigners against the apartheid regime, a fact which repeatedly brought them into conflict with the authorities. Eventually, after being tortured, spending repeated spells in prison and time under 24-hour house arrest, Isaiah fled with his family to England to seek political asylum where he was welcomed by prominent anti-apartheid campaigners.
Ed, aged twelve, was among the children who accompanied his parents to England in February 1968. Two younger brothers, Brian and Mark, were among the siblings who made the journey to England at the same time and all three went on to make careers in football. Although Mark might have grounds to disagree, Brian was arguably the most successful. True, many of Mark’s 450+ league appearances were in the top flight of English football, including three seasons at Chelsea. Also true that he won England caps at youth and under 20 level. But, on the other hand, Brian played the vast majority of his 450+ league appearances for Luton Town, many of them in the top division. Brian went one better on the international stage winning one full England cap. Brian and Mark both managed FA Cup semi-final appearances (both lost) but Brian did get a League Cup winner’s medal with Luton in 1988, in fact he scored two of the goals that day (and brother Mark made an appearance as substitute so he would have got a winner’s medal too). Brian or Mark? Both had very impressive careers.
Ed’s career did not scale the same heights but he was a Barnet stalwart for over a decade and made over 500 appearances for them. It was in the historic game against Crewe that Ed made his one and only appearance in the Football League when he joined the fray as a second half substitute. Ed therefore achieved something that neither of his brothers did – he became one of the select band of pioneers who were the first Black player to represent a club in the Football League. Only one game, but they all count.
Highlights of the game can be found on You Tube and we catch a glimpse of Ed during manager Barry Fry’s pre-match team talk (if you take you football pleasure from displays of defensive solidity look away now, there is a reason the game finished 7-3!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeAXZQR24FI
Ed played one further first team game for Barnet, in the League Cup on 20th January 1993 away to Stoke City. He wore the No.2 shirt but didn’t see out the full 90 minutes as he was substituted. His brother, Brian, wore No.8 that day. By now Ed was 37 years-old and it was time to hang up his boots as a player. However, his involvement with Barnet was far from over.
According to Wikipedia, Ed was manager at Barnet for 54 games and won 27 of them.[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Stein_(footballer) The English National Football Archive (probably a more reliable source) tells a different story, it shows Ed as manager for just ten games, five of them wins. This includes two as caretaker manager in November 1992 when manager Barry Fry was sacked (and subsequently re-instated).[3]https://www.enfa.co.uk/ (subscription required) At the time this made him one of only two Black managers in the League (Keith Alexander at Lincoln was the other).
While there is a question mark over how many games Ed was manager for, what is not in doubt is that, with Barnet in serious financial difficulties, he resigned in July 1993 to become Barry Fry’s deputy at Southend.[4]https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-barnet-suffer-loss-of-stein-1482247.html Later, Ed had spells managing at least two non-league sides, Harrow Borough and Banbury United. He also studied Sports Science and Psychology and earned a 2:1 degree from Brunel University in 2000. He had a spell as a secondary school teacher and subsequently established the Ed Stein City Soccer Academy, a charity which aimed to ‘promote well being within the community through participation in a variety of sports. Emphasis will be on Mentoring, Physical development and understanding of football.’
Ed was interviewed for a Barnet blog and you can read it here:
https://reckless-guide-to-barnet.blogspot.com/2014/03/look-back-in-amber-edwin-stein.html
We leave you with the thought that Mark, Brian and Edwin Stein were the sons of an asylum seeker, make of that what you will.
If Ed Stein was Barnet’s first Black player in the League then we can fairly sure that David Howell was the second. As we have seen, Ed made his one and only appearance for Barnet in the Football League on 17th August 1991, just three days later David Howell played at centre back in the first round of the League Cup against Brentford. Once again Barnet fans saw ten goals scored but this time the game finished with honours even at five apiece. David made his Football League debut for them on 31st of the same month.
Howell had started his professional career at Fulham in 1978 but never made the first team there. He played for a number of non-league clubs before rocking up at Barnet in July 1990 from local rivals Enfield (a fee of £10,000 changed hands [he suggests it was £15,000]). He went on to make a total of 68 first team appearances before, like Ed, moving on to Southend to re-join manager Barry Fry. Dave played fourteen times for the England Semi-Professional team between 1986 and 1990 and was their first Black captain. Dave’s story is interesting in its own right and you can read about him here:
https://reckless-guide-to-barnet.blogspot.com/2014/03/look-back-in-amber-david-howell.html
The early pioneers who feature in our book were often the only Black player at their club and might, indeed, have been part of a vanishingly small minority in the town where they lived. It must have felt very lonely. By the early 1990s the times were busy changing and, in addition to Ed Stein, Roger Willis and David Howell, there was at least one other Black player in Barnet’s 1990/91 first team squad, Tony Lynch, who appeared in ten games, mostly as a sub. While the Stein boys were the sons of an asylum seeker, Dave Howell (born in Hammersmith), Roger Willis (born in Sheffield) and Tony Lynch (born in Paddington) were all UK born.
The story of Barnet’s first Black player and his Black contemporaries at the club neatly illustrates the changing face of Britain and the diversity that has gone into shaping the country we know today. It also illustrates that attaching labels like ‘immigrant’ or ‘asylum seeker’ to people is pointless and damaging. We celebrate in this article not just Ed Stein (and his brothers), David Howell, Roger Willis and Tony Lynch but the countless other ‘immigrants’ and ‘asylum seekers’ who have contributed in a positive way to British society.
References