Conker Editions

Tag: Tony Collins

York City rejoin the Football League!

The 2025/26 battle for automatic promotion from the National League to the Football League could not have been closer. With one round of fixtures of the gruelling forty-six game season left to play, York City led by two points from Rochdale.

As luck would have it, the two were due to meet in the final game of the season and Rochdale would have home advantage. The maths was clear and simple, a win would see Rochdale leapfrog their rivals and secure top spot and the one automatic promotion place. Any other result would see York City promoted and consign Rochdale to the play-offs. York’s vastly superior goal difference could play no part in deciding the outcome.

After an understandably tense game, the score stood at 0-0 up to and beyond the ninety-minute mark. Then, those anxiously watching updates on Sky Sports news, heard:

There has been a winner, very, very late on, it’s come in the 95th minute and it has come for …. Rochdale

in the 95th minute, Leeds-born Emmanuel Dieseruvwe had scored the goal that would propel Rochdale back into the Football League[1]Emmanuel Diesweruvwe has been around a bit and was one of the four Black players to represent Salford City, when they played their first ever game in the Football League in 2019. He was also the … Continue reading.  At the ground, Rochdale players and fans were jubilant and it took several minutes to clear celebrating fans from the pitch.

But wait, this is football …

We hand you back to the Sky newsreader:

Extraordinary scenes at the Crown Oil Arena, where York City in the one hundred and third minute, after Rochdale had taken the lead in the ninety-fifth minute through Emmanuel Dieseruvwe, have equalised and York City are back in the Football League.

The equalising goal might politely be described as ‘scrappy’ but a goal it was, although, with shades of Geoff Hurst at Wembley in the 1966 World Cup Final, there were heated arguments over whether the ball had crossed the line. The linesman sorry, referee’s assistant said that it had and with no goal line technology or VAR in the National League, the goal stood. After a decade-long absence, York City were back.

First Black Player

The team that beat Rochdale included at least two Black players: defender Malachi Fagan-Walcott and midfielder (and Crystal Palace academy product), Hiram Boateng. But who was York City’s first Black player?

For anyone who has a copy of our book Football’s Black Pioneers, the name will be a familiar one, for it was none other than Tony Collins.

Tony Collins, signing for York City, July 1949 [2]From ‘Tony Collins, Football Master Spy’ by Quentin Cope and Sarita Collins, The Book Guild, 2016

Tony features in the book as the first Black player at Norwich, Watford and Crystal Palace. He also played for Torquay, for whom he appeared more than a hundred times over the course of the 1955/56 and 1956/57 seasons; and was on the books of Sheffield Wednesday without making it into the first team.  Tony’s last club as a player was … Rochdale, where he went on to become the first Black manager of any Football League club. Unusually, Tony was not Rochdale’s first Black player, that honour goes to Calvin Symonds who is now ninety-four and will no doubt be following the fortunes of his former club from his home on the beautiful island of Bermuda.

Tony made his debut for York on 3rd September 1949 in a 1-0 loss away at Tranmere Rovers.[3]To show that you should never rely solely on AI for your ‘facts’ my search gave the date as 3rd December. The estimable English National Football Archive gives the correct date. He wore the No.10 shirt which, in those days would have been called the inside-left position. He played only nine more first team games, scoring once, over the course of that season before moving on to Watford.

A manager can have a huge impact on a player’s career, for good or ill. The manager who signed Tony was Tom Mitchell, an experienced man described as a ‘gentleman’ in Tony’s biography. But whatever his personal attributes, Mitchell was unable to bring success on the pitch. In March, with York languishing in 21st place (out of 22) in Division Three (North), Mitchell resigned. His replacement, Dick Duckworth, did not make a positive impression on Tony (or on the team’s fortunes, they finished bottom).

‘An uncouth individual whom some would describe as a ‘madman’ with a ‘hit and hope’ attitude to the playing of ‘the beautiful game.’ … The opportunity to make uncalled for comments relating to the colour of a person’s skin could often not be resisted.[4]Tony Collins, Football Master Spy’ by Quentin Cope and Sarita Collins, page 39, The Book Guild, 2016

Tony did not like the man and could see no great future for himself at York. When the opportunity to move to Watford came, he jumped at the chance.

References

References
↑1 Emmanuel Diesweruvwe has been around a bit and was one of the four Black players to represent Salford City, when they played their first ever game in the Football League in 2019. He was also the scorer of Salford’s first goal in the Football League
↑2 From ‘Tony Collins, Football Master Spy’ by Quentin Cope and Sarita Collins, The Book Guild, 2016
↑3 To show that you should never rely solely on AI for your ‘facts’ my search gave the date as 3rd December. The estimable English National Football Archive gives the correct date.
↑4 Tony Collins, Football Master Spy’ by Quentin Cope and Sarita Collins, page 39, The Book Guild, 2016

Black History Month 2025 – More Than a Game

Tony Collins (1957), Mark Lindsey (1973) and Vince Hilaire (1977) were, we believe, the first three Black players to represent Crystal Palace in the Football League.[1]We could confuse things by mentioning Ricky Heppolette (Anglo/Indian heritage) and Rachid Harkouk (Algerian/Welsh heritage) who both played in the 1976/77 season and made their debuts before Vince … Continue reading They featured prominently in the exhibition at the launch event held at Selhurst Park: ‘More Than a Game: Celebrating Black Legacy in British Football’. It was a great exhibition and this display attracted a lot of interest.

The media team at Palace have produced a very nice film about the launch event and a talk I gave to a group of academy players.[2]Before any Andrew Watson affcianados take umbrage, in my talk I described Arthur Wharton as the first Black professional footballer, the young lad interviewed was so pleased to hear about … Continue reading The film lasts a little over four minutes and even non-Palace fans may enjoy it:

https://replay.dropbox.com/share/SVSNBpFXajuaYCCE

I’m sure other clubs have organised similar events, if you know of any, please share them with us and we will be happy to give your club due credit on here.

References

References
↑1 We could confuse things by mentioning Ricky Heppolette (Anglo/Indian heritage) and Rachid Harkouk (Algerian/Welsh heritage) who both played in the 1976/77 season and made their debuts before Vince but then we would have to get into all sorts of debates about whether they were ‘Black’.
↑2 Before any Andrew Watson affcianados take umbrage, in my talk I described Arthur Wharton as the first Black professional footballer, the young lad interviewed was so pleased to hear about Arthur’s Ghanaian heritage that he missed the word ‘professional’. I am aware that some people believe Andrew did accept payment from at least one of his clubs, thus making him a professional, but it’s a hotly disputed topic (see Andrew Watson’s Wikipedia entry if you want to delve deeper).

The Verulam Radio sports blog with Tony Rice

Verulamium, a name to conjure with. It was the site of a Roman town in what is present day St Albans. I think I may have been taken there as a child, or perhaps I’m confusing it with Colchester. Anyway, Bill Hern and I definitely appeared on the Verulam Radio sports blog where we had a very enjoyable chat with Tony Rice. Some hosts are just great at putting you at your ease and Tony did that from the start.

We spoke to Tony only a couple of days after the sad news that Tony Collins (the first black player at Watford, among others) had died so, understandably, we spent some time discussing Tony’s amazing career. But as usual we strayed far and wide and in particular we ruminated on the importance of education, something that Tony feels as passionately about as we do.

We hope you enjoy listening to it.

https://radioverulam.com/podcast/bill-hern-and-david-gleave-authors-of-footballs-black-pioneers/

Tony Collins – The First Black Manager

Tony Collins – first black manager of an English Football League club

Sixty years ago, in September 1960, Tony Collins became the first black manager of an English Football League club when he took over the reins at Rochdale. His first game in charge was a 2-1 win at Carlisle; 5,262 fans were in Brunton Park that Tuesday evening although it is unlikely many realised they were witnessing history being made.

We have had the privilege of putting some questions to Tony and share his answers with you here.

Tony was coming towards the end of his playing career when he signed for Rochdale from Crystal Palace in the summer of 1959. In the 1959/60 season he played 37 League and Cup games for Rochdale, scoring four goals. In all but one of the games he wore the No.11 shirt which in those days meant that he was played on the left wing, his favoured position.

As the 1960/61 season got under way the manager, Jack Marshall, moved the short distance to take over at Blackburn Rovers. Blackburn were in the 1st Division (equivalent of the Premier League today) while Rochdale languished in Division Four (now League Two) so this was a massive step up for Jack; he must have done a decent job as he remained in charge there until February 1967.

This left Rochdale with a vacancy to fill. Tony remembers that “Jack Marshall told me to put in for the job at Rochdale” which he duly did. Rochdale’s owner, Freddy Radcliffe, who later revealed that there were 30 applicants to choose from, was aware that appointing Tony might be controversial, after all, the League had been running since 1888 and there had never been a black manager at any of the clubs. Radcliffe, speaking about appointing “a coloured boy” as manager is quoted as saying “we were aware that eyebrows might be raised because of his colour. But that makes no difference, and we sincerely hope that it will make no difference in his career as manager.”

So, as we contemplate the ongoing dearth of black managers in the English game, how did Tony come to get the job?

We started by asking Tony which managers he had played for during his career who he particularly looked up to or admired or who had perhaps encouraged him to consider going into management himself? Tony cited Eric Webber, who he played for during his spell with Torquay United “we used to have chats about the game and strategies, this lead to me thinking about coaching and possibly management.” He went on to add that “I also had a great relationship with Cyril Spiers,” Spiers was manager of Crystal Palace during Tony’s time there, “and of course Jack Marshall.”

Tony’s 3rd home game in charge was a local derby, the fans must have been ecstatic after a 3-0 win

Rochdale were the epitome of ‘unfashionable’ and during Tony’s seven+ seasons in charge at Spotland the highest they finished was 6th (in 1964/65) and they had to apply for re-election three times after finishing in the bottom four. This may not sound all that impressive but Tony’s record was on a par with what other managers had achieved at Spotland. He was managing on a shoestring budget and his best players were regularly sold to balance the books.

What very much exceeded expectations was that in 1962 Tony took Rochdale to the final of the League Cup. Although they lost the final over two legs to 2nd Division Norwich, they remained the only club from the bottom tier of the League to reach the final of a major cup competition until Bradford achieved it in 2013.

Tony chose to leave Rochdale in 1967 as he felt he had taken them as far as he could. Not unreasonably, he hoped for offers from elsewhere, “I always wanted another club of my own,” he said “I had applied for many jobs towards the end of my time at Rochdale and afterwards. People knew with my track record at Rochdale that I was a good judge of a player and we won games we shouldn’t have done and that came down to tactics and stopping better teams play through my analysis.” Tony applied to many clubs: Watford, Rotherham, Peterborough, Macclesfield, Chester, Darlington and Stockport County among them, but no offers materialised. Tony’s daughter, Sarita, feels that the colour of Tony’s skin counted against him but he himself has never been one to play the race card.

We asked him how he felt about the lack of black managers in the game. “Its very difficult. Obviously you shouldn’t get the job or be ruled out because of the colour of your skin. The difficulty these days is getting the experience to get into a league club, with only 92 clubs available.” Tony went on to list the qualities and skills a manager needs: “you have to be a leader, were you a club captain, did you get the responsibilities on the pitch that go with that? Coach, man management skills, a great communicator, tactician, a businessman -dealing with members of the board who are professional business men – I went on a sales/business course. You need to be an excellent negotiator, these days the figures are so enormous, you have to work well under pressure, you have to have a team of backroom people around you who you can trust, have your back covered and who’s opinion you respect.” Although Tony made a smooth transition from player to manager (he was player/manager in his first season at Spotland), he commented that “these days to have been a great player isn’t enough.” Finally he added “you may have to make sacrifices in your family life, you never switch off, your time is not your own as it was as a player.”

Many of the players we spoke to in the course of researching ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ mentioned the Rooney rule and Tony did too. “The Rooney rule could be a good place to start. I was lucky the player’s wanted me to be the boss, and Jack wanted me to take over from him.” Player loyalty was clearly something Tony fostered as, when he announced he would be leaving Rochdale, the players petitioned the Board saying that they wanted him to stay.

Although Tony never managed another club he was a very successful assistant manager to Alan Dicks at Bristol City and his obvious ability was spotted by Don Revie who took him to be part of the backroom team at Leeds. Tony worked with Don Revie at Leeds and England and Ron Atkinson and Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, we asked him how they compared?

“I respect all of them – great managers, very different personalities, for me Don was number 1, great times and in my opinion we had a great team at Leeds, he had the whole camp set up right, it felt like a family right down to the person who made the tea, he was special.” The respect was clearly mutual, when Don Revie took up duties as manager of England he asked Tony to undertake scouting duties for him.

Tony was at Manchester United as Chief Scout from the back end of 1981. It was Ron Atkinson who brought him into the United set up “Tony is a real professional in this scouting business and is one of the most experienced in the game. i’m sure he will be a big help.” Tony had this to say about ‘Big Ron’ “I enjoyed my time at United with Ron, again we had a good team, people take notice of the persona they created of Ron but I’ll tell you he knew his stuff.”

After five years of 3rd or 4th place finishes, a poor start to the 1986/87 season saw the departure of Ron and a young man from Scotland was appointed. Although Tony is too diplomatic to say anything negative about Alex Ferguson (just plain ‘Alex’ in those days) you don’t get quite the same sense of warmth “Alex, I respect what he achieved at United, at the time I was with him at United he was under a lot of pressure and finding his feet – pleased for him as a professional that it worked out.”

If you read ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ you will find out about Tony’s role as the first black player at Crystal Palace, Norwich and Watford but we only had room to touch briefly on Tony’s achievement of being the first black manager of an English Football League club at Rochdale. As Viv Anderson comments in the foreword to our book, perhaps one day we will be able to write about the first black manager at each of the EFL clubs. Hopefully this article has given a more rounded picture of Tony’s achievements in the game. If your interest has been piqued you can read more about Tony and his relationship with Don Revie, Ron Atkinson and Alex Ferguson in ‘Tony Collins – Football Master Spy’ co-authored by Quentin Cope and Tony’s daughter Sarita. Tony was still at Leeds during Brian Clough’s brief, tumultuous spell in charge at Elland Road and the Cope/Collins book has more to say about that episode.

Buy ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ from Conker Editions and receive a signed copy of the book and a free limited edition A5 size poster https://www.conkereditions.co.uk/product/footballs-black-pioneers-subscriber-copies-for-pre-order/ Alternatively you can get the book through Amazon, Waterstones or any good bookshop.


Outside Write

Appearing on the Outside Write podcast gave us a rare opportunity to both speak about ‘Football’s Black Pioneers’ as the interview was pre-recorded and then edited. Chris Lee has done a great job of stitching our contributions together so that it sounds seamless. You can listen here: https://outsidewrite.co.uk/podcast-black-pioneers-of-the-football-league/

We aren’t sure how we will go down with regular listeners to the podcast as a discussion of first black players in the EFL seems positively mainstream compared to some of the topics discussed, as you will see if you check out the link. If you have time to listen to some of the other interviews you may well be amazed by some of the stories that will definitely broaden your horizons!