On this day in 1972 Alan Brown left the club for a second time, this time by the way of a sacking as opposed to the first time when he surprisingly left after gaining promotion with us back in ‘64.
His return sparked good memories, those of promotion and winning games, but the second time was not so nice. In the 69/70 season we were relegated to Division Two, finishing 21st in the league, going down with Sheffield Wednesday.
We weren’t subject to an immediate return to the top flight, in fact we finished mid-table, in 13th. The season after we performed better and came 5th, but we still didn’t gain promotion and Brown was sacked on this day in 1972.
He tried to get us back to the big time but failed to do so and was dispensed with in November 1972 where he was replaced by former Newcastle defender Bob Stokoe, the shorts changed back to black and the rest, they say, is history!
