Past Players - Past Players 1
Andy Beattie - perhaps the most famous Locos player.
Andy Beattie, Nottingham Forest manager - September 1960 - July 1963
Beattie was born in August 1913, and played for Preston North End either side of the war.
During the war years he guested for both Forest and Notts County. He was a Scottish international gaining 12 caps. After his playing career had finished Beattie took up a manager/secretary position with Barrow. Then he moved on to Huddersfield. In 4 seasons he managed to get them promoted and relegated back, when he resigned and went to being a sub postmaster in Preston. Carlisle United tempted him back into football in 1958. He was also team manager of the Scottish national side on 2 occasions, taking them to the World Cup finals in 1954, and a brief period in 1959/60 before his commitments with Forest forced him to resign. He was not a great success at Forest, losing his first 7 games in charge, but he managed to get the team as high as 9th in Division One in his last season. After leaving Forest Beattie went to work at a number of clubs in either a managerial or coaching role including Plymouth, Brentford, Wolves, Notts County, Sheffield United, Walsall and Liverpool. He died in 1983.
This information is taken from the Nottingham Forest website managers page at Nottingham University http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ccznffc/History/Managers.html
More information about Andy Beattie
Some more information about Andy Beattie from Alan Hodgson.
ANDY BEATTIE
Born at Kintore, Aberdeenshire, on 11th August 1913 Andrew Beattie was eventually to find employment as a young quarry-man working at the nearby Inverurie Loco Works. He was soon to join the works football team where he established himself as an accomplished full-back before attracting the interest of English First Division club Preston North End. They paid the princely sum of £135 to secure his services in March 1935, but World War Two was to sadly interrupt his career and he made just 125 Football League appearances for the Lilywhites, scoring 5 goals, before retiring from his only professional club in March 1947.
The War also curtailed a promising international career which saw him awarded seven Scotland caps between April 1937 and December 1938. In spite of spending part of his military service abroad Beattie was also to gain a further five unofficial caps for Scotland during wartime internationals and appear as a ‘guest’ player for several clubs. Most notably though he helped his own side Preston North End secure the 1940/41 double of the North Regional League Championship and the Wartime League Cup, which they won by beating Arsenal 2-1 after a 1-1 draw. To mark his service for the Deepdale outfit he received the maximum benefit payment of £650 in July 1942.
After the War, and with his playing days now behind him, Beattie accepted the position of secretary-manager with Barrow FC, then a mid-table club in the old English regional Third Division (North), after leaving Preston in March 1947. Barrow had long been ‘also-rans’ and in the 25 years since joining the Football League had already been forced to seek re-election five times – but Beattie’s arrival was to change all that. The 1946/47 season saw them finish 9th but Beattie was to create a local sensation by having his players report back for pre-season training a whole month before the new season’s start! The new team spirit he fostered paid rich dividends and, after beating Halifax Town 2-1 on Boxing Day, his Barrow team topped the table for the first time ever.
Beattie’s Barrow ‘Bluebirds’ would at last finish a creditable 7th and also experienced some FA Cup success along the way. A club record gate of 14,081 saw their 3-2 ‘derby’ victory over Carlisle United in the 1st Round before a 1-0 success at non-League Runcorn set up an away tie at mighty Chelsea in Round 3. Some 44,336 crammed Stamford Bridge to see Beattie’s team lose 0-5, but the attendance is still the largest Barrow have ever played before. Finally a third club record gate was achieved on Good Friday when 11,644 watched a 1-1 draw with Wrexham, their biggest ever crowd for a home League fixture.
Beattie then shocked Barrow when, only two weeks before the 1948/49 season was due to begin, he handed in his resignation following a dispute with the club Chairman. After the Board refused to accept this the Chairman and another director resigned and Beattie carried on, but his perhaps-unsettled team began to slip down the table and attendances fell. By the end of March 1949 he at last left the troubled Bluebirds to join Stockport County, also a Third Division (North) club, whom he transformed from mid-table nobodies to promotion challengers in late 1951/52. It was then that top-flight Huddersfield Town made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Town had actually been struggling in the lower reaches of the First Division and their manager George Stephenson had just resigned with only nine fixtures left of the troubled 1951/52 campaign.
The Yorkshire club offered Beattie a reported salary of around £2,500 but despite his efforts to save the club from the drop he was simply too late. Huddersfield were relegated to Division Two for the first time in their history but Beattie, then one of the youngest managers in the Football League, and who had now nailed two lucky horseshoes to his office wall, was already planning ahead. During the summer months he was to make three crucial signings. Fullback Ron Staniforth and utility player Tommy Cavanagh followed him across the Pennines from Stockport County, whilst inside forward Jimmy Watson came down from Motherwell to pep up the attack.
Under Andy Beattie, Huddersfield Town took Division Two by the scruff of the neck – and shook it. During 1952/53 Town and Sheffield United left the rest behind with United eventually pipping Town for the title by two points as both Yorkshire clubs gained promotion. Along the way Huddersfield had also recorded an 8-2 thrashing of Everton, a 6-0 beating of Barnsley, and 5-0 wins over Lincoln City and Southampton. Incredibly the entire defence of Jack Wheeler, Ron Staniforth, Laurie Kelly, Bill McGarry, Don McEvoy and Len Quested played in every fixture, as did winger Vic Metcalfe. For good measure 30 goal top scoring centre forward Jimmy Glazzard missed only one match as Town gained an immediate return to the top flight.
Andy Beattie also had the honour of becoming Scotland’s first manager although his brief tenure was something of a farce. In the middle of the 1954 World Cup held in Switzerland, Scotland’s first entry into the competition, he resigned after not unreasonably claiming his four game stint with a squad of only 11 players placed him in an impossible situation! Shortly afterwards they were hammered 7-0 by Uruguay and were knocked out of the tournament.
Back in Division One, Beattie’s team then continued the charge despite being wracked by injury, and eventually finished in a very creditable third place. They were just two points behind runners-up West Bromwich Albion and six behind champions Wolverhampton Wanderers. This remains Huddersfield’s highest finish in the Football League since World War Two, yet a decline was soon to set in. 1954/55 saw them slip down to 12th spot, despite a run to the FA Cup quarterfinals, and Beattie offered to resign that August only to be persuaded to stay on. At this point Town appointed the legendary Bill Shankly to assist Beattie, the two men having been former team-mates at Preston North End years earlier, but relegation was again around the corner.
Huddersfield struggled in vain to avoid the drop, in a season that saw the emergence of future England full-back Ray Wilson, and they succumbed to the inevitable ironically with Sheffield United, the side with whom they had been promoted three years before. Beattie said the club had become “overloaded with players past their peak” and at last resigned in November 1956 as he felt he had taken the team as far as he could. Bill Shankly was thus left in charge as Beattie sought out a new career as a sub-postmaster at Penwortham, Preston, where he could spend more time with his wife and four children. However, football had been his life and in May 1958 he answered the call to manage Carlisle United where he stayed until moving to top-flight Nottingham Forest two years later. By March 1959 he was once again managing Scotland but resigned in November 1960 because of his commitments with Forest.
His next stop was at Plymouth Argyle where he helped stave off relegation from Division Two in 1963/64 but his next job was to end in disaster. Appointed caretaker manager at Wolverhampton Wanderers in November 1964 his side was relegated from Division One that season and he was then fired after Wolves crashed 9-3 at Southampton the following September. After a stint scouting for Brentford, Beattie’s next port of call was Notts County who made him ‘advisor’ to Peter Doherty in December 1965. In March 1967 County made him general manager where he remained until joining John Harris at Sheffield United as assistant manager in October 1967, and before retiring he also held coaching or scouting positions with both Walsall and Liverpool.
Andy Beattie died aged 70 on September 20th 1983.
By Alan Hodgson, AFS
Andy Beattie, Nottingham Forest manager - September 1960 - July 1963
Beattie was born in August 1913, and played for Preston North End either side of the war.
During the war years he guested for both Forest and Notts County. He was a Scottish international gaining 12 caps. After his playing career had finished Beattie took up a manager/secretary position with Barrow. Then he moved on to Huddersfield. In 4 seasons he managed to get them promoted and relegated back, when he resigned and went to being a sub postmaster in Preston. Carlisle United tempted him back into football in 1958. He was also team manager of the Scottish national side on 2 occasions, taking them to the World Cup finals in 1954, and a brief period in 1959/60 before his commitments with Forest forced him to resign. He was not a great success at Forest, losing his first 7 games in charge, but he managed to get the team as high as 9th in Division One in his last season. After leaving Forest Beattie went to work at a number of clubs in either a managerial or coaching role including Plymouth, Brentford, Wolves, Notts County, Sheffield United, Walsall and Liverpool. He died in 1983.
This information is taken from the Nottingham Forest website managers page at Nottingham University http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ccznffc/History/Managers.html
More information about Andy Beattie
Some more information about Andy Beattie from Alan Hodgson.
ANDY BEATTIE
Born at Kintore, Aberdeenshire, on 11th August 1913 Andrew Beattie was eventually to find employment as a young quarry-man working at the nearby Inverurie Loco Works. He was soon to join the works football team where he established himself as an accomplished full-back before attracting the interest of English First Division club Preston North End. They paid the princely sum of £135 to secure his services in March 1935, but World War Two was to sadly interrupt his career and he made just 125 Football League appearances for the Lilywhites, scoring 5 goals, before retiring from his only professional club in March 1947.
The War also curtailed a promising international career which saw him awarded seven Scotland caps between April 1937 and December 1938. In spite of spending part of his military service abroad Beattie was also to gain a further five unofficial caps for Scotland during wartime internationals and appear as a ‘guest’ player for several clubs. Most notably though he helped his own side Preston North End secure the 1940/41 double of the North Regional League Championship and the Wartime League Cup, which they won by beating Arsenal 2-1 after a 1-1 draw. To mark his service for the Deepdale outfit he received the maximum benefit payment of £650 in July 1942.
After the War, and with his playing days now behind him, Beattie accepted the position of secretary-manager with Barrow FC, then a mid-table club in the old English regional Third Division (North), after leaving Preston in March 1947. Barrow had long been ‘also-rans’ and in the 25 years since joining the Football League had already been forced to seek re-election five times – but Beattie’s arrival was to change all that. The 1946/47 season saw them finish 9th but Beattie was to create a local sensation by having his players report back for pre-season training a whole month before the new season’s start! The new team spirit he fostered paid rich dividends and, after beating Halifax Town 2-1 on Boxing Day, his Barrow team topped the table for the first time ever.
Beattie’s Barrow ‘Bluebirds’ would at last finish a creditable 7th and also experienced some FA Cup success along the way. A club record gate of 14,081 saw their 3-2 ‘derby’ victory over Carlisle United in the 1st Round before a 1-0 success at non-League Runcorn set up an away tie at mighty Chelsea in Round 3. Some 44,336 crammed Stamford Bridge to see Beattie’s team lose 0-5, but the attendance is still the largest Barrow have ever played before. Finally a third club record gate was achieved on Good Friday when 11,644 watched a 1-1 draw with Wrexham, their biggest ever crowd for a home League fixture.
Beattie then shocked Barrow when, only two weeks before the 1948/49 season was due to begin, he handed in his resignation following a dispute with the club Chairman. After the Board refused to accept this the Chairman and another director resigned and Beattie carried on, but his perhaps-unsettled team began to slip down the table and attendances fell. By the end of March 1949 he at last left the troubled Bluebirds to join Stockport County, also a Third Division (North) club, whom he transformed from mid-table nobodies to promotion challengers in late 1951/52. It was then that top-flight Huddersfield Town made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Town had actually been struggling in the lower reaches of the First Division and their manager George Stephenson had just resigned with only nine fixtures left of the troubled 1951/52 campaign.
The Yorkshire club offered Beattie a reported salary of around £2,500 but despite his efforts to save the club from the drop he was simply too late. Huddersfield were relegated to Division Two for the first time in their history but Beattie, then one of the youngest managers in the Football League, and who had now nailed two lucky horseshoes to his office wall, was already planning ahead. During the summer months he was to make three crucial signings. Fullback Ron Staniforth and utility player Tommy Cavanagh followed him across the Pennines from Stockport County, whilst inside forward Jimmy Watson came down from Motherwell to pep up the attack.
Under Andy Beattie, Huddersfield Town took Division Two by the scruff of the neck – and shook it. During 1952/53 Town and Sheffield United left the rest behind with United eventually pipping Town for the title by two points as both Yorkshire clubs gained promotion. Along the way Huddersfield had also recorded an 8-2 thrashing of Everton, a 6-0 beating of Barnsley, and 5-0 wins over Lincoln City and Southampton. Incredibly the entire defence of Jack Wheeler, Ron Staniforth, Laurie Kelly, Bill McGarry, Don McEvoy and Len Quested played in every fixture, as did winger Vic Metcalfe. For good measure 30 goal top scoring centre forward Jimmy Glazzard missed only one match as Town gained an immediate return to the top flight.
Andy Beattie also had the honour of becoming Scotland’s first manager although his brief tenure was something of a farce. In the middle of the 1954 World Cup held in Switzerland, Scotland’s first entry into the competition, he resigned after not unreasonably claiming his four game stint with a squad of only 11 players placed him in an impossible situation! Shortly afterwards they were hammered 7-0 by Uruguay and were knocked out of the tournament.
Back in Division One, Beattie’s team then continued the charge despite being wracked by injury, and eventually finished in a very creditable third place. They were just two points behind runners-up West Bromwich Albion and six behind champions Wolverhampton Wanderers. This remains Huddersfield’s highest finish in the Football League since World War Two, yet a decline was soon to set in. 1954/55 saw them slip down to 12th spot, despite a run to the FA Cup quarterfinals, and Beattie offered to resign that August only to be persuaded to stay on. At this point Town appointed the legendary Bill Shankly to assist Beattie, the two men having been former team-mates at Preston North End years earlier, but relegation was again around the corner.
Huddersfield struggled in vain to avoid the drop, in a season that saw the emergence of future England full-back Ray Wilson, and they succumbed to the inevitable ironically with Sheffield United, the side with whom they had been promoted three years before. Beattie said the club had become “overloaded with players past their peak” and at last resigned in November 1956 as he felt he had taken the team as far as he could. Bill Shankly was thus left in charge as Beattie sought out a new career as a sub-postmaster at Penwortham, Preston, where he could spend more time with his wife and four children. However, football had been his life and in May 1958 he answered the call to manage Carlisle United where he stayed until moving to top-flight Nottingham Forest two years later. By March 1959 he was once again managing Scotland but resigned in November 1960 because of his commitments with Forest.
His next stop was at Plymouth Argyle where he helped stave off relegation from Division Two in 1963/64 but his next job was to end in disaster. Appointed caretaker manager at Wolverhampton Wanderers in November 1964 his side was relegated from Division One that season and he was then fired after Wolves crashed 9-3 at Southampton the following September. After a stint scouting for Brentford, Beattie’s next port of call was Notts County who made him ‘advisor’ to Peter Doherty in December 1965. In March 1967 County made him general manager where he remained until joining John Harris at Sheffield United as assistant manager in October 1967, and before retiring he also held coaching or scouting positions with both Walsall and Liverpool.
Andy Beattie died aged 70 on September 20th 1983.
By Alan Hodgson, AFS
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