Barry Fry retires as Posh manager
SAY what you like about Barry Fry's management skills (and there are pretty strong opinions to be found in Peterborough), he is undoubtedly one of the most colourful characters the football world has ever seen. Chief Sports Writer Alan Swann spoke with the retiring Posh boss about his eventful 31-year-career.
SAY what you like about Barry Fry's management skills (and there are pretty strong opinions to be found in Peterborough), he is undoubtedly one of the most colourful characters the football world has ever seen. Chief Sports Writer Alan Swann spoke with the retiring Posh boss about his eventful 31-year-career.Chief Sports Writer Alan Swann spoke with the retiring Posh boss about his eventful 31-year-career.
IT all started in front of 37 paying spectators at Dunstable Town in 1974. Even great optimist Barry Fry didn't expect his managerial career to then span eight clubs, 31 years and more ups and downs than a day at Alton Towers.
Fry was 28 when he became player-manager of Dunstable. By his own admission he'd wasted his playing career which peaked with a goal for England schoolboys against Scotland at Wembley and an apprenticeship with Manchester United.
He did have the good fortune to work briefly under United's legendary manager Sir Matt Busby, not that anything picked up at Old Trafford was of any use at Dunstable.
Fry recalled: "I fancied having a go at management and as Dunstable were local to me I thought I'd have a go with them.
"I reasoned I couldn't really fail as they'd finished bottom of the old Southern League eight seasons in a row, but I wasn't quite prepared for the reality.
"For my first match in charge there were 37 fans there and for the second one there was 43 because I made my family turn up!
"I took over towards the end of a season, but I quickly realised things had to change so I called in a favour from an old friend.
"George Best was his name and I went to see him at the nightclub he owned in Manchester called Slack Alice.
"He agreed to play for us in a couple of pre-season friendlies and one was against a Manchester United XI which attracted a 5,000 crowd and football in the town just took off after that.
"The money we raised enabled me to get some better players in and we won the league the following year when we had former England international Jeff Astle in the side."
But in a manner which was to plague Fry's career, events took a serious turn for the worst. Dunstable's chairman Keith Cheeseman was arrested and jailed, the money dried up and Fry was forced to move on.
Hillingdon Borough was his next port of call, followed by his hometown club Bedford and then to Barnet, the club which really set him on the road to fame.
Fry added: "Hillingdon were another struggling club which I helped improve.
"We had a couple of good FA Cup runs, but Bedford came calling and I couldn't pass up the opportunity.
"I was brought up there and I was player-of-the-year when I played there.
"I enjoyed my time at Hillingdon, but we had problems with the ground so we couldn't develop and I was then handed the opportunity to go to Barnet.
"I had five years there in my first spell which were a real struggle, but after a couple of years at Maidstone I went back and had the most successful time of my career.
"There's no way I would have ever managed in the Football League if I hadn't been successful at Barnet, but it wasn't always so rosy there.
"We managed to sneak into the Alliance Premier League (a forerunner to the Nationwide Conference) when they re-organised non-league football, but every season we used to avoid relegation by one place.
"But when I went back Barnet had Stan Flashman and we became a very successful non-league club. We missed out on promotion to the Football League three times by finishing runners-up in the Conference to full-time sides Colchester, Darlington and Lincoln so it was one of the proudest moments of my football life when we finally went up after scoring 103 goals in a season."
Barnet finished in the play-off positions in their first Football League season before winning automatic promotion 12 months later. By now bigger clubs were watching and Fry's profile was about to increase tenfold.
Fry said: "Southend offered me their manager's job and no wonder. They were bottom of the old Division One and it was past transfer deadline day so I couldn't bring any new players in.
"I had to motivate what I had and, inspired by Stan Collymore, we won seven and lost just one of our last 10 matches to escape. I consider that my single greatest achievement.
"And we carried on that form into the next season. Southend were third when Birmingham came in for me and prompted the toughest decision I've ever had to make.
"I felt attached to Southend, but Birmingham were a sleeping giant and I felt I could wake them up. They'd lost their last six games without scoring a goal, but this time I couldn't keep them up, although we did win Division Two the following season.
"We also went to Wembley and played in front of 75,000 in the Auto Windscreens Final, but I was sacked the following year which remains my biggest single disappointment."
Two months later Fry had arrived at London Road supposedly as owner-manager. He has, of course, packed another lifetime of experience into the past nine years.
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Wednesday 17 March 2010
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