In the Dave Bowen Book, me and Frank contacted many ex-players, staff and media around the club to see what they had to say about the club legend Dave Bowen. Mark Beesley is one of those, here is what he had to say about Dave. Remember the Dave Bowen Book is available to purchase on Amazon.co.uk. The Profits from the book are going to help towards the upkeep of this website and also go to local charities. It’s also another great classic to have on the Cobblers Bookshelf. 

IT would be wrong to say I grew up with Dave Bowen, whose name deserves the suffix of ‘legend’, by association with any potted history of Northampton Town Football Club.

Yet the fact remains that when I was born in the early 1960s, David Lloyd Bowen had not only embarked on the task of stage managing one of football’s great miracles, taking the Cobblers from Division Four to Division One in just five seasons, he was living (at the outset) in Thornby Drive in Kingsthorpe, five houses down the road from the Beesley abode.

Although we were only close neighbours for a short period at a time when memories are hazy, it set the tone for a personal lifetime of association, both with Bowen and the football club.

By the time my father Bill first deemed me old enough to witness my first match (a 2-2 draw with Colchester United in 1968), Bowen’s men were sliding back towards Division Four, a destination they sadly reached the following season.

Nobody though, will ever be able to remove Bowen’s name from the achievement of taking a closely bonded, low budget squad to the very pinnacle of English football. Remember, although 1965/66 brought relegation from Division One, it didn’t arrive before league victories against Leeds United, West Ham, Newcastle, Sunderland, a double over Aston Villa and draws with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United. Manchester City weren’t even in the top division!

Fate decreed that years down the line I would meet up with Bowen again, both in my first job after leaving school with Lloyds Bank (banking turnstile takings) and then as a cub reporter with the Northants Post before joining the Chronicle & Echo as the football writer in 1986, tasked with the mission of following the club up and down the country.

Bowen, who first sported the claret and white in a team line-up which included other classic Cobblers names such as Tommy Fowler and Tom Smalley in a 3-2 defeat at Notts County in April 1948, had come full circle by then.

With the lions’ share of his illustrious playing career spent playing for Arsenal and Wales, also managing his national country, his spell in management evolved to that of general manager and secretary with Northampton. Opportunities to leave a settled family environment near Abington Park were spurned with home loyalty engrained on his heart.

What are my personal impressions and memories of Bowen?

Undeniably that of a busy, almost hyper-active figure who always seemed a bundle of energy, both in his warm greeting and manner. The word ‘boyo’ would undoubtedly be included in the salvo, as befitting his Welsh roots.

Of course he was a canny type… this was necessary to successfully stage manage the kind of footballing coups he pulled off over the years such as signing players before they had the chance to see the embarrassingly ramshackle home ground that was the County Ground and pulling off the baseball boot stunt on an icy pitch which saw Sunderland sent packing 5-1 on a frosty night in December 1963.

Looking back on it, given my naïve state (which I still possess to some degree), Bowen was always at least one step ahead of me, especially in the days when I approached him on Abington Avenue clenching my trusty notebook.

Manipulation of the local press, however friendly, has always been part of the game for football managers. In those days, before the onset of social media, you were even more of a direct link to the fans. Propaganda was the name of the game and people such as Graham Carr would be the first to admit they learned a lot from the Bowen technique.

The postscript to Bowen’s incredible life of football was the brief period he spent as a writing correspondent for Sunday papers, something which helped him appreciate the sport from a different angle.

To some degree he was anxious to keep the name alive as long as possible and for many, the way we adapt to changes in our lifestyle, is key to future happiness…

Mark Beesley (Journalist with Chronicle & Echo & Northants Post.)

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