Partnerships in sport require order and sequencing...
The Balance is vital.
The limelight and attention may be primarily focused on one, but the role of the secondary character is paramount to the success of the pair..
To be that person, you need vision, a sense of selflishness, a team ethic mindset, the belief in the cause may be bigger than your acclaim..
If you tick all those boxes, you may also become privy to that category of being underrated..
And in a nutshell, that is what Alistair Brown has always been....
When you truly analyze it, who was the bridge between the two archetypal, larger than life No 9's in recent WBA history?
The inside forward.
The at times, overlooked, understated role in a forward partnership..
It would be Ally Brown..
As you dig deep into his career, Alistair has traversed a different generation of co-strikers,..
From Andy Lochead to Robbie Earle..
Players almost a quarter of a century apart in age.
This very rare phenomenon can only be predicated on a long career, and for Ally that was eighteen years, with a goal almost every three games.
149 goals in 519 games..
Scotland only ever recognized Ally's talent with one meagre Scottish Youth Cap, a mystery of bewildering proportions, bordering on the cruel, scandalously ignored even during his 1978/79 purple patch when he was Albion's top scorer, amongst a plethora of Baggies goal scoring options.
Bomber to Cyrille.
Laurie to Robbo.
And what is it about the name Brown and paucity of international recognition?
Bomber..
Alistair..
Alistair Brown was born on April 12th 1951 in the lovely town of Musselburgh, on the east coast of Scotland..
Musselburgh, is known as the 'Honest Toun', perfectly apt for the most honest and hard working of strikers, and also boasts some fantastic golf courses, most notably the Musselburgh Links, where it's claimed Mary Queen of Scots once played....
Small wonder Ally was also a keen purveyor of an 9 Iron and a 3 Wood..
When Alistair was fifteen years old, in that nadir year for all Scotsmen, 1966, a Scottish based scout for Leicester City, invited him down for a two week trial at Filbert Street, resulting in Ally's first professional contract, under a fellow Scot, manager, Matt Gillies..
Leicester were a cup specialist team in the sixties, prior to Ally signing, making the FA Cup final twice but losing both times.
When Ally was 17, despite a poor season in Division 1 for The Foxes, they yet again made the 1969 FA Cup Final under their newly appointed boss, Frank O'Farrell, beating of all teams, West Brom in the Semi 1-0.
This put paid to back to back FA Cup finals and possible duel Wembley triumphs for the Baggies...
Oh times have changed..
Leicester lost again, their third final defeat of the decade, 1-0 to Man City.
The FA Cup run had come at a cost, leaving Leicester precariously close to relegation and an inevitable consequence was a fixture pile up of five games in three weeks.
Alistair had found his pathway to first team action blocked by record signing and exceptionally cool finisher, Alan 'Sniffer Clarke', but with the Aston Villa legend to be, Andy Lochead, rested for a home midweek game against Sunderland, at 17 years and one month old, Ally Brown made his debut.
It was no surprise that Andy Lochead missed out.
This was Leicester's second game in three days..
The impact was immediate and immense.
Ally scored twice in a 3-1 victory, one of the goals set up, from a cross, by of all people, Alan Clarke..
Scoring on debut was to be a theme throughout Ally's long career..
How Alistair discovered his debut selection in the first place seems atypical to his character...
Frank O'Farrell informed Ally on the morning of the game, but that pre debut preparation was something Ally kept close to himself; not telling the truth about 'the couple of pints' he had in a local pub the previous night..
In the final game of that season, Leicester had to get a better result than Jimmy Hill's Coventry City to stay up, despite taking an early lead, lost 3-2 at Man Utd, and were duly relegated by just one point..
The reality of relegation is often selling your best prospects, however, Leicester were able to keep hold of two of their better youngsters, David Nish and Peter Shilton..
However for Ally, it was a case of a door opening not closing, with Alan Clarke leaving for Leeds Utd and a storied career at Elland Rd.
The transfer was a British record, breaking the previous record, also remarkably a year ago for Alan Clarke, for his Fulham to Foxes move.
Leicester for the first time in a decade were now in Division 2 and that season resulted in a narrow miss for promotion by just two points.
The teenage Brown consolidated his solid first impression at Filbert Street, beginning his career pattern of roughly a goal every three games, netting nine in thirty two appearances.
Ironically, top scorer was a player from my home town, Burton-on- Trent, Rodney Fern, with 17 goals..
Leicester's second season in Division 2 was an absolute triumph for Ally.
Andy Lochhead was sold to Aston Villa, and at just nineteen years old, Ally was the main striker and top scorer with seventeen goals and netted the winner in the promotion clinching 3-2 victory at Bristol City.
In a curious quirk of fate, the 1971 Charity Shield created a quandary, as Arsenal had won an FA Cup and League double.
However, in The Gunners ultimate wisdom, they were already contracted to a pre season tour away from the climes of England, leaving the FA with a decision to make?
Who plays Who?
The culmination of this unique set of circumstances, was FA Cup Finalists, Liverpool, playing Division 2 Champions Leicester City at Filbert Street, with Leicester winning 1-0, and Ally playing a vital role in the goal and their win..
With a Charity Shield and promotion under their belt, confidence was coursing through Leicester City, now under the management of former Orient boss Jimmy Bloomfield, after Frank O'Farrell was recruited to replace Sir Matt Busby at Old Trafford.
The opening Division 1 fixture against Huddersfield Town was noticeable for Ally again, scoring the fastest opening day goal that season netting after just 45 seconds, in an eventual 2-2 draw..
Scoring for Huddersfield that day was Frank Worthington, who ironically began his legendary Leicester career a year later.
What a partnership that might've been, Worthington and Brown, [sounds like a 1970's Brewery]..
Ally, by then, had left for pastures new...
And if it was up to Bloomfield, it wouldn't have been destination Hawthorns, but a team three divisions below the Baggies..
In that return to Division 1, Ally had done relatively well in a low scoring Leicester City team who despite finishing 12th scored less than a goal a game [41 in 42], with Ally weighing in with 7 goals in 32 starts.
But from the outset of this Bloomfield era heralded a trio of excellent new signings, Keith Weller, Alan Birchenall and Jon Sammels.
All three, like their manager, as Ally reflected, were 'Cockneys'....
Maybe it was this 'London revolution' that unsettled Ally, but after playing in the opening 32 games of the season, Ally felt in his words, was being 'blown out' by the new boss, and this feeling was only accentuated by the revelation that Bloomfield felt a bid from a Division Four mid table team was suffice for Ally to be moved on..
Brown to Bury??
You can only imagine how baffled the twenty year old must have felt, a seemingly promising, goal scoring career on the rise, and now destined for a life at Gigg Lane?
Despite such a strong first two seasons for the young striker, Ally was unsurprisingly less than lukewarm about the move.
His understandable logic, was he wanted to play in a higher league than Bury were competing in.
But this rejection of a life in Lancashire, was not received well by Bloomfield, who asserted,
'You made a bad decision there.
You could have played for them!
You'll never play for me again..'.
Prophetic words...
Ally never did play for Leicester again and after 121 games and an impressive 35 goals, the mass majority of those goals scored as a teenager, his life as a Fox was over..
Within a week, the potential Shaker became a Baggie target and a transfer fee was quickly agreed, but Ally was however none to familiar with his new life to be at The Hawthorns'
'I didn't know much about the club or anyone there',
Alistair soon found himself very much at home at West Brom, a photo from an early training session at the club show a smiling, cherubic Ally with 'Mungo Jerry' type sideburns, embraced by a pair of welcoming team mates from a muddy training session.
Who'd have forecast in 1971, that the trio in that photo would ultimately accumulate 1360 Baggies appearances between them?
Tony Brown, Ally Brown, Ally Robertson..
It was a welcome that was to never grow old...
For just 60 grand, Ally was now a Baggie, making his debut on March 11th 1971, at the Hawthorns v Crystal Palace..
Following the pattern that was to be part and parcel of Alistair's career, it was to be a scoring debut, as the Baggies drew 1-1, for Ally, a most consistent and welcoming of career traits...
Albion's boss, Don Howe had some detractors amongst the West Brom faithful, mainly due to his cautious tactics, but his pursuit and signing of Alistair has to be seen as a masterstroke, with the outcome being twelve years of reliable, understated loyalty, as well as being at times a solid goalscorer..
Looking at the forward line Alistair was joining, the name that stands out was of course Jeff Astle..
It's pretty amazing and fitting that only one player was an inside forward and selfless foil for the two legendary No.9's in the last half century at The Albion..
Jeff Astle and Cyrille Regis both profited hugely alongside the unselfish, underrated Alistair Brown..
WBA were however in decline and the following season, 1972/73, was an awful year for the club and a poor return personally for Ally.
Albion's destiny, to be their first relegation for thirty five years, finishing last in Division 1.
The underwhelming ratio of goals per game for Ally was literally the same as that of the definitve UB40 song, nine years later.
One in ten.
The relegation season actually started brightly for Ally and reached a crescendo scoring both goals in a 2-2 draw v Man United in front of almost 40,000 at The Hawthorns on October 7th, but in the following 31 WBA games, Ally never found the net again and found himself marooned mainly in the Central League.
Life in Division 2, was consistent to Howe's previous years as manager, goals were at a premium, barely above one a game.
Albion ended up finishing 8th, but reality was they were almost as close to relegation as they were to promotion, in terms of points differential...
It was to be the lowest finishing position Ally ever experienced as a Baggie, and personally the second demoralizing season in a row, a now regular diet of Reserves football, including a spell that included five consecutive months of life in the Central League..
Prospects at West Brom looked uncertain for Ally.
A new start was suggested with a possible move back to Scotland to join Celtic, pushed by an obvious fan of Ally's, ex LCFC boss, now Hoops scout, Frank O'Farrell, but nothing, fortunately in hindsight for West Brom, materialized.
Ironically for a proud Scottish striker, this was the closest Ally ever came to returning to play for a team based in his homeland..
Albion's second season in the second tier, must have been hard psychologically for Ally.
The rejection of being recruited by Celtic, who won a Scottish Cup Double with Jock Stein and the Buoys, but was instead jetisonned to the Baggies boys, or better known, many WBA Youth players, in the Central League.
.
You can only imagine the questions going through Ally's mind, and certainly Celtic is a lot nearer to Musselburgh Links Golf Club than the Black Country!
Ally, remarkably made his first Albion start of that season in April, 1975 v Hull City, his confidence by then shot, due to Don Howe's insistence of opting for four other striking alternatives to fill the void since the retirement of the Baggies 'King', Jeff Astle.
The grim truth.
The first three and a half seasons for Ally at West Brom resulted in an underwhelming haul of just nine goals scored..
An upturn in fortunes was needed fast and a change of management at WBA could not come soon enough.
It did with the appointment of John Giles.
Ally defined Giles as being 'hard as nails, you wouldn't mess with him', but originally Giles had two other goalscoring plans for The Baggies, pursuing Huddersfield's consistent scoring, inside forward, Alan Gowling, and offered The Terriers, 60,000 Pounds..
Gowling ended up declining his fellow ex Man Utd player, choosing another legendary team in stripes, Newcastle Utd..
West Brom had also, pre season, pursued the young Plymouth Argyle striker Paul Mariner, but Mariner opted to join Bobby Robson's Ipswich Town instead.
I was personally lucky enough to ask Mariner how tempted, at the time, he was to join West Brom, he respectfully told me,
'It wasn't even close',
Such was the undoubted charisma, Bobby Robson was blessed with, and it was a move Mariner never regretted.
Who knows what Ally's future would have been if the Gowling or Mariner pursuit would have been successful, but these declines to a future as a Baggie gave Ally a new impetus at WBA, and he immediately reset the tone of his career, by scoring twice in his first game for Giles v Hull City.
It was to be a season of extremes for West Brom..
You can never really imagine Sir Geoff Hurst wearing the same stripes and in the same season as Bryan Robson, but this occurred during this eclectic 1975/76 campaign!
As Ally reflected, Giles established a core of Irish signings, such as Paddy Mulligan and Mick Martin, but it took a bit of time and patience for the 'Giles Way' to actually get fully established for players and fans alike..
Improvement soon became rapid though, and a fantastic run of just two defeats with eight wins in the last thirteen games, culminated in the never to be forgotten Oldham away win..
Fashioned from Brown to Brown..
Ally's cushioned header lay off.
Bomber's unerring volley.
Albion promotion and Boundary Park pandemonium..
Relatively speaking for a discarded player, the seemingly forgotten man of West Brom, the promotion season was a triumph for Ally, remarkably from his preceding fallow years, Baggies top scorer, with ten goals.
It seemed a low haul, but considering Giles's teams were never free scoring outfits, befitting the solid, defensive first mindset, atypcial to the Irishman's philposophy.
I'm not sure if you could bet on opening goalscorers back in the mid 1970's, but if there is one theme that runs through Ally's career, it is fast starts to a season or scoring debuts for new clubs..
The Baggies opening fixture on their return to Division 1 was enticingly away against Leeds, the club Giles had played with such aplomb, and per normal, it took little time for Ally Brown to get the Baggies off the mark for the season, scoring after just five minutes.
This however wasn't to be a vintage Ally Brown season, Giles selecting him in only half of the fixtures, as Albion re-established themselves as a solid Division 1 team.
Long term perhaps, the most marked legacy of that season for Ally, may have been when he was omitted from the WBA side away to Spurs, in favour of a new signing who electrified The Hawthorns the previous season for Orient.
Laurie Cunningham.
Our Baggies world was never to be the same again..
Who would have known Ally's replacement that day and a soon to be signed centre forward from Hayes would change WBA's narrative forever, and herald the most productive run of form by far in Ally's career?
In an earlier article for 'Baggiebard', I described, Jake Livermore as a 21st Century, 'Marmite' player..
Either love or definitely pass on, there was no middle ground regarding how you rated Jake?
Certainly in Ally's career, the same ethos could well apply, but the 'Marmite' view was not held by fans but by his managers over his career..
John Giles had now resigned and in charge of Albion was their ex legendary striker, Ronnie Allen, who seemed to view Ally in the 'definitely not' category, joining the likes of Jimmy Bloomfield and Don Howe.
United in doubt.
Ally looked set for a life again in the reserves with David Cross and the fast emerging Cyrille Regis being Ronnie Allen''s preferred central strike options, with Cunningham and Willie Johnston on the wings..
West Brom had also, pre season, pursued the young Plymouth Argyle striker Paul Mariner, but Mariner opted to join Bobby Robson's Ipswich Town instead.
I was personally lucky enough to ask Mariner how tempted, at the time, he was to join West Brom, he respectfully told me,
'It wasn't even close',
Therein lies the pulling power of the later to be Sir Bobby over Ronnie Allen..
As the enormity of Regis's potential was being unfurled, Cross left for West Ham and in Ronnie Allen's last game as WBA boss, Ally Brown was recalled and got the winning goal, setting off perfectly his return to the first team.
A further vote of confidence was adhered to under the short term stewardship of player/manager/captain John Wile to the eventual recruitment of the coach Ally considered to be the best of his career..
The brash, the confident, the charismatic, Ron Atkinson..
The two 'Ron's' records in 1977/78 were remarkably similar.
Atkinson and Allen both won nine of twenty league games, enough to secure a place in the EUFA Cup.
The key difference for Ally, was regaining his self confidence and assured playing time under Atkinson. Despite, heartbreakingly, losing in an FA Cup Semi Final to Ipswich and of course, Paul Mariner, this was the unleashing of that glorious eighteen month period of the most beautifully balanced front three of my life as as Baggie.
1978/79 became an absolute Baggies nirvana when synchronized, attacking, flair football was the norm. Much was predicated on the talented, complimentary trio..
Regis's raw unadulterated power,
Cunningham's balletic, expressive panache .
Paramount to it all was the role of Ally.
Provider.
Finisher
An intelligent, consistent bulwark for two of 'The Degrees.'
The balance was perfect.
From that vintage team, Ally glowingly recalled Laurie Cunningham as 'probably being our best player', and the emergence of Bryan Robson, 'who would have walked into any side'..
The unusual foundation for the 78/79 season began with a unique, three week exercise of breaking down barriers becoming the first overseas football ambassadors in China, which proved a challenge both on and off the field.
Ally remarked, during a formal gathering, early in this eastern cultural 'adventure', ' to never mind about the food, get on the fags'..
It seems a different world now, setting the tone for the reality of not just two teams ,but two opposite cultures meeting head on...
This four game unbeaten tour was unprecedented.
For example, 90,000 silent football supporters, or pandas blowing horns led around a circus rink by dogs, could deflate the WBA spirit on that 'Friendship first, competition second' tour..
Whether being together for so long, in at times tedium, or culture shock for many, the tour may well have developed the unbreakable team bond we were privy to witness throughout the 1978/79 season..
Pre match cigarettes, perhaps a means to calm players nerves as was Ally's ritual?
Perhaps the proof may be seen in the 'nicotine induced' pudding, as Ally took just twenty two seconds to open the scoring in the first game of the 1978/79 campaign, most satisfyingly against Ipswich in a 2-1 win, exacting some revenge from that recent painful Semi Final defeat.
This was a season when the West Brom starting XI barely changed, with much of the stability centred around nine players..
A nonad of reliability, competitive ability, talent and trust..
Godden, Batson, Statham, Wile, Robertson, Robson, Cunningham, Regis, Ally Brown..
Each and every one of the nine played at least 39 of the 42 League games.
This statistic simply will never happen again in football, where bulky, overinflated numbers are now called 'a squad'.
League appearances have devalued.
Talking of numbers, our intrepid Number 8, was WBA's top scorer, with 18 goals, in his 41 League games.
It must have been something special about that shirt, as the only game Ally missed that season, David Mills, he of record signing and limited impact, even scored wearing Ally's number eight!
Ally's purple patch was towards the middle of the campaign, a brace of goals away to Wolves led to a run of sixteen goals in nineteen league and cup games.
Oddly enough, one of the few games Ally didn't score in that personal goalscoring blitz, was the peak display of attacking brilliance for most Baggies, the 5-3 win v Man United at Old Trafford..
Any WBA fan in generations to come who wants to realize how spoilt we were during that season, I advise them to look at the 5th goal from that game.
That immortal strike, encapuslated everything this once in a lifetime attacking trio was all about..
Cunningham's bravery, balance and art of dribbling at pace,
Ally's underrated movement off the ball and awareness of the runner in front of him, supplying the perfectly weighted, deft, inviting pass.
The marauding Regis, muscles rippling in menace, a shot unleashed with venom and accuracy, the ball raging into the net, at last, past a despairing, heroic Garry Bailey..
The perfect coup de grâce.
The goal said it all about the trio's strengths, dovetailing each of their complimentary talents perfectly.
Ally agrees with Brendon Batson, Ron Atkinson and any Baggie player or fan from that era, it was less about the opposition but more about the weather and break in games affecting the rhythm of performance costing WBA hugely in terms of ultimate success.
As Ally's perfectly stated, 'We should have won the league, but the bad winter knocked us off our stride'
The prelude to the widespread decimation of fixtures had a very unusual moment during a game.
Ron Atkinson claims it to be our best of the season....
New Years Day, 1979 at home to Bristol City..
Snow had caused the cancellation of much of the fixture list across the country, yet due to the 'Baggie faithful' shovelling excess snow off the pitch and Atkinson's ingenious use of astroturf boots, an idea he took from America, WBA got a vital, 3-1 win.
The frozen Hawthorns pitch seemed to have little problem for Ally as he scored a brace, but what Ally is perhaps remembered most for that day is another ingenious idea?
Using snow to distract an opponent....
Bristol City were awarded a penalty in front of the Brummie Rd, the ex Liverpool player Peter Cormack ran up to take it, and as he did, a flash of white hurtled towards him, perhaps causing the distraction that led to him missing his spot kick?
I'm not sure VAR was created to stymie the use of snowballs as a defensive tactic, but Ally's throw was seen by a linesman, the penalty was duly retaken and scored, and a trivia question for the reasons why a penalty was retaken on Jan 1st 1979, was set in stone..
In the end, third place in Divison 1 and last eight in the EUFA Cup were scant rewards for the season of probably the majority of our Baggies supporting life.
Looking at the final exhausting and impressive workload of Ally'?
A remarkable 58 games started in all competitions and by far WBA's top scorer with 24 goals scored.
As we all know, teams and players peak.
Legends get older.
Heroes move on...
Rightly.
Wrongly
Heartbreakingly.
Ally had two more seasons with WBA, the biggest dip in his form, less than a goal every five league games, that hangover first season without the ultra talented Laurie Cunningham and Ally's partner in the underrated scenario Len Cantello..
The following season was more of a return to his old form for Ally, hitting double figures with ten goals.
A season, where Albion finished fourth, ironcially just one point off their vaunted 78/79 final points tally.
The end of that 80/81 season, at thirty years old, Ally decided to join the ever increasing number of Baggies who made a late career trip to the USA, joining Portland Timbers of the NASL.
Portland is beautiful city and unsurprisingly is something of a magnet for former West Brom players.
Four decades after Ally's summer sojourn, Liam Ridgewell won the MLS Cup captaining the Timbers and now 'Ridgy' is still the Assistant Manager there.
Also, diminutive winger Sebastian Blanco has thrived there, post short Albion spell under Pulis, for several seasons.
For Ally it was a great way to spend a summer, visiting cities like LA and New York, and Timbers former Villa boss, Vic Crowe, could not have been displeased with Ally's return of nine goals in twenty four games..
All good things have to come to an end.
After 72 goals in 279 appearances, Ally was transferred after eleven loyal seasons as a Baggie to Alan Mullery's Crystal Palace in March 1983..
It was, as Ally described, 'a bad move'.
But the failure of this transfer working wasn't purely down to Crystal Palace, who boasted such talent as Vince Hilaire, to supply chances for Ally during this short, ill fated stay...
Ally's family by now, were very happily settled in the West Midlands, and as with all transfers, the uprooting of a family is a situation few players want and can be very problematic.
A possible compromise through commuting may have worked, but as Ally reflected,
' I would travel down to London on a Monday and train for three or four days, but it never worked out....
I was too old for a move like that so late in my career..'
After just eleven games and two goals with Crystal Palace, Ally dropped a division but found happiness closer to home.
A two year stint at Walsall..
It took just over a decade later for Alan Buckley to embark on his much maligned move to West Brom, but Ally proceeded to give a profitable late career spell, being top scorer for Walsall with thirteen league goals.
For Walsall, this was their best season in a decade, finishing 6th in Division Three, but the campaign is in 'Fellows folklore', as the greatest cup run in the club's history.
In retrospect, Walsall were just 90 Minutes from qualifying for European competition..
The Saddlers League Cup quest, took in wins against Blackpool, Barnsley, Shrewsbury and Rotherham and a Quarter Final tie away to the mighty Arsenal..
Seeing that game again is so informative to the fact that at 33 years of age, Ally could still really play, tearing apart an Arsenal defence including the likes of Jennings, Sansom, O'Leary and the soon to be Baggie, Chris Whyte.
Ally could easily have scored a hat-trick, but had to settle for an assist and the late winning goal.
Semi Finals were of course the nemesis for Ally.
Four defeats in seven seasons.
But this one was by far the most challenging, a two legged tie v Liverpool, a win would have given The Saddlers a route to Europe.
The potential League Cup Final opponents, Everton, subsequently qualified for Europe, via their final Division 1 League position.
It was sadly not to be..
A remarkable 2-2 draw at fortress Anfield in the first leg, with another ex Baggie, Kevin Summerfield getting a late equalizer, was stymied by a 2-0 defeat at Fellows Park, by the much relieved Reds..
Liverpool weren't a bad team that year.
Eventual treble winners, triumphing in the European Cup Final v Roma, just three months later..
The final port of Ally's career was a two year spell in Division 4 with John Rudge and his Port Vale team.
Ally's first year with The Valiants he was again top scorer with 21 goals and in his final season, Ally's goalscoring was less, but unarguably his impact more, with Port Vale gaining promotion...
Ally is perhaps best known at Vale Park for his influence on an up and coming local teenager, who was destined to be Vale's best ever footballer, who subsequently forged a career in the Premier League, and also scored for Jamaica in the World Cup fourteen years later.
That goal, steeped in 'Reggae Boyz' history was via an astute back post run, that he may well have learned from his senior club striking partner at the time.
The scorer's name?
Robbie Earle..
Alistair was fourteen years the senior of this attacking duo, but their dual tally of forty goals, says it all.
The influence and nous Robbie Earle developed from his experienced striking partner was immense and served him well throughout his career..
As Ally surmized, his distinguished eighteen year career had come to an end with Vale's promotion and in an inimitable, deadpan observation..
'Not bad for a smoking Scotsman..'
For Alistair it was pre game and half time toilet cubicle ritual, but for a nerveless striker, maybe this was his personal way to calm his nerves?
But as soon as his career ended, so did his 25 cigarettes a day adherance..
The scoring and smoking days were over..
As with many ex players, looking for work post career in an era of far less lucrative earnings, Ally first turned to taking the reigns at his local pub, The Cedar Tree in Aldridge.
'I'd already sunk a few pints in there' was the understandable logic for the amiable Scot..
Being 'mine host' at The Throstles Club at the Halfords Lane, would be a place of great memories and fondness for Ally, as he'd described,
'It'd always be rammed on game day'
Truly, who wouldn't want a pint, poured by one of their Baggies legends?
Later manual factory stints, being a Quiz Night devotee, interlaid with his enduring love of golf and also being an active member of West Brom's Former Players Association, were the foundations of Ally's later years.
Most importantly though for Ally, being a very proud family man..
Tragically and seemingly increasingly, the desperate fog of dementia took another ex footballing victim, Alistair being a sufferer of this terribly debilitating condition to the point of needing Assisted Living at a Specialist Home in Aldridge, where he has now resided since 2021.
When you quantify the essence of the impact Ally Brown had on fans and team mates alike, we were beyond spoilt..
The memories for us and hopefully for Ally, will never go away..
Thanks Ally.
Inside Forward, par Excellence..
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