The Triumph and Tragedy: The Alan Hinton Story

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That meant starting out in the youth ranks and working his way up through six different senior teams, as well as the series of other tasks that being a trainee entailed. Alan Hinton. So maybe it is best to start right at his roots, with Hinton still so incredibly proud of his Wednesbury birthplace and a modest but very happy upbringing thanks to parents Tom and Harriet. If you follow Hinton on social media, you can’t help but notice that his sentences end with a question mark. I only found this out a year or so ago, something which Al did after he took me to Dallas,” says Hinton. Amid the understandable grief in response to Matthew’s passing, a couple of months later, Hinton found himself out of contract at Derby and, at 34, with little idea of his next step.

I never saw the first 20 minutes because I was so damn nervous,” he says, adding that Wolves manager Stan Cullis wouldn’t shake his hand when he was called in. Hinton was Derby's creator-in-chief, set-piece expert, a winger whose ability to cross the ball with precision accuracy from any position amounted to genius and he provided some memorable goals. "Playing with these guys was wonderful," Hinton said. "The Division Two trophy was the first one we won together but to then go and win the big league, with Clough and Taylor, was great." The Rams were not overburdened by expectations ahead of the season. They had finished the 1970-71 campaign in ninth position but the side was developing and a 12-match unbeaten run was a consistent opening sequence. Frank Wignall was among the goals early on, four in six games before he joined Mansfield Town, but it would be a season in which the goals were shared around. Alan Hinton top scored with 15 in the League, John O'Hare hit 13 and Kevin Hector 12. One of the many strengths of Clough and Taylor, the masterminds behind Derby's successes, was they knew how to get the best out of each player. Clough's man-management was incredible, he knew what buttons to press, while Taylor could spot a player.The 79-year-old is completely right though, because Forest look to be in a good place both on and off the pitch under Cooper and keeping the Welshman at the City Ground will be key to their future success. And what about O’Hare, who was absolutely essential to Derby's style and successes in the late Sixties and early Seventies? He had marvellous ball control, could accept passes and hold the ball under intense pressure from behind in the days when centre halves could cut centre forwards in half three times before the referee would even have a quiet word! Hinton was involved in efforts to bring the 1994 FIFA World Cup to the U.S. [ citation needed], and when the Seattle Sounders name was revived for a new American Professional Soccer League club in 1994, Hinton became club President and appointed himself as coach. [7] Personal life [ edit ] Hinton became Tulsa coach in 1979, leaving to direct the Sounders in 1980. He guided Seattle to the 1982 Soccer Bowl, losing to the New York Cosmos 1-0 in Carlos Alberto’s final competitive match.

The two points, it was two for a win in those day, put the Rams top of the pile on 58 having completed their fixtures but both Leeds on 57 points and Liverpool on 56 points each had one game to play and either of them could still win the title. Liverpool needed to win at Arsenal and Leeds required only a draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. I would clean the boots of Billy Wright and Jimmy Mullen who were brilliant with me as well; Billy was such a wonderful man.” The] England players were great. They never stopped laughing at me and making fun,” he says. “My Nottingham Forest players were making fun. ‘We’ll take care of her when you’re gone’ and all this stuff.”The crowd that day numbered nearly 23,000 as interest boomed in this, Clough’s first season. Indeed, at the end of the campaign, the Rams could report an average Baseball Ground attendance of 20,194, compared with only 15,908 in 1966-67. One week West Bromwich, one week Wolves. I lived in Wednesbury, halfway between those two teams,” he says. “I supported West Brom and Wolves. You tell people that today and they don’t believe you, because how can you support two teams? After that game myself and Roy Morley found our way into the Victoria Hotel to get (Ferenc) Puskas’s autograph!

Hinton was in the Wolves team for the first game Bamforth ever saw, a 3-0 defeat to Bolton in 1962, and little did that young fan know at the time that he would go on to enjoy the ‘singular honour’ and ‘absolute privilege’ of teaming up for ‘Triumph and Tragedy’ almost 60 years later. Hinton’s story is one about the triumph of the human spirit, making the best of situations and taking advantage of others when offered. You can feel Hinton’s enthusiasm when he speaks. They then dropped out of fashion for a time, with the next reference in the newspaper archive we could muster coming from David Lacey's report on the 1995 European Cup final between Ajax and Milan in Vienna, where the Rossoneri's Marco Simone was a trendsetter. "For a time it looked as if the amount of room Simone and his white boots were being allowed by Ajax would eventually return the trophy to the San Siro. However, he was to come no closer to scoring than the volley, from Donadoni's centre, which Van der Sar turned round a post at the end of the first half."BRIAN CLOUGH PARADES THE LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY AT THE BASEBALL GROUND AFTER THE 1971/72 TRIUMPH (Image: Archive Image) He played well in a 1-1 draw, but later that night was the passenger in a car driven by his friend which crashed, resulting in minor injuries resulting in missing the replay, which Wolves lost. I just love being around people. I love what the Sounders are doing, and I am proud of my involvement with them and my contribution,” he says. “It’s just a fantastic feeling.”

The sort of tough love and discipline espoused by Cullis – known as ‘Sergeant Major’ – clearly paid dividends. Clough was charismatic and controversial. "One time the Derby squad and their wives were at the hotspot of the time, the Talk of the Midlands, to watch Tommy Cooper," Hinton said. He was the master at all that, and about getting the most out of players, based on their personality. Hinton met general manager Noel Lemon the next morning. “His passion for the game was greater than anybody I’ve ever met, but he was crazy,” Hinton says. “He said: ‘Would you like the job now?’”Soccer has been the lifeblood of Alan Hinton since he was a young Wednesbury lad watching Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion, imploring visiting supporters to send him their clubs’ programmes. He left school at not-quite-15 years old to And I remember helping to water the pitch before the big floodlit friendly with Honved, to stop them moving the ball so well. Stuart Webb was club secretary at the time having arrived from Preston North End in 1970. He recalls: "Immediately you saw Cloughie in action and what was around him and the players they were getting in, and the players who were there, you got a special feeling. It was unique. It was magical, a lot of comradeship, a lot of banter, there was a feel-good factor. It was all exciting stuff. You couldn't write it. To sum it up, that era, the early Seventies, was pure Hollywood and I was just pleased to have a part to play."