WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
We catch up with Scunthorpe United’s 1982-83 promotion-winners
STEVE BAINES became best known as a Football League referee but he could have ended up as a manager if things had taken a different course.
It was with an eye on a career in management when he joined Scunthorpe after falling out of favour with Walsall.
The Iron were almost as low as you can get in the League as only Crewe Alexandra had finished below them in the table the season before.
Baines admits that he was more than up for the challenge of being player-coach and helped manager John Duncan transform the club.
Within a few short months, the Iron were in the thick of the promotion battle but Duncan was sacked after falling out with chairman David Wraith.
“I had a lean spell at Walsall and the chairman at the time wanted to get his pound of flesh, and John was player-manager of Scunthorpe at the time,” recalled Baines.
“They had conceded a hatful of goals the season before and we had a mutual friend in Lammie Robertson who wanted me to go somewhere on loan.
“But I wanted to do some- thing more meaningful. And I had always wanted to go into management. I was 28 at the time, which was fairly early
“So he put me in touch with John, who gave me the opportunity to go Scunthorpe as playercoach, which was the only role I was interested in.
“I was the link between the players and the management.
“John was more for organisation whereas my strengths were in man-management, working with people and getting the best out of them.
“But I had to also play with them so it was no easy task. We were a solid unit that worked very hard, we weren’t the best team in the world but had some useful boys.
“We didn’t give much away and we could always nick a goal. Neil Pointon was like a game boy – he could run up and down the left wing all day.
“Steve Cammack, who was our leading scorer, could score for fun. He was one of them – you just needed to make the chance.
“Then three-quarters of the way through the season, John fell out with the chairman. They had a bit of a spat, it was more a clash of personalities than anything else.
“We hadn’t been out of the top part of the table all season.
“I thought I had got the job for a second or two until Allan Clarke walked around the corner.”
Clarke led the Iron to promotion, finishing fourth behind Wimbledon, Hull and Port Vale. Baines moved on to Chesterfield before taking up the whistle.
1. Alan Boxall: Central defender who was a PE teacher in Grimsby and then become a lorry driver in the local area. 2. Martin Fowler: Midfielder, settled in the Scunthorpe area and became an art and design teacher at the John Leggott College in the town.
3. Paul Johnson: Goalkeeper, born locally. Went to work in a steelworks and was playing football locally for many years.
4. Joe Neenan: Goalkeeper, settled in the York area where he worked for a confectionery company and is now a caretaker for City of York Council. 5. Les Hunter: Central defender, after retiring from playing he became a policeman with the Derbyshire Constabulary in Chesterfield. 6. Chris Cowling: Centre-forward, became student progress leader at the St Lawrence Academy in Scunthorpe. His son Zac was a Scunthorpe apprentice.
7. Andy Keeley: Central defender. Is back living in his native Essex where he is working as a driving instructor. His elder brother Glenn played for Blackburn. 8. Simon Snow: Forward, is now based in Woodthorpe, Nottingham, and is director of a recycling firm Beecher Textiles Springs. Has managed in Non-League. 9. Neil Pointon: The left-back went on to have a successful career with the likes of Everton, Manchester City and Oldham. Tried his hand at Non-League management before joining Bolton as an academy coach. 10. George Telfer: Forward, became a senior manager for the Merseyside Youth Association for 29 years and is a church warden in Farnworth, Cheshire. 11. Vince Grimes: Midfielder, became a postman before taking a job working for Scunthorpe Social Services. 12. Steve Cammack: Forward, the club’s record goalscorer was a lorry driver in his native Sheffield then became a sales rep for a beer and spirit wholesaler. 13. Dennis Leman: Midfielder, is working for the PFA as a community liasion executive after spending 21 years as a football in the community administrator. 14. Steve Baines: Defender who became a Football League referee. Has had business interests that include insurance, property broking and a commodities network. 15. John Duncan: Managed Hartlepool, Chesterfield (twice), Ipswich and Loughborough University. He was also technical manager for the League Managers Association. 16. Phil McLoughlin: Spent 13 years as Scunthorpe physio and later became academy physio at Nottingham Forest before returning to Scunthorpe. 17. Noel Parkinson: Midfielder, sold photocopiers then became managing director of online sales for Dixon Motors for 18 years. Now runs a car-buying company. 18. Paul O’Berg: Midfielder, lives in Oakham, Leicestershire and runs his own travel company, Malta Choices. NOT PICTURED Mike Angus: Midfielder, is based in his native Middlesbrough. Peter Cartwright: Midfielder, became a school teacher on Tyneside. Tommy Graham: Midfielder, lives in Barnsley and works as a surgical chiropodist. Mike Lester: Midfielder, has run soccer schools in the Manchester area. Jimmy Mann: Midfielder, worked in security, as a milkman and as a jetty master for Associated British Ports. Bob Oates: Central defender, became a community manager at Burnley and Sunderland. Now runs community soccer in Sunderland. Tony Reid: Midfielder, worked in car finance before going into property and is now a director of Radar Finance in Derbyshire. Ian Webster: Central defender, became the manager of The Boyes chain in Doncaster.