Jack Robson, the manager who won Brighton 5 trophies in 6 years
Brighton & Hove Albion rarely win silverware. Since the club was formed in 1901, the Albion have won just 12 trophies at first team level. Five of those were lifted in a six year period under the management of Jack Robson, who as a result must surely be considered as one of the greatest managers in Brighton history.
So impressive were Robson’s feats in charge at the Goldstone between April 1908 and December 1914 that he attracted the attentions of the mighty Manchester United. And yet most Albion fans won’t even know his name. About time we put that right, don’t you think?
Robson was born in County Durham in 1860 and raised in Middlesbrough. Like so many top modern-day managers, he was no great shake as a player, the extent of his career being to keep goal for Middlesbrough reserves before being appointed to the Ayresome Park hot seat in 1899 after filling a number of other roles on Teeside.
Under Robson’s management, Boro went from the Northern League to an established club in the top flight of the Football League. He was a shrewd operator, always looking for value for money to the point where he often didn’t travel to away games to cut costs. Paul Barber would have loved working with Robson.
When Crystal Palace were formed in 1905, Robson ended his 17-year association with Middlesbrough to become the Eagles’ first manager. He led Palace to the Southern League Division Two title during his first season in charge but departed a year later in the summer of 1907.
Jack Robson remained out of work for nearly a year until Brighton came calling in April 1908. Albion boss Frank Scott-Walford had been headhunted by Leeds City – the forerunner of the modern day The Leeds United – and the Brighton board decided that Robson’s success with Boro and Palace marked him out as the perfect man to take the club onto the next level.
He didn’t waste any time in making an impression, completely rebuilding the Albion squad in the summer of 1908. Among Robson’s signings were Charlie Webb, Bob Whitting, Billy Booth, Bullet Jones, Joe Leeming, Joe McGhie and Archie Needham, all of whom would go onto play hundreds of games for the club.
Webb even succeeded Robson as manager once World War I was out the way, spending 28 years in the Goldstone dugout. Without Jack Robson, the man who became Mr Brighton & Hove Albion would not have even played for Brighton.
Robson’s first season in charge was something of a mixed bag, although there were signs of the success that was to come. Most Southern League clubs at the time competed in both that competition and an additional midweek league, which offered more fixtures and with it, more income from gate receipts. Another aspect of 1900s football that Barber would enjoy.
So while Brighton only finished two places above the Southern League Division One relegation zone in the 1908-09 season, Robson led the Albion to the Western League Division One A section title. The Seagulls also reached the Southern Professional Charity Cup Final, losing 2-0 against Brentford.
Robson was clearly developing a decent team. Now he needed to find a way to take Brighton’s Western League and cup form into the Southern League. If he could do that, the Albion might find themselves challenging for the Division One title.
Which is exactly what happened in the 1909-10 season, when Brighton went beyond challenging and ended up winning the Southern League for the first and only time.
That wasn’t the end of Brighton’s success that year. Robson also delivered the Southern Professional Charity Cup for a double and then the FA Charity Shield. Which meant Jack Robson had turned Brighton & Hove Albion into the champions of England.
The Southern League title success was built upon a brilliant defence and a devastating attack. Brighton conceded just 28 times in 42 games, a club-record which still stands over a century later – and is unlikely to ever be beaten.
69 goals were scored, an astonishing number at a time when the rules of football were very much in favour of defences. The Goldstone Ground became a fortress as the Albion won 18 and drew two of their 21 home games. The only defeat at home all year – with grim predictability – came against Palace in early December.
Brighton were eighth in the table after that loss to their future rivals and it proved to be the turning point. The Albion won 14 and drew eight of their remaining 23 games, storming to the top of the table by the start of February.
They remained there for the rest of the season to beat Swindon Town to the title by five points. It was against the Robins that Brighton secured the championship, winning 3-1 at the Goldstone on Saturday 23rd April 1910 to spark wild scenes of jubilation across the city.
The Southern Professional Cup had already been lifted two weeks earlier via a 1-0 victory over Watford at Stamford Bridge. That made it three trophies in the space of two years for Robson, but the best was still to come when the Albion returned to Stamford Bridge in September to take on Aston Villa in the Charity Shield final.
In 1910, the Charity Shield was played between the Football League winners and the Southern League winners, giving the winner the unofficial title of champions of England.
The Football League was much the stronger of the two and Villa were at the time the greatest and most famous team in the land.
Nobody therefore gave Brighton much hope of causing an upset. But cause it they did, Webb notching the only goal in the second half as the Albion shocked Villa to add yet further silverware to the growing Goldstone collection. Robson’s Brighton were now considered the best team in the country and had three trophies to prove it.
The Albion remained a force in the Southern League over the next four seasons, finishing third in 1910-11, fifth in 1911-12, ninth in 1912-13 and seventh in 1913-14, Robson’s final full campaign in charge.
There were two more Southern Professional Cup finals too, although both ended in defeat. The 1911 final saw the Albion beaten 1-0 by Swindon Town in a replay, who gained revenge on missing out on the Southern League title to the Albion the previous year by ensuring that Robson’s side didn’t retain the Cup. Two years later and the Albion went down 4-1 to Queens Park Rangers in the 1913 final at the Den.
The fifth and final trophy of the glorious Robson era was another midweek league success, this time in the United League. Brighton looked well adrift as the 1913-14 campaign entered its final few rounds of fixtures, sitting in third place.
A remarkable run of four successive victories changed all that however as Jack Robson led Brighton from nowhere to pip Luton Town to the title. The Albion did not top the table once all season until after the last match of the campaign, an extraordinary way to win a championship.
Robson had by now attracted plenty of admirers for the way in which he had turned Brighton from Southern League strugglers into a side who regularly added silverware to the Goldstone Ground’s trophy cabinet.
It was Manchester United who made a move in December 1914, offering Robson the honour of the manager’s chair at Old Trafford. Both he and the Albion realised that this was too good an opportunity to turn down and so Robson departed with the best wishes of everyone in Sussex and a silver rose-bowl in recognition of his achievements.
Robson left Brighton with a record of 159 victories from his 345 games in charge. His legacy stretched well beyond numbers and even trophies though as the manager who put Brighton firmly on the footballing map as a club who could win silverware and defeat the greatest sides in England.
He signed some of the greatest players in Brighton history, including Webb who would eventually replace him as manager in June 1919.
The Albion declined to make an immediate appointment following Robson’s departure as World War I was raging on the continent, instead opting to put Robson’s assistant Alf Nelmes in caretaker charge until the end of the 1914-15 campaign.
Nelmes’ six months at the helm followed by Webb’s astonishing 28 years meant that Robson was in effect responsible for 39 years of Albion managers, stretching from his appointment in 1908 right the way through to Webb’s departure in May 1947. That’s some legacy.
Sadly, Robson never had a chance to show what he could do at Old Trafford. The Great War accounted for four of his eight years with Manchester United, during which time professional football was suspended and clubs instead played in friendly leagues which did not count towards official records.
Robson retired from the United dugout in October 1921 at the age of 61 due to ill health. He passed away from the effects of pneumonia in January 1922, but the esteem in which he was held by the footballing world was shown by the Football Association holding a testimonial match at Old Trafford to raise money for his widow following his death.
Robson’s contribution to Brighton could never be valued in just monetary terms. He was the man who put the Albion on the map, turning the club from a middling side into the Southern League champions, the Western League champions, the United League champions, the Southern Professional Charity Cup winners and ultimately, the Champions of England.
Is Robson the greatest manager in Brighton history? If you are measure success in trophies, then nobody else comes close.
