Peter Taylor (footballer, born 1928)

Did You Know?

• Taylor was portrayed by Timothy Spall in The Damned United, a film released in 2009.
• In August 2010, Derby County unveiled a statue of Clough and Taylor at Pride Park Stadium.
• In September 2015, Nottingham Forest announced that the Main Stand at the City Ground would be renamed the Peter Taylor Stand.

Playing career

Peter Taylor entered the world on 2 July 1928 in the Meadows area of Nottingham, the son of Tom, an engineer, and Jenny, a housewife, and one of eight children. At age 14 he met Lily Thorpe, who convinced him to join Christchurch, the non-League side managed by her father. He later turned out for Mapperley Methodists before Nottingham Forest spotted him and added him to their youth setup, the Forest Colts. Still an amateur, he made his first-team debut at 16 in a wartime match against local rivals Notts County at Meadow Lane in 1944.

On his 17th birthday he signed for Coventry City, but his father insisted he also finish a bricklaying apprenticeship, so he started as a part-timer. Under manager Harry Storer, Coventry placed seventh in the Second Division in 1950–51. Taylor made his Football League debut on the final day of that season, ending Alf Wood’s streak of 261 consecutive first-team appearances. He married Lily Thorpe in June 1951.

The following season, 1951–52, Coventry were relegated, with Taylor playing 29 matches. In 1952–53, Coventry finished sixth in the Third Division South, but Taylor appeared only eight times. That was Storer’s last season in charge, and Taylor later called him his managerial mentor. Under Jack Fairbrother in 1953–54, Taylor played 42 games as Coventry ended 14th; the next season he featured ten times as they placed ninth.

After losing his starting spot to Reg Matthews, a future Coventry Hall of Famer and England international, Taylor chose to leave the club.

Management career

In October 1962, Taylor landed the manager's job at Burton Albion after chairman Trevor Grantham was impressed by his grasp of the game and his tactical ideas. The following summer, he gutted the squad, keeping just four players and building a new team from scratch. He brought in strikers Richie Barker and Stan Round, who together netted 308 goals for the club. After a FA Cup loss to Kidderminster Harriers, some called for his resignation, but he weathered the storm and built one of Burton's best ever sides, winning the Southern League Cup in 1964 by beating Weymouth.

In 1965, he tore up a new three-year contract worth £34 a week to become Brian Clough's assistant at Hartlepools United for just £24 a week. He later admitted the move, made against the advice of friends and family, defied all logic. His replacement at Burton, Alex Tait, led the club to promotion from the Southern League Division One in 1965–66.

Before Taylor and Clough arrived, Hartlepool had needed to apply for re-election to the Football League five times in six years. Taylor described the squad as made up of free transfers, with some players battling drink, debt, or abandoned wives. The pair began turning things around by painting Victoria Park. Taylor had little room to work in the transfer market, as the club only had £7,500 to spend, with £4,000 going on centre-half Johnny Gill.

He also signed two former Burton players, defender Tony Parry and goalkeeper Les Green; Parry later won the club's Player of the Year award. After overhauling most of the playing staff, the duo led Hartlepool to an eighth-place finish in the Fourth Division in 1966–67, a big improvement on the 18th-place finish the previous season. On 15 November 1966, chairman Ernest Ord, known for playing mind games with managers, sacked Taylor, claiming he could no longer afford to pay him.

Clough refused to accept the decision, so Ord sacked him too. But a boardroom coup blocked both sackings, ousted Ord as chairman, and reinstated both Clough and Taylor.

Relationship with Clough

Clough said, "I'm not equipped to manage successfully without Peter Taylor. I am the shop window and he is the goods in the back." The two worked as a pair by complementing each other's strengths, as Clough had a forceful personality and was adept at motivating players, whilst Taylor was more reserved. However, he could spot talented players.

Former Hartlepools player Cliff Wright described the pair as "good cop, bad cop. Cloughie would knock you to the ground, verbally at least, and Pete would pick you up and put you back together." As the bigger personality and the man with the title of manager, Clough garnered much greater publicity than Taylor, which caused Taylor to grumble that "I sometimes wonder why he never says to Bell's whisky, for instance, when they're handing out Manager of the Month awards, 'You'll have to present an extra gallon bottle.

There are two of us." On a personal level, they were very close and often finished each other's sentences. Though Taylor's friendship and partnership with Clough had been strong, their relationship sometimes became strained. While at Derby in 1971, Taylor was riled when he learned that Clough had failed to disclose to him that he had received a pay rise of £5,000 from chairman Sam Longson.

The relationship worsened in the autumn of 1980 when Taylor published With Clough, by Taylor, an autobiography which was largely based on Taylor's work with Clough. Taylor had not told Clough he was writing the book and did not give him a share of the proceeds.

Honours

Burton Albion won the Southern League Cup in 1964. With Clough at Derby County, Taylor won the Football League Second Division in 1968–69 and the Football League First Division in 1971–72. At Nottingham Forest, also with Clough, he won the Football League Second Division third-place promotion in 1976–77, the Anglo-Scottish Cup in 1976–77, the Football League First Division in 1977–78, the League Cup in 1978 and 1979, the FA Charity Shield in 1978, the European Cup in 1979 and 1980, and the European Super Cup in 1979.