Signed from Kennoway Hearts during the summer of 1944 at the tender age of seventeen, local lad Allan Brown played his first match for East Fife in an Eastern (Wartime) League fixture against Dundee United at Tannadice on 12th August. Described in the press as “a big chap who can shoot with either foot”, Allan quickly established himself in the East Fife team at the position of inside-left, and scored his first goal for the club in a 1-1 draw with Dundee at Dens Park on 25th November. However, with Allan having reached the age of eighteen in October 1944, and with the Second World War still to reach a conclusion, it was inevitable that the young player would be called up to serve his country, although Allan did manage to maintain a regular place in the side until March 1945.
Despite the unconditional surrender of all German forces to the Allies on 7th May 1945 and the surrender of the Japanese some four months later, the end of the war did not necessarily mean the end of active service for conscripts, and Allan found himself scheduled to serve in India, where the British Army maintained a presence until 1948. Despite his imminent departure, however, Allan did manage to squeeze in one final appearance whilst on embarkation leave against St Johnstone in a ‘B’ Division (Southern League) fixture on 1st September 1945, and helped the Fife to a 2-1 victory.
Allan’s appearances over the next three seasons were restricted to home leave, during which he clocked up only a handful of games, and it was to be season 1948/49 before he managed to re-establish himself in the East Fife team after having finally been demobbed.
Once fully back in the fold, Allan made twenty-nine first team appearances for the Methil men during season 1948/49, scoring five goals, and helped the Fife reach the semi-final of the Scottish Cup and the quarter-final of the League Cup. It was to be the following season before the Kennoway lad really made his presence felt, however, when he never missed a single first team game and found the net eighteen times into the bargain as East Fife lifted the League Cup for a second time and reached the final of the Scottish Cup.
It came as no surprise, therefore, when Allan Brown was selected for the Scottish League side to face the English League on Wednesday 22nd March 1950 at Ayresome Park in Middlesbrough, where the Scots suffered a 3-1 defeat in front of a crowd of 39,352. Despite a poor team performance, Allan was reported to have teamed up well with Hearts’ Scotland internationalist Willie Bauld, which must have pleased the international selectors, as just over a month later Allan was selected to up front play alongside Bauld for the friendly against Switzerland in Glasgow on Wednesday 26th April 1950. With Methil team-mate George Aitken also in the side, Allan became the fifth East Fife player to be capped at full international level for Scotland whilst still plying his trade at Bayview, and did himself proud by scoring Scotland’s third goal in a 3-1 victory in front of an incredible Hampden crowd of 123,751.
Allan was then selected to travel with the Scotland party on a two-match continental tour to Portugal and France and, on Sunday 21st May, he was East Fife’s sole representative in the Scotland side to face the Portuguese in the Estadio Nacional in Lisbon, where the Fifer netted the second goal in a 2-2 draw in front of 68,000 spectators.
The player was by now attracting the attention of top clubs from all over the world, in particular from South America, and Allan made no secret of his willingness to play in the southern hemisphere; his only provisos being that the climate was to the liking of his Indian-born wife and that any signing-on fee was lodged in his Scottish bank account before he departed for the club in question! With the eyes of the world upon him, the East Fife man saved his best for the second tour match, in front of 35,568 at Stade Olympique du Colombes in Paris on Saturday 27th May, when he scored the only goal of the game mid-way through the second half to record a 1-0 victory for the Scots; a feat that was not to be repeated against France on their own soil for another 57 years, when James McFadden pulled off a similar party-piece to record a famous single-goal victory in September 2007!
After returning home, it was clear to all that Allan Brown reckoned his future lay away from Bayview, which was hardly surprising with such a wealth of clubs keen to land the signature of the Scotland star. Understandably, East Fife were equally keen to retain the player, and a bitter dispute between the two parties ensued, with Brown refusing to agree new terms with the club. The result was that one of the most sought-after names in the game didn’t kick a ball for nearly six months and, with no wages coming in, was forced to seek temporary employment carrying out odd jobs here and there to make ends meet! Just as the dispute was threatening to reach the Court of Session, Allan Brown was eventually sold to Blackpool in December 1950 for a fee of £26,500; a record for a Scottish Club to have received at the time!
At Blackpool, Allan teamed up with the legendary Stanley Matthews to form one of the most formidable attacking forces in English football, but unfortunately missed out on Blackpool’s 1951 F.A. Cup final appearance due to a knee injury. Two years later, the player was dealt an even crueller blow when he missed out on playing in the famous “Matthews Final” at Wembley in May 1953, when Blackpool beat Bolton 4-3, after breaking his leg scoring the winning goal in the semi-final against Arsenal.
During his days at Bloomfield Road Allan Brown picked up another eleven Scotland caps, including appearances against Austria and Uruguay in the 1954 World Cup finals in Switzerland. After leaving Blackpool, Allan turned out for Luton Town and Portsmouth before ending his playing days as player/manager at Wigan Athletic. Allan then moved on to manage Luton Town, Torquay United, Bury, Nottingham Forest and Southport before two spells in charge of Blackpool either side of a spell in Kuwait managing Quadsia. Allan Brown retired from football in May 1982, and passed away at the age of eighty-four on 20th April 2011.
Jim Corstorphine