Billy Ayre

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Billy Ayre
Personal information
Full name	William Ayre
Date of birth	May 7, 1952
Place of birth	Crookhill, England
Date of death	April 16, 2002 (aged 49)
Playing position	Defender
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
197?-1977 1977-1981 1981-1982 1982-1984 1984-1986	Scarborough Hartlepool Halifax Town Mansfield Town Halifax Town	00? 0(?) 141 (27) 063 0(5) 067 0(7) 032 0(2)
Teams managed
1984 1986-1990 1991-1994 1994 1994-1995 2000	Halifax Town (caretaker manager) Halifax Town Blackpool Scarborough Southport Cardiff City
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

William "Billy" Ayre (May 7, 1952 - April 16, 2002) was an English footballer and, later, a manager.

Contents 1 Birth and early career 2 1980s 3 1990s 4 2000s 5 Final months and passing 6 Honours 6.1 As a manager 7 Managerial stats 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Birth and early career

Ayre was born in the Gateshead suburb of Crookhill. He began his professional career at Scarborough in the early 1970s whilst balancing a teaching profession at St. Leonard's R.C.V.A Comprehensive School in Durham, where he taught art and physical education. He won the Supporters' Player of the Year award in 1977. [1] It was his uncompromising performances for Boro that earned him a move, also in '77, to Hartlepool United, for whom he would play over 100 games and score 27 goals.

Four years later, Ayre was on the move again, this time to Halifax Town. He made 63 league appearances and score five goals in his first spell at The Shay.

[edit] 1980s

The summer of 1982 saw Ayre move to Mansfield Town, where he spent two seasons before returning to Halifax to bring his playing career to a close. In October 1984, he took over as caretaker manager of Halifax for less than a month. Mick Jones was installed on November 10.

In December 1986, Ayre became manager of Halifax again, this time on a full-time basis. Three years later, just before the end of the 1989/90 season, he was sacked, having failed to get them out of the league's basement division.

[edit] 1990s

He was soon appointed assistant manager to Graham Carr at Blackpool, and when Carr was sacked in November 1990, Ayre was promoted in his place. As Roy Calley wrote in his 1992 book, Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887-1992, Ayre, almost unknown outside the lower leagues, was "greeted reservedly by Blackpool supporters, yet in the space of two years [had] become the club's most popular - and certainly most successful - boss since Stan Mortensen".

His first game in charge was a draw at Hereford United on December 1, 1991. When Carr left, Blackpool were lying in 18th position in the Division Four table; six months later, however, the team had qualified for the play-offs after losing only five of their remaining thirty games. It was during this period that two new (and still existing) club records were set: thirteen consecutive home wins in what turned out to be a 24-game unbeaten run at Bloomfield Road. Their good fortune came undone at the last hurdle, however, when they lost in a penalty shoot-out to Torquay United in the final at Wembley and remained in the Fourth Division for another season. (In an interview after the torturous affair, Ayre said, "I've never had a worse moment in my life, never mind football.")

Ayre was able to keep largely the same team together and guided them back to Wembley the following 1991/92 season in which they finally gained promotion after another, more successful penalties experience. Scunthorpe United were the unlucky team on this occasion. Blackpool had booked their place in the new Division Two.

The following season saw the Seasiders finish in a lowly 18th position after winning only 12 of their 46 games.

On the final day of the 1993-94 season, Blackpool avoided relegation by one point by virtue of beating Leyton Orient 4-1 at Bloomfield Road. Ayre was sacked in June by then-chairman Owen Oyston after the Seasiders failed to impress at their new level. He was succeeded by Sam Allardyce. Ayre's league record in his three-and-a-half years at Bloomfield Road: 191 games, 77 wins, 70 draws, 44 losses.[2]

Ayre will be fondly remembered by all true Blackpool fans for achieving not only promotion but subsequently surviving with very little financial backing from Oyston. During this period, players such as Alan Wright, Paul Groves, and, most notably, Trevor Sinclair all left the club for bigger and better things. Despite this, Ayre's sides battled, grafted, and occasionally shocked sides with far greater resources at their disposal. As demonstrated in the retrospective DVD The Seasiders, a feature of the popular and affable Geordie's time at Bloomfield Road was the 'ticker-tape entrance' - fans throwing paper aloft whilst Ayre made his way across to the dugout on the east side of the ground. He would acknowledge the fans, then clench his fists, urge the Seasiders faithful to back his lads, eliciting a raucous cheer from the fans.

Ayre's next stop was Scarborough, where he arrived in August 1994, some twenty years after playing for the Yorkshiremen. His reign at the McCain Stadium lasted just four months, after he was sacked for failing to turn around the Division Three strugglers.

A short but successful stint at non-league Southport followed during the 1994-95 season. Ayre had guided the Sandgrounders to a third-placed finishing position.

In March 1996, Ayre was asked by new Swansea City boss Jan Mølby to be his assistant, but the duo arrived too late to prevent the Swans from sliding into Division Three. They reached the play-off final a year later, but a last-minute goal saw them lose to Northampton Town and miss out on promotion. Ayre and Mølby were both sacked soon after the disappointment.

Ayre then assisted Frank Burrows at Cardiff City and helped them to promotion to Division Two in 1999.

After Nigel Worthington's departure at Blackpool two days before Christmas 1999, Ayre was rumoured to be in the running for a return as manager, but he apparently turned down the offer. Steve McMahon was subsequently given the role.

[edit] 2000s

After a month-long break while having a benign tumor removed, Ayre was installed to the manager's seat at Cardiff when Burrows resigned in January 2000. "This came as a complete shock," he said at the time.[3] "I was on the motorway driving back to South Wales when the chairman rang me. I want to keep the job, and I hope I'm given the chance to prove myself."

"There will be changes," he continued. "I will be tweaking a few things, and we will be looking at the playing system. I'm still stunned about what has happened, but we have to revitalise and rejuvenate the team quickly. Frank Burrows brought me to Cardiff and did everything within his power for the club. But we have to look forward, we have to work quickly. That's what Frank would want."

Regarding the tumor, Ayre said: "That wasn't something which bothered me too much. That may sound strange, but it was outside my control, so I got on with things. Now the Cardiff City job has been given to me, albeit temporarily for now, and that is within my control. I haven't spoken to Frank yet, because he has gone away. But I will talk to him soon."

Ayre stayed on beyond the end of the season despite the Bluebirds falling back into Division Three. He was demoted to assistant manager when owner Sam Hammam installed Bobby Gould in September 2000. His services were disposed of completely two months later when Alan Cork was put in charge of first-team affairs and Gould was appointed general manager.

[edit] Final months and passing

Ayre's final job in football came within weeks of leaving Cardiff. He joined Division Two side Bury as assistant to Andy Preece, who played for him at Blackpool, but in the spring of 2001 it was found that the lymph node cancer he had initially been diagnosed with in 1995 had returned. Graham Barrow was given the temporary job of assistant manager while Ayre received treatment for his illness, and he appeared to be recovering; however, he suffered a setback in early 2002 and died on April 16, just under a month shy of his 50th birthday. His wife, Elaine, and children, David and Rachel, were at his bedside.

During a Tranmere Rovers v. Cardiff City league encounter four days after Ayre's passing, the away fans rang out an impromptu rendition of "There's Only One Billy Ayre", followed by spontaneous applause, in honour of their former manager. Mark Bonner, who Ayre nurtured through from the Blackpool youth ranks, was in the Cardiff team that day.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a manager

Blackpool

• Division Four play-off winner: 1991/92

[edit] Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Halifax Town (caretaker)		1984	1984	?	?	?	?	?
Halifax Town		1986	1990	?	?	?	?	?
Blackpool		November 30, 1990	June 10, 1994	191	77	70	44	40.31
Scarborough		August 1, 1994	December 12, 1994	25	6	14	5	24.00
Southport		1994	1995	?	?	?	?	?
Cardiff City		February 2, 2000	August 14, 2000	19	5	7	7	26.31

Preceded by Graham Carr

Blackpool F.C. manager 1990-1994

Succeeded by Sam Allardyce

[edit] References

• Calley, Roy (1992). Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887-1992. Breedon Books Sport. ISBN 1-873626-07-X. 

[edit] External links

• The Professional Footballers' Association's mention of Ayre's passing
• Ayre's managerial stats at Soccerbase
• Independent site profile