Terry Brown (football manager)

Terry Brown, born 5th August 1952, in Hillingdon, is the current manager of football side AFC Wimbledon and former manager of both Aldershot Town and Hayes.

Management career

Previous to becoming a manager he coached Wokingham Town, for whom he had also played.

Hayes

He was in charge of Hayes for 9 years between 1993 and 2002. He had managed to take the Middlesex side from the brink of relegation from the Isthmian Premier Division, to 3rd in the Conference, just six points behind champions Cheltenham Town. But with a diminishing budget and his best players sold to make ends meet, Brown saw his side slip into a relegation dogfight. Frustrated, he applied for the Aldershot job and was selected for the job ahead of 50 other candidates.

Aldershot Town

Terry Brown was appointed Aldershot Town manager on 25 March 2002, the 10th anniversary of the town's old club Aldershot being wound up in the High Court.

After winning the Hampshire Senior Cup in his 1st month in charge, he began to assemble what he hoped would be a squad capable of achieving the club promotion in his 1st full season in charge. The Shots managed to win the league by a clear 13 points from nearest rivals Canvey Island.

Brown and his part-time players had an impressive first Conference National season, upstaging expectations by qualifying for the end of season play-off's. Aldershot beat favourites Hereford United on penalties before finally succumbing to Shrewsbury Town in the final.

The following season, now armed with a full-time squad, Brown managed to equal the achievements of the previous season by again qualifying for the play-off's - despite playing less fluent football than in the previous campaign. This time, however, luck was not on Brown's side, as his team went down to another penalty shoot out defeat, this time to Carlisle United, despite leading 3-1 at one point in spot kicks.

After two consecutive play-off losses, much was expected of Brown in the 2005-06 season. Unfortunately for the fans, this never materialised. The eventual 13th place finish was seen as an underachievement by all and forced Brown to almost completely restructure his entire squad in the summer of 2006.

Terry Brown finally resigned 1 day before his 5th anniversary with the club to take care of his wife Susan who has leukaemia. His final match was a 1-0 win against Weymouth on 27 March 2007.

AFC Wimbledon

On 15 May 2007, Terry Brown was announced as the new manager of AFC Wimbledon, [ [http://www.afcwimbledon.com/news.php?Psection_id=2&Psub_section_id=1&Open=2722 AFC Wimbledon Official Site - Dons announce new manager] ] following the sacking of Dave Anderson after the Dons' second successive play-off semi-final defeat in the Ryman League. Brown was joined at Wimbledon by Stuart Cash, who had been his assistant at Aldershot, and who joined the Dons directly from Lewes F.C. where he was assistant to Steve King. In his first season, they were promoted to the Blue Square South after a 2-1 play-off final win against Staines Town. In this match Brown introduced three subs which changed the context of the game. It was one of these subs, Mark De Bolla who scored the winner with 6 mins remaining.

In the Summer of 2008 Terry Brown released 8 of the Promotion winning side. He said that he wanted to build a more youthful side that could compete for promotion out of the Blue Square South. His first signing of the summer was an ex AFC Wimbledon player Lewis Taylor, coming from Horsham F.C.. Lewis was a free agent after his contract with Horsham expired in the Summer so Terry brought him into the new younger squad he was looking to make. His summer signings continued by purchasing Alan Inns who had been at Hampton & Richmond Borough for 6 years. Alan is a 22 year old who was a fans' favourite at his time at Hampton and it is an exciting prospect with him coming to join the Dons.

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