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David Howell Interview

By Reckless

The below featured in a recent Barnet Programme and is reproduced by kind permission of Barnet FC.

As much as I despised Enfield as a club who styled themselves 'The Kings of Non League Football' in the 1980's I still hungered for some of their numbers to pull on an amber shirt.

David Howell or Owsy as he is known in the football world was the first, because whenever I saw him play, be it from the West Bank Underhill or at Southbury Road, he basically oozed confidence and class. He always seemed to have time together with a coolness yet he was hard as nails. Dave is hero of mine and I met up with him before training at Ryman League Premier Harrow Borough FC where he now resides as Manager.

Dave, who really doesn't appear to have changed much at all, is 47 living in Pimlico with his French girlfriend Beatrice while also looking after his elderly Mother in Hammersmith. This was where he was first bought up in a large family of five brothers and two sisters.

"As a boy I lived close to Queens Park Rangers and they were my team along with Chelsea. Rodney Marsh and Stan Bowles were my heroes plus the Blues team that won the FA Cup in 1970 against Leeds, Osgood, Cooke, Hudson and Hutchinson all greats. One week I would be at Loftus Road then the next at the Bridge. I started playing as a centre half as that was what it was known as then but did flitter with being a centre forward on Sunday mornings but soon realised that playing centre half was better suited to my temperament. I wanted to be able to see and read the game rather than chase hopeful balls," said Dave.

From England Schoolboys to Fulham

He quickly progressed from Schools Football to District and County level and then onto England under 15 and 18 Schoolboys, before joining Fulham aged 17 and playing in their South East Counties side. Drifting into non league football at Hillingdon Borough he found himself up against players of the calibre of Jeff Astle who was at Weymouth and even Geoff Hurst who was at Tonbridge, "That was fantastic marking these truly great players! In fact at Hillingdon I had my first run in with someone who would eventually be a large part of my life. The manager who superseded Jim Langley, and who in fact let me move on to Hounslow Town, was none other than Barry Fry!"

While at Hounslow Dave began to get noticed and soon moved onto Harrow Borough and very shortly into the England non-league squad. "Borough had a run of good league placings eventually winning the Isthmian Premier League in 1983/4 but they decided not to progress into what was then the Alliance Premier League. To be honest I was disappointed with this attitude being the person I am so when Eddie McClusky, Enfield's manager, offered me a contract I joined a club who were in the top echelons of the non-league pyramid.

Barnet 0-7 Enfield

There I was fortunate to win the FA trophy and an APL championship plus play 14 times for England, 7 as Captain. A trivia question for you Reckless, who was the first black footballer to captain his country at international level? Yep, David Howell" he added with pride, and quite rightly so. I then reminded Dave that he was in the Enfield team on Saturday 26th October 1985 when the E's trounced Barnet at Underhill 0-7 in an FA Cup tie and should be loathed forever by Bees fans. He gave a chuckle but that game convinced me that I wanted David Howell in an amber shirt one day.

Barnet and Barry Fry started showing a serious interest in the evergreen Howell from around 1987 and finally managed to sign him in the summer of 1990 at the ripe old age of 31, although he was still very fit with an extremely influential personality. He smiled and said, "I wanted to play with the best players and a club who could achieve, and that was Barnet.

Big time Charlies

My friend Tony Jennings warned me about signing, as he put it, 'the club is full of heavy characters' - a polite way of saying 'Big time Charlies' - but as soon as I joined it was obvious that the whole squad got on famously with each other and it was great. Barry instinctively knew the right players to sign and his message was simple yet flamboyant for away matches, 'If you must go out on a Friday night just make sure you are in bed before 6 o'clock but then be ready to play, express yourselves and entertain the public'.

The away trips were incredible. We would be staying in a nice hotel in say, Manchester, and there would be three little cliques or groups - the card school, the late drinkers who stayed in the hotel like Gary Phillips and Wayne Turner who would have a few pints, and then my little crowd who use to go out and hit the clubs. We stayed on the soft drinks and stayed off the alcohol because socialising and music was our gig and not booze!

We would return to the hotel bar where the card players would be playing and Sumo and Wayne's gang would be laughing and joking! We had a stunning group of players, Gary Bull and Harry Willis who incidentally I shared a house with in St Albans at the time plus Steiny, Evans, Showler, Lowesy, Carter (Spike), Bodley, Pooley, the list and talent was endless. They were crazy times but what a team we had"

Fisher Athletic 2-4 Barnet

We then chatted about that day in May 1991 at Fisher Athletic. I told him that I have always maintained that although Gary Bull's volleyed goal was simply magnificent it was the Howell equaliser in the second half that settled the game and promotion to the Football League because from that point on Fisher had very little left to offer, it knocked the stuffing out of their brave effort. "Yeah that was a nerve racking day but we had the belief.

I can still see the Kenny Lowe corner coming over to which, I just jumped as high as I could fully committed to attacking that ball with so much confidence, it was perfect. I tell people that I didn't just out jump the keeper but I out jumped the cross bar! And I will tell you something that you didn't know. I played that whole game unable to kick properly with my right foot because of a badly bruised instep. It was heavily protected and it was affecting my turning and I tell you Dean Martin, who scored their first goal, would have never got away from me had I been 100% fit. Yet there was no way on earth I was going to miss out on playing that day."

At that time Dave was working with the BBC and involved in Personnel and outside broadcasts. "A good solid job that fortunately afforded flexi time allowing me to train three times a week with the club." I offered that this must have been a seriously tough schedule and that maybe he should have gone full time.

"It put a huge strain and unfortunately broke a relationship I was in at the time but I resisted until later in my career at Southend to go full time and was probably the oldest to turn full pro in history since I think Tony Book at Manchester City." He recalled "I didn't play in the first Barnet league game against Crewe when we lost 7-4 but I did start in the incredible 5-5 against Brentford". Two weeks later the team thrashed Lincoln City 6-0 at Sincil Bank.

"There were goals everywhere in that team it was an incredible time" At the end of the season Dave was awarded the Barnet Supporters Association Player of the Year, fully deserved for a brilliant season.

Promotion to Division Two, and all that...

The turmoil that beset the club during the 1992/3 season is well documented. Administration problems and media intrusion were rife and David expressed his sadness that the problems surrounding the club, the players not getting paid etc, broke up, as he put it "the whole ethos of the Barnet team at the time. I was actually made spokesperson by the others mainly because I could keep my cool ('he always has had that power' says his friend and current coach at Harrow Boro, Ken Charlery) and I sat in Stan Flashman's house in Totteridge trying to sort things out.

Eventually the PFA intervened because they simply had to and many of those great players went this way and that, what a shame. It was however without doubt the greatest team I have ever played in during my career and some of my most treasured memories come from those years." He didn't have to make it any plainer to me that he felt that team would have more than just competed in League Division 2 had they remained together, it just wasn't to be.

David found himself at Southend Utd for the start of the 1993/4 season. Barry Fry had become manager and had dragged along a whole bunch of his favourite players from Barnet. Edwin Stein, Mick Bodley, Derek Payne, David Barnett, Jon Hunt and others. Soon he moved to Birmingham City again with Fry and Stein but this time a problem with Southend releasing his registration papers due to an alleged illegal approach allegation restricted his playing career to just a couple of games with the Blues.

"During my last game for them at Cardiff I completely snapped my medial ligament and actually played the last 5 minutes without a medial ligament. I started to get more involved with the coaching there and loved it. Birmingham are a massive club and one thing I can say is once you are involved with it the fans treat you like messiahs such is their loyalty.

Reckless and David Howell

I thoroughly enjoyed my time there including a relegation, a promotion and an Auto Windscreens Trophy win at Wembley against Carlisle. After our dismissal at Birmingham I got a call from a certain Paul Fairclough who was manager at Stevenage Boro and assisted him as player/coach in their successful push to win the league."

Cyprus Nightclubs

The Howell lifestyle started changing as he got involved in promoting various clubs and functions in the West End of London and later on that year he moved out to Ayia Napa in Cyprus for some 6 years calling on his 'personnel' skills for the launching of the first R&B bar and the opening of the first nightclub to play both R&B and UK Garage on the island. While in Cyprus he wasn't far from the football world, looking after players on holiday from the Premiership to Non-League.

He returned to England in 2001 when he received a call from his old mate Edwin Stein. "That unmistakable loud voice appeared and invited me to join him at Harrow Borough. I wanted to get back into football so it was a perfect opportunity. When Ed moved on in November 2003 I was offered the position of caretaker and then took over the reins fully in February 2004. So here I am".

Tragically back in 1983 Harrow were entertaining Hayes FC with Dave in the line up for Borough and his younger brother Michael in the Hayes team. "Michael suffered a heart attack in the away dressing room that day and died aged just 21 and I draw so much energy from that. Even now when I walk past that dressing room I fill up with positive energy, I can't tolerate negativity. Unlike supporters who rant and rave I take the time to sincerely thank the officials after every game even if they have performed poorly and take everything in my stride.

Harrow Borough and the Future

I have a very low player's budget at this club compared to other teams in this league, and out of that I have to pay the players, Ken Charlery the coach, and Jenny the physio. We have a lovely club here with the right attitude. The players do not earn a lot but they get treated like professionals and they are disciplined. Hopefully they are an extension of my personality. We actually won an award last season from the league reflecting our conduct"

Finally I asked about the future and also who was his perfect defensive partner. He didn't hesitate in mentioning Mick Bodley. "Bods could read the game so well and was naturally left footed, yeah Micky was the best."

David is an extremely open and honest guy, calm and cool just like his playing personality. He finished by saying "I didn't become a household name as player as much as I would like to have been but I know exactly how I want to manage so I will endeavour to be successful by doing things what I consider to be the right way, my way. No one can say anything negative about me as a coach or a manager because I have learnt from the likes of Barry Fry and I now know exactly what to do and what not to do."

The biggest smile you could imagine followed this comment! Thanks Owsy, I know the supporters at Barnet 'sincerely thank you' too and wish you all the very best for the future.

September 2006