From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Don Welsh (born 25 February 1911, Manchester - died 2 February 1990) was an English football player and manager. As a player he played at inside left for Charlton Athletic and for England, winning the FA Cup with Charlton in 1946-47.

He guested for Liverpool during the war in the 1939/40 season, when all matches were friendlies because of the Second World War.

With his playing days over, Welsh started his managerial career at Brighton & Hove Albion in November 1947 aged 36 years old. His managerial career did not get off to a great start - Brighton finished bottom of the Third Division (South) at the end of the 1947-48 season. Brighton recovered to finish 6th and 8th in the next two years. Following this he joined Liverpool as manager in 1951 as a result of George Kay's decision to step down through ill-health.

[Spoiler]

In 1954 Don Welsh became the first manager to guide Liverpool into relegation for over 50 years. Unfortunately, that day also saw Everton promoted back to Division 1. He had almost accomplished that feat the season before finishing 17th, and only a scrappy win over Chelsea on the last day of the season kept Liverpool up. After this relegation Liverpool would stay in Division 2 for eight more seasons.

Liverpool came near to being promoted again in 1955-56, but Welsh would not be given another chance and was sacked as Liverpool manager in 1956. He remains the only Liverpool manager to ever be sacked by the club.

After leaving Liverpool, Don became a publican for a while in the West Country before the lure of football brought him back into club management again, this time at Bournemouth in the newly-formed and non-regional Third Division just before the start of the 1958-59 season. After two average seasons (they finished 12th and 10th), he was dismissed in February 1961 following a string of poor results. He managed non-League Wycombe Wanderers for a brief spell between July 1963 and November 1964 before returning to the club where he had enjoyed such success as a player, Charlton Athletic, to become a member of their administrative staff.

He died in 1990, aged 78.

Contents 1 Career Honours 1.1 Honours As Player 1.1.1 Charlton Athletic 2 External links

Winner

• 1946-47 FA Cup

Runner Up

• 1945-46 FA Cup

• Management statistics at Soccerbase
• Manager profile at LFChistory.net

Liverpool F.C. - Managers
Barclay and McKenna (1892-96) | Watson (1896-1915) | Ashworth (1920-23) | McQueen (1923-28) | Patterson (1928-36) | Kay (1936-51) | Welsh (1951-56) | Taylor (1956-59) | Shankly (1959-74) | Paisley (1974-83) | Fagan (1983-85) | Dalglish (1986-91) | Souness (1991-94) | Evans (1994-98) | Evans and Houllier (1998) | Houllier (1998-2004) | Benítez (2004-)