Fairclough: Arthur

1920-1927 (Manager Details) (Manager Details)

Fairclough was born in Redbrook, Barnsley in March 1873 and was Player-Secretary of a Barnsley Junior side in 1891-92, but had to give up the game because of ill-health. He was elected to the Barnsley committee in 1896 and became club Secretary at Oakwell two years later when the club entered the Football League for the first time. In 1901 he gave up the Secretary's job because of business commitments but returned to football in July 1902 when he was elected to the Sheffield FA. Two years later he returned to Barnsley as Manager-Secretary and took his unfancied side to the 1910 FA Cup Final, where they lost 2-0 to Newcastle after a replay. Two years later Fairclough and Barnsley were back in the FA Cup Final once more but this time triumphed 1-0 over West Bromwich Albion after a replay. Fairclough, who was also a Football League Referee, was a football fanatic and in 1909 his wage was just £2 per week, which was less than the club's trainer and most of the players. In April 1912 he moved to Huddersfield Town and laid down the platform of the great side that Herbert Chapman was to take to glittering success. After the trauma of Leeds City's dismissal from the Football League, the Directors of the newly formed Leeds United appointed the former Huddersfield Town Manager Arthur Fairclough to be the Manager at Elland Road on 26th February 1920. He took over from Dick Ray who had held the position since the club had joined the Midland League at the beginning of the 1919-20 season and he appointed the former Leeds City player as his assistant. When J. Hilton Crowther switched his allegiance to Leeds, he pursuaded the Huddersfield Manager to join him at Elland Road and Fairclough duly resigned his post of Secretary-Manager on 23rd December 1919. He and his assistant Dick Ray scoured the country for talent that would make an impact on their new status of the Second Division. United finished fourteenth in their inaugaral season in the Football League and followed that up with an eighth position in 1921-22 and seventh in the following season. Dick Ray left United in June 1923 to join Doncaster Rovers who had just been elected to the Third Division North. Fairclough immediately appointed the Blackpool Manager Dick Norman as his Assistant. The Fairclough-Norman partnership had flourished in their days together at Oakwell and it was not long before they again worked their magic at Elland Road. In 1923-24 they took Leeds into Division One for the first time in the club's short history as champions of the Second Division. After promotion, star players of the ilk of Tom Jennings, Russell Wainscoat, Willis Edwards, Bobby Turnbull and Tom Townsley, were brought to Leeds but, despite the injection of new blood, United found the going tough and after the purchase of the first three of those players in March 1925 saw a recovery in the last eight matches to stave off the threat of relegation and finish eighteenth, United were relegated in 1926-27, as they finished in twenty-first spot. Fairclough quit at the end of that season to make way for the return of Dick Ray, but left him with a side good enough to win promotion back to the First Division the following season. Fairclough returned to Barnsley on 12th May 1929 as Manager-Secretary but resigned a year later. He was appointed a Director of Barnsley in 1935. His Assistant Dick Norman also left at the same time as Fairclough and went on to manage Hartlepools United. Fairclough died in Sheffield on 19th March 1947, aged seventy-four.