Managing the late, great George Best
Fry’s managerial history, prior to hanging up his tactics board and becoming director of football at Peterborough, took him through plenty of clubs up and down the EFL and beyond.
His CV has several promotions on it and though the top flight always just eluded him, he didn’t let that stop him managing one of football’s all-time greats.
How did George Best end up playing for his Dunstable Town side? When you’ve got the gift of the gab, anything’s possible.
Barry says: “My first managerial role in 1978 was at Dunstable Town, who had finished bottom of the league eight years on the trot.
“Our first attendance at Dunstable was 34 – the next one was 43. It wasn’t a crowd increase, I made all my family come.
“So I felt I had to have a gimmick and wake the town up. One Sunday night I was visiting one of my old haunts in Manchester, a club called Slack Alice which was owned by George [Best] So I went upstairs to see him and he says, ‘Baz, what are you doing here?’ I said, ‘I need a favour. I want you to play in two pre-season friendlies.’
“He agreed but said there might be a problem. He was still registered with Manchester United. ‘Tommy Docherty still owns my registration so you’ll have to ask him’, he said.
“So I went to the Man Utd training ground the next morning and I see Paddy Crerand, who was a player when I was at United. He said he’d take me upstairs to see Tommy.
“Paddy said, ‘Boss, this is one of our old players, Barry Fry.’ The Doc said, ‘Pleased to meet you son, what can I do for you?’
“I said, ‘ Mr Docherty, can you give me permission to play George Best in two pre-season friendlies?’
“He asked what club I was with, and when I told him he replied, ‘Dunstabubble? What makes you think Bestie will play for Dunstabubble when I can’t get him to play here at Old Trafford?’
“Paddy told him we’d been kids together and when The Doc asked who our opponents were, I said we hadn’t got any yet. He said he’d bring a Man Utd XI down!
“So, can you imagine George Best starting for Dunstable Town against Man Utd? We had 10,000 there and another 5,000 in the High Street who couldn’t get in. We were on the News at Ten – and we beat them 3-2!
“Later, when my chairman got put inside, I phoned George again. He came again, he played again. We got 10,000 in the stadium and all the staff got paid.”
Source : Sky Sports
