Happy Birthday Dev
I couldn’t get to the game on Saturday but having watched the highlights, that Josh Popoola block in the 95th minute was incredible! Straight into the end of season montage and hopefully a pivotal intervention in our run to the play-offs.
Instead of thoughts on the game, this post is going to look at Maidenhead’s greatest ever manager: Alan Devonshire. I’ll begin by saying Happy Birthday to the York Road legend who turned 70 on Monday, news of which inspired this retrospective.
Alan Devonshire's Black and White Army
Dev managed us for over 900 games in two spells, starting as joint manager alongside Martyn Busby for the 1996–1997 season, before taking sole charge later that season. To fully understand how much he transformed the football club, I think it’s important to look at how the club performed without him. In his first full season , Maidenhead were competing in the Isthmian League Division 1 against teams such as Whyteleafe, Molesey, Leyton Pennant, Wokingham and Thame United. We had been trophyless for 27 years since a Berks and Bucks Cup in 1970 and support-wise, regular attendance of over 1,000 wasn’t even a pipe dream; . However, despite the small but loud fanbase, the crumbling ground (some things haven’t changed), and a difficult start, including losing at home to Marlow (imagine that!!!), Dev ended that season by winning the Full Members Cup and breaking the trophy drought. This cup run included wins over Yeovil and Sutton Utd and saw a bumper crowd of over 400 attend the semi-final at York Road, including yours truly, for the first ever time.
2003-15: the Bleak Years
After 7 seasons of stability came 12 pretty bleak seasons without Dev, which coincided with my time at Desborough so I’ve summarised them in the style of a school report, with grades ranking my enjoyment.
2003/04 – John Dreyer in charge. FA Trophy Quarter Final run, top half finish qualified us for our inaugural Conference South season. Grade: B-
2004/05 – Dreyer sacked and inexplicably replaced by the most unlikeable manager in recent history: Dennis Greene. Cue financial meltdown. Relegation from Conference South reprieved at AGM due to Hornchurch being more financially f*cked than us. Grade: F
2005/06 – Greene threatens fans on forum but is gone by September. Carl Taylor takes over. We’re relegated to the Southern League by Easter. Cue further financial meltdown.Purchased by Pharmalink. Grade: F
2006/07 – Taylor sacked and replaced by Johnson Hippolyte aka Drax. Made the 1st Round of the FA Cup.Won promotion back to Conference South in the play-offs. It’s Chico Time. Grade: A-
2007/08 – Made the FA Cup 1st Round proper again, but lost 4-1 to Horsham. Drax allows too many of the promotion-winning side to leave. Had to rely on a great run in April to keep us up. Grade: C+
2008/09 – Decent season, bigger crowds, nearly made the play-offs. A few great results at York Road. Some promising players on the books. Grade: C
2009/10 – Talented young side, with the excellent Will Hendry in midfield. Mid-table finish and a County Cup victory over Wycombe. Grade: B
2010/11 – An unlovable side full of mercenaries. Long losing streak. Just scraped our way out of relegation. Grade: E
2011/12 – Longer losing streak. Bad football. Stayed up by a point. Grade: F
2012/13 – Still more losing streaks. A squad infused with young talent like Harry Pritchard. Stayed up by one point… again. Grade: D-
2013/14 – FA Trophy run to the last 16 but otherwise another terrible season. Even longer losing streak. Stayed up, but only just. Grade: D-
2014/15 – New stand. Tarpey joins. DJ Campbell joins. Club felt stuck in a Drax timewarp of nothingness but he leaves at end of season after County Cup win where Jonathan Hippolyte scored. Grade: E
Return of the Dev
Summarising those 12 years was a lot more enjoyable than watching most of it. Dev consolidated in his first season back and we finished 7th in the league but the highlight of the season was the FA Cup run. Not going to the Port Vale away game will forever be one of my biggest regrets as a Magpies fan, but I did make the televised replay, which saw us take the lead before eventually succumbing to the League One side. The 2016/17 season is without a doubt, my favourite as a Maidonian. We achieved promotion to the National League; something which I remember saying back as a kid would be my ultimate dream for the club, but never believing it would happen. Not only did Dev create the best team I’ve seen at York Road in nearly 30 years as a fan, but he grew the fanbase to make the club unrecognisable from just a few years before.In his second spell he took a side that was stuck in an infinite loop of surviving the Conference South by the skin of its teeth each year into an established National League team. A club who pulled off some brilliant results and could give anyone in that league a game on their day. Staying in the National League as a semi-pro side for 8 seasons was a minor miracle, particularly when you consider the opposition we beat during this period: Wrexham, Stockport, Tranmere, Leyton Orient, Oldham, and Chesterfield. The difference in budget and infrastructure was not so much a gap, but a chasm.
Our Greatest Ever Manager?
Did we always play the best football? No… very much no. But again, I just don’t believe we had the money or training facilities to be able to play a Pep-inspired game. Ultimately, we would never be able to attract the kind of players that play that style of football. I think we are kidding ourselves if we think footballers at this level really care about the type of football their team plays. Maybe it’s cynical, but in my opinion, the reason our recruitment was so hit and miss in the National League is because players will, 9 times out of 10, go to the club that pays them the most money. Simply put, the reason our football wasn’t always the best is because our squad wasn’t as talented as other squads in the division who paid more. That’s not Dev’s fault.
Whilst Dev couldn’t change the budget, he could nurture excellent, young local talent such as Josh Kelly, Reece Smith and Max Kilman. Their subsequent transfers have brought the club vital funds and grown our local profile, which can only boost our future hopes of attracting young talent.
I won’t pretend I agreed with every decision Dev made, particularly over player retention and recruitment. But I will argue this point until I’m blue in the face. None of us fans see the players every day and watch them train, see how they interact with the rest of the squad, are aware of their contracts, are aware of budgetary pressures, or let’s be frank, have any idea how to manage a National League football club (apart from on Football Manager).
I don’t wish to diminish the excellent work of Pharmalink and the Community Trust, who have also made huge improvements around the club as both a business and a community asset, but without a successful football club on the pitch, we wouldn’t be getting regular gates of over 1000.
The saddest thing for me about Dev’s departure this season is the vitriol and criticism he faced over the past couple of years from some elements of the fanbase. I truly hope it doesn’t cloud his memories of his time at the club.
The Dev years were an unprecedented golden period for this club, but by November 2025, it was time for him to go. Because this post has already dragged on longer than Kane Ferdinand’s Magpies career, I will cover what went wrong in Dev’s last year in part 2, next week! Before that thought, there will be a little review of the Dover game on Saturday.
Until then, see you on the Bell End. Up the Mags!
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