David Lloyd "Dave" Bowen (June
7, 1928
–
September 25,
1995)
was a
Welsh
football player and manager, who captained his country to their
only ever
World Cup finals, in
1958.
Born in
Maesteg, Bowen first played for
Northampton Town, before joining
Arsenal
in the summer of 1950.
He made his debut against
Wolves on
March 24, 1951,
but it wasn't until
1954-55 that he was a regular in the Arsenal side, playing as a useful
central
midfielder.
In the meantime, Bowen had also made his debut for
Wales, in a friendly against
Yugoslavia in September
1954. Bowen went on
to win 18 caps for Wales, and was the team's captain for their
1958 World Cup campaign; Wales drew all three of their group matches and
qualified for the quarter-finals, where they were beaten 1-0 by
Brazil, the goalscorer being a 17-year-old
Pelé. Along with
goalkeeper
Jack
Kelsey, Bowen was the first Arsenal player to play in a World Cup.
Bowen's spell at Arsenal coincided with a lack of success at the club, so he
didn't win any domestic honours. However, he did play for a
London XI
in the 1958 final
of the
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup (as the UEFA Cup was originally known), losing 8-2 on
aggregate to
FC
Barcelona, and was Arsenal captain in his final two seasons. In all he
played 162 matches for the club, scoring twice.
In 1959, Bowen
returned to Northampton Town as player-manager. Bowen would manage the Cobblers
for eight years, and became known as a canny manager who signed quality players
despite a tight budget. He steered Northampton from the
Fourth Division to the
First in just five seasons. However, the club spent only one season (1965-66)
at the top, before being relegated.
Bowen left Northampton in
1967, after a
second successive relegation, though he rejoined the club for a second stint as
manager between 1969
and 1972, by which
time they had returned to the Fourth Division. He presided over the club's
famous 8-2 FA Cup
defeat at the hands of
Manchester United, in which
George
Best scored six times.
In the meantime, he had also been manager of Wales between
1964 and
1974, although the
side never did reach the heights it had when he was a player.
After stepping down as Wales manager, Bowen moved into journalism. He died in
1995, at the age of
67. The north stand of Northampton's
Sixfields Stadium is named in his honour.
