“Managers are only as good as their players,” insisted former England captain Debbie Bampton MBE as she mused on her achievement of becoming not only the first female manager to win the FA Women’s Premier League but also to do so as player-manager of an excellent and high achieving Croydon team in the final years of the 20th century.
FA Cup and FAWPL double winners in 1995-96 and 1999-2000, undefeated league champions in 1998-99 and League Cup runners-up in 97-98 and 99-2000, Bampton’s Croydon had only a small squad but they were a tight-knit group that blended a core of established internationals with committed team mates and up-and-coming talent.
Fitting football around work (Bampton’s included a lot of driving), then travelling the length and breadth of the country every other weekend to play matches, total commitment was demanded to be the best in this era. And that’s what the player-manager and her team gave.
As she reminisced on her career, Bampton said: “Looking back to when I was manager, I think ‘oh my God, how did I do all of that? Because I wanted to do everything myself. I did the coaching, the training, I arranged the coach, the meals, the hotel, the lot. How did I ever get to play as well?” Play she did though, and to the highest of standards as her career demonstrates.
After her England debut aged 16 in 1978 she went on to gain 95 caps. As a defensive-minded central midfielder she always maintained that she was not much of a goalscorer, though her headed goal against Denmark put England into the final of the 1984 Euro final.
Her on-field presence was such that she captained the side from 1985 until 1991 and also wore the armband in England’s first-ever World Cup in 1995.
Having enjoyed judo in her younger years, Bampton’s football journey started in teams coached by her father, Albert, who shared her love for the game, continuing to referee matches well into his eighties. She moved on to win the FA Cup with Lowestoft in 1982 and Howbury Grange two years later.
The following season saw her move to Millwall Lionesses, where a six-year stint was broken by a 1987-88 campaign spent in Italy’s Serie A as a semi-professional with ACF Trani B.K.V.
When the Women’s Football Association formed the National League in 1991-92, the 1991 FA Cup-winning Millwall team broke up and Bampton headed to London rivals Friends of Fulham, who were re-branding as Wimbledon. She grabbed a goal in a 5-2 home win against Notts Rangers on the opening day of the inaugural season.
Then followed a move to newly-promoted Arsenal to be a part of their treble-winning side of 1992-93, which for Bampton as a life-long Gooner was, she said, “like my dream.”
“I had two fantastic seasons with Arsenal,” she added. “I think I was 31/32 and I scored 20 or so goals, which is pretty good going. I suppose because we had such a good, creative team I was released to be more of an attacking midfielder.”
In the summer of 1994 Bampton joined to coach and play for the club formed by some of her former Millwall team mates and that had morphed into Croydon from its original name of Bromley Borough, who had started from nothing and fought their way through the lower leagues to reach and win at the first attempt the FAWNL’s Southern Division.
Silverware did not arrive immediately, Croydon finishing fourth in their first top flight season. “They didn't have a great team when I first went there,” recalled Bampton. Some players “weren’t quite good enough,” but new signings complemented the existing talent group of players like England internationals Hope Powell, Brenda Sempare and Kerry Davis.
They went on to claim a League and FA Cup double the following year, and in challenging circumstances. A week after beating Liverpool on penalties in the FA Cup final at Millwall’s stadium The Den, Croydon navigated a colossal end-of-season fixture pile-up - they had to play five league games in 10 days, but pipped Doncaster Belles to the title on goal difference.
Thinking back to that first championship, Bampton remembered, “I was injured from over-playing. Hope had done her shoulder, so neither of us were playing in that final match. We played Arsenal and had to beat them, and (Belles captain) Gill Coultard turned up from Donny.
“She came all that way thinking if Arsenal beat us or drew then Belles would win the league. And who scored our winning goal? Brenda Sempare - it was like you couldn't write it, (because) Brenda scored very few goals in her career. She was probably the best player that I played with in England.”
Subsequent campaigns saw Croydon finish third and fourth before their underdog mentality and watertight defensive displays, bolstered by the addition of goalkeeper Pauline Cope, hugely influential captain Gill Wylie and striker Joanne Broadhurst, led them to further titles in 1998-99 and 1999-2000 - incorporating an impressive stretch of 18 months unbeaten in the league.
Although the club received some funding from Croydon FC and Croydon Council, they did not have the resources of clubs like arch rivals Arsenal. But they had an ability and a unity that brought successes that gave Bampton considerable pride and joy.
“At Arsenal,” she noted, “we never really celebrated when we won things. We’d maybe go out for something to eat. But with Croydon, if we won, we had a good time. We were like a big family. I was there for six seasons and it was the best time of my life.”
In the early days coach Josie Clifford was on hand and then ex-Millwall Lionesses boss Alan May (a long-time mentor to Hope Powell, who became England’s head coach in 1998) assisted with the coaching too, as did Joanne Broadhurst’s dad Brian. But Bampton retained overall control throughout, on top of consistently performing on the pitch.
Always a straight talker, though not above joining in the laughs in the dressing room (during their long unbeaten run she used a (board game) Subbuteo pitch and figures to relay tactics), Bampton modestly downplayed her contribution despite her team’s accomplishments.
“I don't think I was the best coach,” she said, “I just knew football. I could see the game on the pitch and then I could take that into the dressing room.
“I was like my dad. He never took any sort of coaching badges. I was probably only able to move with the times because I was being coached by England coaches, so I was learning through them. And then I would take those things back to Croydon.”
In the summer of 2000, the majority of Croydon’s players responded favourably to the overtures of Charlton Athletic and the team made the switch across South East London on the back of promises of greater support and facilities from the professional men’s club.
But the transfer was neither harmonious nor completely unanimous, with Bampton wanting to remain loyal to the faith and backing shown by non-League Croydon FC. So she cut ties with the outfit that had brought her so much happiness.
When Jo Broadhurst returned to Doncaster Belles, Bampton offered her support and somewhat reluctantly headed north too but in a purely playing capacity, again making a scoring start to the season. A strengthened Belles side maintained a 100 per cent record until April in the 2000-01 league season before a 1-0 loss to Arsenal knocked them out of their stride – the Gunners also knocked them out of both Cup competitions in the quarter-finals – and they had to settle for second spot.
Although she later made playing appearances with Eastbourne and had brief coaching stints with clubs on the south coast, that would be Brompton’s last significant experience in the top echelon of the league pyramid.
‘Debs’ enjoyed her time with each of her clubs and was rightly proud of her England career, even though she felt after hanging up her boots that she could have been a better captain off the field as well as on it.
She was made an MBE in 1998 and inducted into the National Football Museum Hall of Fame in 2005, but it would always be her Croydon memories that she would cherish most.
“Croydon is special to me,” she said, “because I was the manager and a player, and I just think we were such underdogs.”
The women’s football landscape changed somewhat as the 21st century was ushered in with greater investment in clubs like Arsenal and, for a while, Fulham, Doncaster Belles and Charlton. But Charlton, despite that, never did approach the heights reached by Croydon.
And Bampton, despite a tremendous career both on and off the pitch, admitted after her retirement that - if she could turn back the clock - she would do things a little differently, perhaps manage her workload better and delegate more.
She may have steered her club to five trophies in only six seasons as player-manager, but as she looked back there was a little whiff of ‘what if’ as she pondered: “I never actually managed a team without being a player as well, did I?...”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Images thanks to Gavin Ellis of TGS Photos and Simon Mooney of The FA’s Online Photo Library.
