DOWSE FANS THE FLAMES
BOSS HAS HIS FIRE BACK
BANK Holiday lunchtime in an Aldershot pub just along the road from where his former striker Nicke Kabamba will make his England C debut, Alan Dowson is regaling stories of players he’s proud to have helped progress in their careers. Kabamba was plucked from Hemel Hempstead’s reserves, along with Jamal Lowe, and formed a fearsome Beavers’ front three with Brendan Kiernan.
All went on to full-time football and keep in touch with the former Walton & Hersham, Kingstonian and Dartford boss, known as Dowse. “It’s still the same this morning, ‘Uncle Dowse, come and watch us’,” Dowson smiles. “It will be lovely to see Nicke playing for England – that’s the good side of football where you help these kids on. It like when you get these WhatsApp groups with footballers. We had a special group at Hampton, a special changing room and special players.
“They’ve all kept in touch. They call it the Unemployed Beaver Group. I’ve joined that now – and Josh Casey has too. “They text us all the time, ‘Gaffer, do you want to come in it?’ I go in for a little bit, I say something wrong and they bomb us out, they do. “We did unbelievable at Hampton. The first we stopped relegation, the second year we won the Ryman Premier. We got to the play-offs and lost to Ebbsfleet, then we got to the play-off final and got beat on penalties. That’s when I left for Woking.
Personality
“It was great times at Hampton, with some great players. We had Shandon Baptiste there as well, who went on to be a £3m player at Brentford. We had Sam Long, who was excellent for us and went back to captain Oxford United. It was unbelievable.”
The 53-year-old left Dartford this season with the club six points outside the play-offs, having missed out in the semi-final the year before.
It’s the first club he hasn’t won promotion with, having guided upwards six times, including Woking’s National League South triumph in 2019. He manages with his trademark enthusiasm and the 100mph personality that matches the speed of his speech in his thick north-east accent. Fundraising evenings, marathons around the pitch for charity, community engagement and even a wing walk – Dowson gives everything to his job.
“When you go to a football club, if you haven’t got people, you haven’t got a football club,” Dowson says. “So I do laps around the pitch because I think it will help out, I do engage with the supporters, I do try and do things for local charities.
“It’s the right job I want next. I’ve still got massive fire in my belly. Whatever job I go to, of course, I will go into the community because I believe you’ve got to. Once football loses that thing of going to meet people and being nice to people, you lose a football club.
“At Millwall, we had a manager called John Docherty. He made people like Tony Cascarino, Teddy Sheringham. They got to the first division for the first ever time. From the tea lady onwards, everyone was together. I knew I wasn’t going to be a great player so I had my eye on coaching. He got everybody involved so when I go to a club, I try to get everyone involved. “My only little regret with Hemel is I went in there, kept them up and left. I thought they were lovely and I felt sorry I couldn’t say ta-ra properly.” Dowson left Hemel with just one game to go having taken over in March on a voluntary basis to help keep the club at Step 2, which they did.
He admits 2023-24 was a down year. It’s one he doesn’t want to stick with him. “I’ve learnt as a manager you’ve got to get two out of three signings right,” Dowson says. “If you don’t it’s hard. Everyone wants a contract and if you’ve got half of them wrong, you are in trouble.
Passionate
“I think I might not have done as well as I should have with the recruitment at Dartford. I can blame the budget, maybe, I can blame losing my best players. But if I’d got a couple more right I might have been sneaking in the play-offs instead of being six points off them.”
That’s why Dowson has been out watching games tirelessly, stocking up his knowledge of players for when the right job comes along.
“I am still as passionate as ever and still think 24/7 about it, I don’t stop watching the game,” Dowson says. “I like meeting people and talking about football.
“I’ve been in it since I was 14, thick as two short planks, never done a day’s graft in my life really.
“It changes every single year. Forums sack managers, critics can come on to you after losing two games, the money has changed in the NonLeague game. It’s a lot of good and a lot of bad.”
Dowson recalls stories of pulling in favours from best mate in football Graeme Jones – joint assistant at Newcastle United – for old training kit from the likes of Wigan.
“I drove up at three in the morning to Wigan so I could get there before the senior ones got there. I’d load it in a van and bring it down for the players to train in. Now they’ve all got training kit.
“When Mick McCarthy was at Sunderland, I’d get their gear. We’d have to go to clubs and say, ‘We couldn’t have your old training kit?’ They’d say, ‘Dowse if you can get here by 7am we’ll give it to you before somebody else comes in’. The players loved it.” Some things might have changed, but Dowson can’t wait to get back in.