July 2025 sadly saw the passing of BRIAN OWEN, a key part of David Pleat’s backroom team at Kenilworth Road in the early 1990s.  This popular and versatile character has a unique place in English football – he is thought to be the only man to have done four different jobs in each of the top four divisions of the game (player, coach, physio and scout).  This article about Brian Owen’s stint at Luton was put together by ROB HADGRAFT, who worked with him on his 2015 book ‘A Man For All Seasons’.

By Rob Hadgraft

THE call from David Pleat came out of the blue at exactly the right moment. Veteran campaigner Brian Owen’s long career was at a crossroads. He was spending the summer of 1991 coaching at summer camps in the USA and feeling anxious about what the future might hold.

Brian had spent the previous year coaching at Colchester United, who at this point were playing non-League football. Their flamboyant chairman Jonathan Crisp was cutting costs and had told Brian he could only afford to employ him on a part-time basis for 1991-2 season. Brian was a well-travelled football man, well-qualified and highly experienced at all levels, and at the age of 47 this was not what he wanted to hear.

He badly needed a new challenge and preferably at a higher level than the GM Vauxhall Conference. When David Pleat phoned and immediately offered him the physio’s job at Luton Town (who were preparing for a tenth successive season in the top flight) he could hardly believe his luck.

Pleat and Owen had known each other since the 1960s when on opposing sides in Luton-Watford derby games. But this was no ‘old pal’s act’ – Pleat knew that Owen was a respected and versatile individual, having served the likes of Wolves, Ipswich, Crystal Palace, Watford and even the England set-up during his 30 years-plus in the professional game.

When Brian and I sat down to work on his biography a few years ago he was amused to find I was a Luton supporter, and began recalling his happy days with the Hatters. He chuckled at the memory of David Pleat asking what he thought about coming to Kenilworth Road as club physio to replace the departing Dave Galley:

“David insisted if I was interested in the job I must go straight to Luton’s ground from the airport when I flew home from America so that I could sign there and then. Only after that could I go home and think about it! I did what he asked and was delighted to accept the offer”.

When Colchester heard about the Luton offer, they tried to backtrack and told Brian he could remain at Layer Road on a full-time basis. However it was now too late for that and he was off, swapping a fifth-tier club for a top-tier one in one fell swoop.

Pat Boyle, an old friend who lived near Luton, provided Brian with digs over the first few weeks but eventually he found himself a small flat in the town and got stuck into his new job at Kenilworth Road. Renowned as a hard-worker, he would end up spending the best part of two years with the Hatters, often working seven days a week. It was his second spell as a physio in the top division having served Ipswich Town in the 1980s.

The 1991-92 season was the last before the Premier League came into being and by getting relegated in May 1992 Luton narrowly missed out, but Brian recalled: “We had an interesting season alongside the big boys and I enjoyed working with all the great characters on the Hatters’ playing staff at the time, people like Chris Kamara, Mick Harford and Steve Claridge.”

Brian’s arrival at Kenilworth Road was part of a summer of major change and upheaval. After escaping relegation on the final day of the previous season for a third successive year, Jim Ryan had controversially been sacked as manager. The more experienced Pleat was welcomed back after five years away. By now there was also a new grass pitch replacing the unpopular plastic, a brand new stand in one corner of the ground, a new chairman and a fresh playing kit. Pleat assembled a new backroom team and got busy in the transfer market. He chose Colin Murphy as his right-hand man, Brian Owen as his physio, Terry Westley as his youth coach, and retained John Moore as senior coach. “I thought long and hard and thoroughly before handing these people the responsibilities of advising me,” Pleat told the fans.

Moving up the leagues after the tribulations at Colchester was a breath of fresh air for Brian, even though Luton spent his first season battling relegation. The physio equipment available to him was obviously of a higher calibre than he was used to. Supporters’ fanzine ‘Mad as a Hatter’ donated cash to the club, and Brian announced to the media this would be spent on two mountain bikes and a rowing machine to help players going through rehab.

Brian recounted to me his memories of that season: “I recall we went up to play Manchester United at Old Trafford in September of 1991. It was our tenth league game of the season and we were second-from-bottom having only won once. We were staying at a hotel in the middle of Manchester. I was never really keen to stay in a town or city where we would be playing the next day. Anyway suddenly a fire alarm went off in the middle of the night and we all had to get up and assemble outside the hotel! Not a great way to prepare for such a big game at the home of the league leaders. Consequently when we played next day, a young Ryan Giggs – just 17 years old and still a relative newcomer - ran riot through our defence and they beat us 5-0.”

Brian often found himself working seven days a week at Luton and was never free to slip away after lunch in the time-honoured fashion of many a player. But being busy was how he liked it. This is how he described a typical weekly schedule at Kenilworth Road:

“The work starts in earnest for me on the coach home after the first team game on a Saturday. The lads who are injured are packed in ice or strapped up and told to report to the club the following morning. It is usually a busy weekend for me as I get home to Suffolk late on the Saturday night but have to be back at Kenilworth Road the following morning to treat injured players. The Sunday morning clinic runs from 10 a.m. to midday. The players I have in are obviously the injured first-teamers who are on their return to fitness on rehabilitation programmes. This usually starts about 10 a.m. and involves cycling, circuit training, body and general fitness programmes. Players who are fit enough to run will do so and will continue their programme in the afternoon.

“The club doctor generally calls in on a Monday to see how all the players are, and I end that day writing up a diary of the progression of all injured players. If there is a reserve match, I will attend that as well. The rest of the week is basically the same, except on Fridays when we finish early in preparation for the games to be played the following day. The doctor calls back for his second visit of the week to check on the health and fitness of all players. If I can get to a youth team game during the week I will, but it can be difficult with the first team and reserves taking priority. My interest in football doesn’t stop with Luton, as I try to watch as many other games as my schedule permits.”

To ease the pressures, relax the players and boost team spirit during the tough 1991-92 campaign, David Pleat took the team and backroom staff away for a swift mid-season break. He also had an ulterior motive for the trip - to keep talented young midfielder Mark Pembridge away from Everton and other big clubs reportedly circling ominously with their cheque books!

Pleat, coach Colin Murphy and physio Brian agreed the players should use the trip to recharge their batteries and not work too hard. But Brian knew the plyers well and was aware he would need to keep an eye on some of the “livelier characters” in the squad - Mick Harford, Ceri Hughes, Phil Gray and others – otherwise something might kick-off if they were given complete free rein. Working with Murphy he set up some light fitness work to keep them out of trouble.

This didn’t go too smoothly when they discovered one morning that Big Mick was the worse for wear after the previous night’s activities and would need dragging from his room to take part. Brian said his only option was to go up and find Mick, bark orders at him and not worry about the possibility he might get thumped at any moment: “To his credit, Mick dragged himself around the circuits that we devised, grazing his knees as he fell over, but he completed the session and I managed to escape unscathed!”

Brian admitted that he, and Murphy in particular, used to be driven mad by David Pleat’s refusal to ‘shut up shop’ in games in which they were leading. This cavalier approach, although praiseworthy sadly meant points were often conceded from winning positions. Despite their grumbles David wouldn’t budge on his purist approach, feeling that attack was the best form of defence. Brian said a classic example occurred when Luton suddenly hit form, beating Coventry, Arsenal and Chelsea in successive games and then holding Nottingham Forest to a draw. But in the next game, when 1-0 up at Anfield with only five minutes left, instead of seeing the game out continued playing in an open style and conceded twice. Something similar had happened in the draw at Forest too, with Mark Pembridge’s sensational first-half strike looking set to win the game only for a failure to tighten up leading to England defender Des Walker strolling forward to equalise in the very last minute. To rub salt into Luton wounds, this would be the only senior goal of Walker’s entire career!

Sometimes Pleat’s approach paid off, but not often enough and relegation was confirmed at Notts County on the final day of 1991-2. As the curtain came down at Kenilworth Road on an unbroken ten-year stint in football’s top tier, Pleat publicly reflected on what had happened and named a few people he felt had been “thoroughly excellent” for the club during this eventful campaign. Brian Owen was one of them. Pleat stated:

“I have said many times I am interested only in optimistic people . . . we must be positive together and from managing director David Kohler down to the washing lady Rene, we must approach next season with thoughts only of improving our situation.” As well as praising his staff in general, he singled out Brian Owen, who he said “has been a thoroughly conscientious and professional example in the medical room, well supported by Dr Bill Berry.”

Brian recalled that period clearly: “Relegation was highly disappointing, but my time at Luton did have many highlights. This included a pre-season trip in summer 1992 to Sweden, where we played a little town team in the middle of the country. We arrived on the Friday evening and went on a pony-trotting excursion, getting back into town to find loads and loads of girls and young people out and about. This of course meant it was hard work getting the players in bed on time before the game the next day. There was me and John Moore trying to usher them indoors, away from all the female distractions, and I said to John that we would never be able to do this on the Saturday night as it would be chaos! So we played the game and won it comfortably, only to find David had arranged another game in Stockholm on the Sunday morning.

“After the Saturday game there was a bit of a do, drinks and stuff in the hotel. Well, as I predicted, it was pure chaos. There were women all over the place. In the end I just gave up and went and sat down with David and said I’m not going to chase the lads around all night trying to get them to behave, it was impossible. John Moore didn’t find it very funny and he got very upset over it all. The following morning we all drove down to Stockholm to play the Portuguese side Maritimo. David said to the team that he knew what had gone on the previous night - and it was up to them to now show a bit of professionalism and play properly. I seem to recall we won 4-0 in a very brutal game, so fair play to the lads who had risen to the occasion again!”

Another adventure occurred on the same trip. It led to a Brian Owen anecdote that has often been repeated since. This is how he recounted it to me:

“We had played a game on the Norwegian border, beating a club called I.S.Emtarna 4-1 and faced a six-hour road trip back. On the journey we suddenly came upon a car crash in the middle of the forest. A woman had collided with a moose on the road and then careered into a tree. She was in a bad state and had a big wide gash on her forehead that was bleeding. Her car had ended up among the trees and she’d gone right through the windscreen. Judging by the tyre-marks on the road the car must have been going pretty fast when it collided with the moose. Her young son next to her had no problem at all, not a scratch.

“As a physio it was down to me to tend to her quickly, and I was able to clean her up and calm her down while one of the other lads called for an ambulance. Luckily I had all my medical equipment on the coach with me. Eventually the ambulance arrived and whisked her away and then the lads on the bus called me over, saying ‘Brian, is there anything you can do for this poor moose down here?’ Well, I’m afraid my skills didn’t extend that far, so I told them the only thing I could do was put the creature in the back of the coach and we could have it for breakfast the next day!”

The 1992-93 season in the second tier, the newly-named Division One, opened for Luton with 20 games in the first 13 weeks, a hectic schedule that meant Brian was one of the busiest men in the club. He said at the time: “Playing so many games in the opening three months of the season certainly hasn’t made my job any easier. With the squad we have at Luton, the situation is just about manageable, but it was a play-rest-play situation for some injured players. I would always prefer to see players given more time to fully recover. However this is a situation many physios in this country have come to accept.”

At this time the footballing authorities introduced a new back-pass rule at all levels of the game. The idea was to cut out the negativity and time-wasting seen at the 1990 World Cup and the 1992 European Championships. Goalkeepers were no longer allowed to handle a deliberate back-pass from a teammate - and, additionally, could no longer drop the ball, dribble it around their area to kill time and then pick it up again. People keen to encourage attacking and attractive football, the Luton manager prominent among them, naturally welcomed this development. But it did have a ‘down side’ for the players, something that was quickly noticed by the likes of Brian and other physios:

The new rule meant keepers could not touch a back-pass with their hands, so the ball was now in play longer and the game speeded up, particularly because keepers and defenders more often hoofed the ball upfield instead of passing between themselves. The game had already been speeding up for a long time and this new rule increased that dramatically. Brian reckoned players had less time to react to a situation when going in for a tackle, which led therefore to many reckless challenges, some having dire consequences for the player involved. It also meant keepers had to begin sweeping up like a fifth defender and some did not have the necessary skills to do that. Suddenly they were into a different situation, using muscles they wouldn’t normally employ.

Brian said Luton and others quickly realised they had to make sure keepers increased their training programmes to include five-a-sides and other workouts with the outfield players. Another adverse effect of the new rule was from the many 50-50 balls that would fall between keepers and strikers. When the heavy pitches came along in midwinter the ball didn’t always run true and that situation was then seen as even more dangerous.

Well-travelled forward Steve Claridge signed for Luton in the summer of 1992. Claridge was paired with defender Trevor Peake as a roommate on another Luton trip abroad and described how Peake’s face fell when he went into their room and saw the mess his new roommate had created. Another issue was Claridge’s long-standing problems with getting to sleep: “I like to watch TV until the early hours,” he confessed and late-night TV can be quite an experience in Sweden. You don’t have to understand the language either, if you know what I mean!”  Claridge’s poor form over the opening weeks of 1992-93 coincided with Luton needing to pay a big tax bill, so when Cambridge made a handsome offer to buy him back it was accepted. Brian Owen would follow him up the A505 to the varsity city just a few weeks later.

Brian recalled how, at the start of this second season at Luton, David Pleat was constantly battling with the chairman David Kohler about selling the best players. The team had a good pre-season in summer 1992 and looked well-organised for the task ahead, but then the chairman sold leading scorer and fans’ favourite Mick Harford to Chelsea.

“We lost a big player, in every sense of the word,” said Brian. “After a bad start, we did all right without setting the league alight, but during that season I got a call from an old friend and I was on my way again. Ian Atkins had just taken over as manager at struggling Cambridge in December 1992 and phoned to see if I would go there to be assistant manager at the Abbey Stadium. I quite liked the idea, especially as it meant I could live at home in Suffolk full-time again, commuting daily to Cambridge rather than being away midweek in Luton, so I took up the offer and left the Hatters around Christmas time.”

Andy McDade from Barnet was his replacement physio at Luton. Brian’s new brief at Cambridge was to be more involved with coaching than medical matters and he went with Luton’s thanks and good wishes. However, David Pleat did make a rather cryptic comment in a matchday programme suggesting that the parting of the ways raised a topic for the new Institute of Managers’ spokesman Frank Clark to look at, regarding whether employment contracts should include agreement over termination payments for both dismissals and voluntary departures.

Departing Luton went with a bang for Brian. He explained: “I was moving stuff out of my Luton flat with the helped of my old mate Pat, who had an old lorry. We chucked all my stuff in the back of it and then became stuck in heavy traffic in Luton. Just as I was looking in my mirrors to check Pat was following me in his vehicle, suddenly a car rammed into the side of me. It was obviously my fault as I was looking in my mirrors at the time rather than concentrating on this roundabout. The incident didn’t endear me to the powers-that-be at Cambridge as this occurred in my very first week on their payroll!”

Under Atkins and Owen, struggling Cambridge almost avoided relegation in the spring of 1993, finishing two points adrift of Luton in Barclays Division One, the Hatters surviving in 20th and Cambridge condemned in 23rd. Brian left the Abbey to return to his old stamping ground of Colchester United where he was able to play a big part in the U’s remarkable climb from non-League to Championship, remaining at the Essex club until the 2008-9 season.

By now in his mid-sixties and with many contacts still active in the game, Brian would have no problem keeping occupied in his retirement years, doing scouting trips galore at home and abroad. Although never a household name, Brian was a popular and very well-known figure throughout the English game and his death aged 80 in July 2025 after a battle with cancer prompted many tributes and messages of condolence to wife Carol and close family.