Ken Richardson: Arson, anger and heartache: The full sorry story of Doncaster Rovers' darkest days

Mere mention of the name Ken Richardson is enough to send shivers down the spine of any long-standing fan of the team.

His death at the age of 84 will not be mourned in these parts – instead, quite the opposite. Supporters have been rejoicing at the passing of the millionaire businessman who oversaw Rovers’ relegation from the Football League in 1997-98 and was jailed over a botched arson plot to burn down the club’s former Belle Vue ground.

But that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to telling the story of Rovers under Richardson.

The protests, the pitch invasions, the managerial chaos, the despair, the fury.

Former Free Press sports editor Peter Catt was there to witness every step of Rovers’ disastrous reign under Richardson.

Here, in his own words, is the full sorry saga of one of the most catastrophic reigns in football history.

“In March 1993 I was asked to meet the then chairman Jim Burke and a solicitor called Paul Dumbleton at a local hotel where I was given the news that a company called Dinard had acquired a controlling stake in the club and ‘appointed’ a man called Ken Richardson as a consultant.

“I had been tipped off by former Rovers boss Steve Beaglehole that something like this was going to happen but was under the impression that Richardson was going to be up front as the man who had taken charge.

“At that stage I knew nothing about Richardson other than he had enjoyed some success backing non-league Bridlington Town.

“But I quickly learned more about him as the club entered a period of subterfuge where football eventually took a back seat to conniving behind the scenes, rows over share issues and politics over demands for a new ground.

“Richardson was an extraordinary character.

“It was a case of the ego has landed when he arrived thrown in with large doses of paranoia.

“He used to talk as if he knew all about football but he often did it in horse racing terms.

“One example was when he told supporters ‘when the pitches get soft you need some mudlarks who go well in heavy going’.

“About ten years before his arrival he had been banned from horse racing, fined and given a suspended prison sentence following the Flockton Grey betting scandal where a three year old ran in a two year old race and won by 20 lengths.

“I could never understand how anyone convicted of conspiracy to defraud in one sport could so easily switch to another and questioned FA officials about it many times.

“But they seemed powerless to intervene because of the way the takeover had been set up with the mysterious Dinard company in control while Richardson was supposedly only their adviser.

“I remember attending the first meeting Dumbleton was introduced to supporters to talk about the takeover and when questions were invited I asked if people didn’t want to know more about Dinard and Ken Richardson.

“But I was shouted down and one fan said ‘we don’t care if it’s Attila the Hun in charge as long as the club is successful’.

“At the time supporters were worried the club might go out of business because of the financial problems and Dinard and Richardson were actually seen as the saviours.

“Steve Beaglehole stood up to Richardson at another early public meeting when the so called consultant began making derogatory comments about members of his staff.

“Some fans agreed with Beaglehole that Richardson was out of order but when he then offered to pull Dinard out of the deal the meeting backed him.

“It all became less about football and more about increasing the share capital of the club to give Dinard even more power.

“Initially I think Richardson was interested in the football and keen to demonstrate how his ‘knowledge’ of the game would bring untold success.

“But eyebrows were raised when the old Rovers board splashed out £100,000 on Graeme Jones from Bridlington before Dinard had fully taken control.

Richardson, of course, was supposed to have severed his connections with that club despite the fact that they were now playing their home games at Belle Vue.

“Then Dinard came along and coincidentally paid a combined fee of £100,000 for Russ Wilcox and Kevin Hulme.

“Richardson had his favourites and Graeme Jones was one of them.

“Steve Beaglehole had made an outstanding signing the previous season when he brought Mike Jeffrey in from Bolton for £15,000.

“But, because Rovers were so strapped for cash, Jeffrey’s father actually paid Bolton the transfer fee!

“Jeffrey was a brilliant striker in the Peter Kitchen mould and if he had the pace to go with his skills he could have been a Premier League player.

“But he wasn’t a Richardson signing and when I heard Graeme Jones grumbling to Richardson about him not passing him the ball after a cup defeat at Huddersfield early that season the writing was on the wall.

“Just days later Kevin Keegan snapped up Jeffrey for Newcastle United in a player exchange deal with talented midfielder David Roche joining Rovers, who also received £60,000.

“Richardson thought he knew better than the managers the club was employing and it eventually came out that he was interfering in team selection.

“Beaglehole refused to play ball but admitted the pressure was immense and he eventually stepped down to his old youth coach job with Ian Atkins taking the reins in January, 1994.

“Atkins had played at the top level and made over 600 league appearances but Richardson still believed he knew best.

“Ian wanted to bring in 33-year-old former Chelsea striker Kevin Wilson as player coach but Richardson said he did not want him because ‘his legs had gone’.

“At the end of the season Atkins told me he was off to see Richardson at his home in the Isle of Man to sort it out.

“A few days later I got a call to say the club had a new manager!

“Wilson joined Walsall instead, scored a bagful of goals and made 136 consecutive first team appearances.

“Not bad for a player whose ‘legs had gone’.

“Atkins was replaced by Sammy Chung who was a nice guy but always trotted out the same line to me when I asked him about Richardson – ‘I’m trying to keep a lid on it’.

“The lid finally blew off when he arrived to take charge of a match a couple of seasons later to find Kerry Dixon had been installed in his place.

“In June 1995 I returned from holiday to discover there had been a fire at Belle Vue.

“I went down the same day to see for myself and bumped into Ken Richardson, who I thought was also going to have a look, so I asked if he would show me the damage to the press box.

It had started right underneath and shot up through where I normally sat.

He replied ‘you can have a look but I’m not going in because I could leave some forensic evidence and they might try and blame it on me’.

Nine months later he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit arson.

“At the start of the decade Rovers were on their way down and finished 19th in Kerry Dixon’s first season in charge.

“Kerry had signed a contract two hours before the opening match at home to Carlisle in August 1996 and was introduced to the players an hour before kick-off.

“Previous boss Sammy Chung and his assistant George Foster had turned up to take charge of the game only to be told their services were no longer required!

In the circumstances the bewildered players did well to only lose by the odd goal.

By then self-styled benefactor Richardson was starting to lose interest in the club and had more pressing matters on his mind - although it did not stop him interfering in team selection.

“He was out on bail having been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit arson at Belle Vue, and in December that season he lost his appeal over the Flockton Grey case which had led to him being given a suspended prison sentence and banned from horse racing following a betting scandal some ten years earlier.

“Mark Weaver, who was to become almost as despised by fans as Richardson, had arrived during the summer that year as general manager.

“He had no previous experience in the role but was there ostensibly to do Richardson’s bidding - and eventually ended up as team boss!

Whatever intentions Richardson had initially the entire enterprise had turned into a farce and the running of the club was a complete shambles.

Around that time an advert appeared in the Daily Telegraph offering the club for sale, Dixon had to put ten players on the transfer list and overdue debts led to a winding up order in February 1997.

The players went unpaid and a transfer embargo was imposed.

Then Dixon finally admitted at a public meeting that he was not picking the team but merely advising Richardson who wanted to run the show himself.

Average attendances plummeted below 2,000 and some gates even fell below four figures.

The club was put into administration and along came Anton Johnson as a prospective buyer.

The flamboyant Johnson had attracted almost as much controversy as Richardson around a decade earlier when it was alleged he was in control of three football clubs, including Rotherham, at the same time.

Rovers fans were left wondering if it would be a case of out of the fire and into the frying pan but in the end the takeover attempt failed.

Towards the end of the season Colin Richardson, no relation, was appointed assistant manager without Dixon being informed and Kerry eventually left the club in the summer.

Around the same time Brent Peters, another short-lived coach, blew the lid off completely after leaving when he said Ken Richardson had continually overruled Dixon and wanted to select the side, decide the tactics, do the team talks and make the substitutions as well!

Supporters could have been forgiven for thinking it could not get any worse - but then came the 1997/98 season.

At the start of that ill-fated season - the worst in modern times - they went 20 games without a win before finally beating Chester 2-1 at home in front of just 864 spectators in December.

For some reason I missed the 5-1 defeat at Darlington in October but after the game I got a call from Richardson who had not been in touch for a while.

He said: "I’m having nowt to do with it anymore and I’m not putting any more money in because the players have let me down. I’m not even going to help out by picking the team."

Dave Cowling, who was helping out with youth coaching, agreed to take the manager’s job on the understanding he would have a free hand in selecting the side.

Just ten days later the principled Cowling immediately packed in after being handed a piece of paper containing a team to play in the next game.

Then Danny Bergara arrived, supposedly in charge, just at the time the fans were becoming more vocal in their protests at Richardson’s reign.

Danny came in for plenty of flak himself as the defeats continued and it was not long before he declared he was not going to attend home games because of the abuse he was getting.

It was decided he could hardly continue as team boss if he did not watch them play so Weaver took over as manager’ with Bergara concentrating on coaching.

By then the fans had had enough and an unprecedented season of utter misery ended with pitch protests, anger and tears as Rovers crashed out of the league 15 points adrift at the bottom of the table.

They had managed just four wins, scored 30 goals while conceding 113 and lost 34 games - a Football League record.

At the same time the youth policy that had produced so many promising youngsters was discontinued and that had ramifications for years to come.

Rovers had lost the trust of the local community, parents would not let their sons sign for the club and it is only now that we are seeing talented youngsters coming through again.

The rock bottom season was made even more poignant for me when Billy Bremner came to the Hartlepool home game in October to do some work for local radio.

He was shocked to see the fans looking so sad and miserable and asked me what was happening.

I tried to explain but he could not understand how Richardson had been allowed to interfere in team affairs and run the club down.

The dressing room was sacrosanct in Bremner’s day and he would never have tolerated Richardson even knocking on the door.

Billy brought us some luck that day as Rovers managed a 2-2 draw and just before he left he called me over, wished me luck and said I’d give anything to put a smile on the fans’ faces again’.

They were to be the last words he spoke to me.

Less than two months later he tragically died at the age of 54 following a massive heart attack.

At his funeral I met up with several of the players who would have run through a brick wall for him and the club, and it just underlined to me what a rag, tag and bobtail outfit Rovers had become.

It wasn’t even a pub team having a laugh.

There was a key game at home to Brighton that season where Weaver infamously decided to sign on one of his neighbours, a Stockport Sunday league player, and put him in goal.

It was to be the hapless David Smith’s one and only league appearance and Rovers did well to only lose the match 3-1 to the second from bottom club.

Mercifully Richardson finally managed to find a buyer for the club when he sold out to the Westferry company in the summer of 1998 - but even then the deal was mired in controversy.

Aidan Phelan claimed to be the sole owner of Westferry when I asked him at the press conference to announce the deal whether there was anyone else behind him.

It later turned out that it was being funded by Irish telecoms billionaire Denis O’Brien and it was even alleged at the lengthy Moriarty tribunal in Ireland that government minister Michael Lowry was also involved.

In any event whoever was controlling Westferry they made no bones about the fact that they were only interested in selling off Belle Vue for redevelopment and, to the relief of the fans, they eventually agreed to sell off the football side to John Ryan and Peter Wetzel.

Ian Snodin was appointed manager with brother Glynn later arriving as his assistant and at last the club was back in safe hands.

The only trouble was they were starting out in the Conference at absolute rock bottom.

There was less than a fortnight to go before the start of the season when Ian was officially appointed. He had only five players on the books, no kit, no footballs, no equipment, no staff.

Snodin worked his socks off to assemble a team in time for the first match at Dover, was continually on the phone to friends in the game to try and call in favours and even borrowed a book from me that listed pen pictures and stats on players.

Amazingly he managed to sign some decent players for that first match including Simon Shaw, Kevin McIntyre, Colin Sutherland, Tommy Wright and Shaun Goodwin.

But miracles do not happen overnight and it took some time to get a full squad together and for the players to adjust to Conference football.

Snodin also played the occasional game himself and brought in superstars like Nev Southall, John Sheridan and Steve Nicol for cameo appearances when they were between clubs and in the twilight of their careers.

Their thinking time was light years ahead of most of the other players on the pitch and for me it was a joy to watch them knocking the ball around after being served up a diet of dross under Richardson, who was finally jailed for four years in March 1999 for his part in the arson plot.