1963–64 Brentford F.C. season
season of football team
During the 1963–64 English football season, Brentford competed in the Football League Third Division. Despite expectations that the club could achieve a second-successive promotion, poor form in late 1963 and early 1964 led to a mid-table finish.
Season summary
After a single-season stay in the Fourth Division, Brentford had returned to the Third Division as champions for the 1963–64 season. A large outlay had been made on new signings during the previous 12 months and though chairman Jack Dunnett stated that the club's big-spending days were a thing of the past, he would continue to make money available to manager Malky MacDonald during the season. There was very little transfer activity during the 1963 off-season, with half backs Willie Smith and Bill Slater coming in (Slater returned to Griffin Park after 11 years away) and £5,000 was spent on Liverpool full back Allan Jones as a replacement for the inexperienced Tom Anthony. Redevelopment work was carried out on Griffin Park throughout the summer, with floodlight pylons erected at each corner of the ground, while new club offices and a bar were built into the Braemar Road stand.
Brentford had what was perceived to be a poor start to the season and sat in mid-table after 10 matches. Expectations had been high after the Fourth Division championship triumph at the end of the previous season, but defeat to an attractive Coventry City side (managed by former Brentford player Jimmy Hill) on 5 October 1963 highlighted the gulf between the Third and Fourth Divisions. In the wake of the defeat, Brentford rapidly recovered and won six and drew two of the following 10 matches, which included a 9–0 thrashing of Wrexham at Griffin Park, a result which remains as the club's record Football League win. The team's form collapsed in late November 1963 and despite something of a recovery after a spell of over three months without a league win, the Bees were consigned to a 15th-place finish.
The public source identifies “1963–64 Brentford F.C. season” as season of football team. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Brentford, season and football.
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This entry incorporates text from “1963–64 Brentford F.C. season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.