After yesterday’s game, the club was delighted to unveil legendary Tanners manager Billy Miller as the latest inductee to out Hall of Fame.
Billy was at Fetcham Grove for 23 years, including an incredible 890 games as first team manager. He led the Tanners to many glorious moments including the FA Trophy final at Wembley in 1978, and the 4th round FA Cup tie 50 years ago against Leicester which we celebrated with a number of players from that team at yesterdays home match against Met Police.
Here are some more facts about Billy that you may not know taken from the book “How green is Mole Valley?” [The history of Leatherhead Fc ] written by Graham Mitchell and David Johnstone.
Billy Miller
1957 – 1980 (Defender / Manager)
Player from 1957 – five 1ST X1 Appearances.
Reserve team manager between 1963-65
First team manager 1965 – 1980 – 890 games in charge
Billy took over as first team manager, from Norman Douglas, in somewhat controversial circumstances for the start of the 1965/66 season at a youthful 31-years of age. He had, by then, already spent eight years at the club initially playing and then, with some success, running the reserve side (1963-65).
Billy, a qualified FA coach, was considered a good administrator and motivator and a poor loser. As a player he had failed to break into the first team, making just five appearances during six years.
As manager he carried on Douglas’s good work and with the help of his able lieutenant Johnny Phipps, and subsequently Dave Wall, turned Tanners into one of the top amateur sides in the country. His tenure was not without its ups and downs though and on several occasions, there were rumours of his imminent departure but he weathered these storms.
He was an excellent judge of players and helped engender a great team spirit amongst the squad, players wanted to play for Billy although he was not averse to issuing rollickings or turning the air blue with his tirades. He was described in the local press as, “the unmistakable figure, in trademark red jersey and sheepskin jacket, shrieking instructions from the touchline”.
Under his stewardship there were many memorable cup runs but perhaps the team lacked that extra consistency that was required to win league championships. His achievements included taking the side to two Amateur Cup semi-finals and three quarter-finals, an FA Trophy final, the FA Cup 4th round proper once, the 2nd round on three occasions and the 1st round once. Outside of national competitions he led the team to five Surrey Senior Cup, two London Senior Cup and an Isthmian League Cup final, as well as steering the club from the Athenian into the Isthmian League, although actual silverware remained hard to come by.
On a personal note he was voted Isthmian League Manager of the Month on a couple of occasions. His abilities were highly respected by his peers and he managed various Isthmian League, FA and Surrey FA X1’s, as well as being a selector for the first England Semi-Professional X1.
He resigned as Leatherhead boss in 1980 thus ending a 23–year association with the club, manging the first team for an unbelievable 890 matches. Following his resignation he managed Walton and Hersham, Woking and Kingstonianwithout ever quite replicating the tremendous success he had enjoyed at the Grove.
Billy died in 2015. Keith Oram, who took charge of the club for three seasons from 1986-89, knew Miller better than most, working with him for many years at British Telecom.
He said: “Billy was a lovely man and a great manager. “He was an enormous help and very generous. He was my manager at the BT Esher exchange and couldn’t have been nicer. “When I took over at Fetcham Grove he let me have the run of his contacts book, which was amazing, although we couldn’t afford most of the players in it!”
Chris Kelly paid tribute to Miller, commenting: “Billy did a remarkable job pulling that side together. That’s because he was such a superb man-manager.”