The title of Alec Stock’s autobiography ‘A Little Thing Called Pride’ summed him up perfectly. He took pride in everything, from the way his teams played to his tailoring; that included the rebuilding of Leyton Orient into an established Second Division team for the first time in more than 30 years.
Born in Somerset, he came to national attention as player-manager of non-League Yeovil Town, who in 1949 knocked First Division Sunderland out of the FA Cup. When Neil McBain left for Argentina that summer, new chairman Harry Zussman acted on a tip from a journalist and offered Stock his first Football League job.
There was much to learn and it took the length of time that a less patient chairman would not have granted. In his first three seasons the O’s finished 18th, 19th and 18th again, though two FA Cup runs finally showed that he was on the right track.In1952 there were giant-killings away to Everton and Birmingham, and two years later the first-ever quarter-final, lost 1-0 at home to Port Vale’s iron defence.
Every year for six seasons Orient moved up the table, runners-up in 1955 and winning the title the following year to return to Division Two at last. Yet Stock almost missed the triumph. Two months earlier, in February 1956, having turned down Liverpool and Middlesbrough, he could not resist taking the assistant manager’s job at Arsenal. For the next home game, against Reading, the front page of the programme was given over to Stock explaining his decision, and his respect for the O’s. ‘It is recognised in football circles that the Orient is the happiest of all clubs. I have no doubt that Orient will continue the good work from where I left off. Up the O’s.’ Yet 53 days later he was back, disenchanted at being sidelined by Arsenal and sent to watch the reserves instead of travelling with the first team. Delighted to accept Zussman’s suggestion to return to Brisbane Road, he took over a side well on its way to grabbing the one promotion place.
After one season establishing the team back at the higher level, another glamorous offer also proved impossible to refuse: coach to AS Roma in Serie A. He was sacked after barely three months and a dozen games, convinced he had been stabbed in the back.
In March 1958 he was back at Orient, welcomed by Zussman and caretaker Les Gore, but according to newspaper reports, not by everyone. Tommy Johnston, leading scorer in the country that season, and about to leave for Blackburn, was one of the doubters and he believes it was Zussman’s decision to re-sign him from the Ewood Park club 11 months later that caused Stock to resign for the final time. The manager’s version in his book was: ‘People started to make decisions without consulting me.’ But he also said: ‘Orient will always have a place in my heart’.
He went on to great things at QPR, winning the Football League Cup with a Third Division side and two successive promotions; then taking Luton Town up to Division Two with the O’s in 1970; and leading Fulham to their only FA Cup final in 1975 as well as pairing George Best with Rodney Marsh in the sort of team he always loved to watch.
