Former Cardiff City striker Gary Stevens has announced he is stepping down as manager of English non-league club Wellington after three seasons in charge. The 65-year-old former boss at Knighton Town, who insists he is not yet ready to walk away from football, was a crowd-favourite at Cardiff as Terry Phillips recalls.
Gary Stevens, the Bluebirds’ very own ‘Basil Fawlty’, worked as a chicken factory worker when Cardiff City manager Richie Morgan signed the striker from non-League Evesham in 1978.
Stevens was tall, dark-haired and had a moustache. He was quickly nicknamed ‘Basil’ by supporters after the John Cleese character in the hit TV comedy, Fawlty Towers.
He could often look clumsy and awkward, far from the most co-ordinated of players, but the truth is that was highly effective and proved a huge success in attack by scoring 44 goals in 150 league appearances.
Stevens linked with Ronnie Moore in attack, a Bluebirds player who netted six times in 56 City appearances and prompted supporters to wear badges saying, ‘I saw Ronnie Moore score’.
Stevens fired 13 goals during his first season in league football and followed that up by being joint top scorer with Ray Bishop on 11 in 1979-80. He was top scorer again in 1981-82.
Strangely, though, Moore’s hard-working style and solid all-round game helped make him a more popular player with City supporters than Stevens.
Cardiff paid £4,000 when they signed Stevens from Evesham and were paid a transfer fee of £20,000 when he moved on to Shrewsbury Town four years later where he stayed from 1982 to 1986.
He made his Cardiff debut in September 1978 in a 7-1 defeat against Luton Town and scored his first goal a week later on his home debut, helping Cardiff win 2–0 against Blackburn Rovers.
He is one of several footballers who played in the Football League after starting with Evesham, who are currently playing Southern League Division One football, along with Simon Brain, Kevin Rose, Andy Preece and Billy Turley.
Cardiff were Stevens’ first professional club in a 12-year career and he later moved on to Shrewsbury, Brentford, Hereford United and Wellington FC.
Stevens became player-coach at Mid-Wales club Knighton Town near the end of his playing days, while he went on to be appointed manager of Herefordshire club Wellington FC in the Hellenic League.
Birmingham-born Stevens, now aged 65, became director of the Herefordshire FA Centre of Excellence, while he then lectured at the Herefordshire and Ludlow College.
He ran the Football Academy, which was linked with Hereford, Cheltenham Town and Shrewsbury Town, while teaching sport, maths and English to students aged 16 to 18-years-old.
Among Stevens’ most effective performances for Cardiff City was a match against promotion-chasing Queens Park Rangers at Ninian Park in 1979. He scored the only goal of the match against a QPR team which included Ian Gillard, Glenn Roeder, Don Shanks, Chris Woods, Clive Allen and Paul Goddard.
His goal against the R’s signalled the start of a run which saw Stevens score in five successive league matches.
#FromTheVault Gary Stevens – Cardiff City – Forward 1978-82 Made 150 League Appearances #ccfc pic.twitter.com/zqR6qSlGlj
— Martyn Bishop (@MartynBCFC) November 7, 2015
Cardiff finished 15th in Division Two, having earned 40 points from 42 matches in the days when there were two points for a win.
The Bluebirds conceded only 48 goals and were solid defensively, but scored only 41 and that underlined the value of Stevens to Cardiff City, while attack partner Moore struggled.
Moore had a decent scoring record for previous clubs, but three goals from 18 appearances at the back end of 1978-79 had hinted at the lack of goals that was to plague Moore’s time at Ninian Park.
By the time Moore netted his first goal of the new season against Chelsea on October 20, 1979, his poor goal-scoring record had become an issue.
Sadly, he only managed two more goals in 38 matches – during successive wins against Wrexham and Shrewsbury in January.
The 1979-80 season, though, was a relative success with City in mid-table with no relegation worries but little chance of challenging for promotion.
Cardiff-born Morgan, a former Bluebirds defender who was understudy to Don Murray at Ninian Park during his playing days, was the City manager when Stevens was in South Wales.
He was appointed following the departure of Jimmy Andrews, bringing in Doug Livermore and Brian Harris to join the coaching staff.
In November 1982, Morgan was made general manager, working alongside Graham Williams, before they both left the club in February 1982.
