Now this isn't going to be one of those articles that says what a great guy and lovely man Maurice Evans was, because I never met him and never even heard him speak. To be honest, it really wouldn't have mattered to me if he had been a nasty piece of work (except for the fact that it would have affected the way it did his job) because I'm only interested in the positive effect this man had on Reading Football Club.
I don't remember him as a player, but I do remember him as manager and before that when he was number two to Charlie Hurley. I'm not sure that I ever knew what his role was whilst Hurley was manager - I think I had him down in my mind as trainer, and that was that.
I remember the game when Hurley resigned. It was a shame because he'd been a good manager, and our performances and results in that season weren't much worse than in recent years. The bright spark of that particular game was a young forward by the name of Jerry Williams, who came on as sub and forced an own goal that meant we lost 3-1 instead of 3-0. It was only in later years that I learnt that it was Maurice Evans who had brought Williams through so that he was in a position to be in the first team.
Evans took over as manager - it must have been seen as a natural progression. We went down that season, but after a couple of decent years came back up as champions. At the start of each season Evans used to set points and goals targets, and record them on a graph in his office. For the 1978/79 season, I decided to make my own graph so that I knew what Maurice Evans was looking at on his office wall. For that season we actually stayed pretty close to the targets all the way through the season, until towards the end we started exceeding them.
The most memorable target was that we should concede an average of one goal per game. After 35 games we had indeed let in 35 goals, and that line on the graph hadn't got too far from the target all season. Then we started on the famous run of 1103 minutes without conceding a goal, and the "goals against" part of the graph just reassuringly stayed level for the rest of the season. What we would give for that now!
I did a graph for the following season as well, but it didn't look as good. Although we finished well up the table we were nowhere near going up again and I didn't bother the year after that.
About this time, my school had a series of good performances in the English Schools knockout tournaments (absolutely nothing to do with me, I hasten to add - as one of 90 boys in my year, I'd probably have only just made the 8th team had we had one). You had to win the County Cup to get into the national tournament and then typically ended up playing against some huge school with several thousand pupils to call upon. One year the under-15s played a London school at 2 o' clock on a Wednesday afternoon. There, on the touchline, was Reading manager Maurice Evans. He was checking out the players to see if there was anyone who ought to be on the club's books. I bet he did that sort of thing throughout his career, and it's difficult to imagine certain Reading managers getting their hands dirty in that way. (A wasted trip, too, because none of that particular team went into the RFC youth system - I expect nearly all scouting trips ended like that.)
Fast forward to 1983, and Reading have again got relegated despite goals from another Evans find, Kerry Dixon. We're looking quite good for promotion, largely thanks to his latest discovery, Trevor Senior, and have seen off the evil Maxwell spectre. I was at university so missed out on any local news although I was still going to most games. It was a complete shock to me when I heard that Maurice Evans had been sacked. If it happened after we'd got relegated, or if the 1983/84 season had gone badly, I would have understood, but as things were it seemed to make no sense at all. I'm not sure even now that I really understand why that decision was taken.
At the next game, away to Darlington, we continued to sing "Maurice Evans' Blue and White Army", which must have annoyed Branfoot no end! It wasn't too long, though, before the excitement of promotion meant that Branfoot was accepted. Even if people realised that it was Evans' team, Branfoot got the credit, and had adapted the style of play in his own fashion.
Evans, meanwhile was coaching at Oxford, and then suddenly found himself as their manager. He was pretty successful too, leading them to victory in the League Cup Final. After the game, he was interviewed on live TV, and said "I didn't want this." The interviewer and other media interpreted this to mean that he was a modest man who didn't want the attention. They may have been right, but I'd always hoped that one day he would be able to tell the world that as a professional he did his job to the best of his ability, but as a Reading fan he didn't want Oxford to win anything, ever!
He eventually stepped down as Oxford manager but continued as one of their officials, until last season Maurice Evans returned to Reading as chief scout. It may be coincidence but since then the majority of our signings have proved good; before then a fair proportion of our signings were poor (or even worse). It may be coincidence but I don't believe it for a moment.
With the untimely death of Maurice Evans, both Reading FC and football in general have lost a fine servant, the sort of person that makes you proud to be associated with the sport and the club.
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