Robert Francis Dudgeon Ancell was a Scottish football player and manager.
16 Facts About Bobby Ancell
1.
2.
Bobby Ancell played as a left back for St Mirren, Newcastle United, Dundee and Aberdeen.
3.
Bobby Ancell won two full caps with the Scotland national football team who he represented in an unofficial war time match.
4.
Bobby Ancell managed Berwick Rangers, Dunfermline Athletic, Motherwell and Dundee during the 1950s and 1960s.
5.
Bobby Ancell's playing career began with local side Mid Annandale, from where he moved to St Mirren in 1930.
6.
Bobby Ancell stayed with the Paisley club for six years, where the best league finishes were fifth in 1932 and seventh in 1933.
7.
Bobby Ancell received a third, unofficial cap, against England in December 1939 played at Newcastle's St James' Park.
8.
Bobby Ancell returned to Dundee play a small number of games in the season after.
9.
Bobby Ancell then turned his hand to management in 1950 with Berwick Rangers, then of the East of Scotland League, turning down an offer from Dunfermline Athletic who at that point were making headlines from board room disputes.
10.
Bobby Ancell was then approached by Dunfermline again in 1952 and with a completely new set of directors running the club, and accepted the offer.
11.
The Pars had been without a manager during the previous season and, having released no fewer than eighteen players at the end of it, Bobby Ancell had to rebuild the squad with very little money.
12.
The upheaval led to a mediocre season but Bobby Ancell was happy to develop young talent and shape them into the kind of players he wanted.
13.
The Dunfermline improved in all three seasons under Bobby Ancell and achieved promotion to the First Division in 1955 after an absence of eighteen years; however Bobby Ancell moved on.
14.
The club's best finish in Bobby Ancell's tenure was third place in 1959 followed by finishes in fifth spot in the two subsequent seasons.
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Bobby Ancell next rejoined former club Dundee where his best finish was sixth in 1967.
16.
Bobby Ancell took Dundee to an autumn 1967 Scottish League Cup Final against the previous season's European Cup winners, Celtic.