Archives | William Knight 1930-1936

In 1930, with the club back in the Second Division, Willie Knight returned for a second spell in charge when Paterson resigned following wholesale boardroom changes.

In 1930, with the club back in the Second Division, Willie Knight returned for a second spell in charge when Paterson resigned following wholesale boardroom changes. His first season resulted in a creditable third place using a blend of Paterson`s and his own signings but after that he set about creating his own team and the promotion winning squad of 1933/34 contained only one player that Knight hadn`t brought to the club.

Determined not to repeat the mistake made eight years earlier, the club signed a number of players with top flight experience including Alex Thomson from Celtic, Johnny Johnman, (Motherwell), Stewart Chalmers (Manchester United), Bob McGowan (Queen of the South) and Bobby Bolt (Hearts).

Knight was ruthless in dismantling the team that gained promotion with only two of those players surviving to the end of 1934/35 but there could be no doubting the success of this approach as Dunfermline went on to finish fifteenth. The following season saw an improvement by one place, the highest achieved in the club`s history until 1960, but this was to prove Knight`s swansong.

A financial crisis developed at the end of 1936 that resulted in the directors resigning en masse after failing to win a vote of confidence from the shareholders. The appointment of a new chairman, however, prompted Knight to hand in his notice, a decision that shocked the supporters.

A dedicated and enthusiastic servant of the club, Knight did a very commendable job in difficult circumstances and his two spells at East End make him, at nine years and 77 days, the longest serving Dunfermline manager of all time. He died in 1959, five years after his 91 year-old uncle Joe, the last surviving link to the original Athletic team.