From facing Pele to Bath City FC – meet the 80-year-old assistant manager

“It was one-on-one, me against Pele,” recalls former goalkeeper Jim Barron about the events at the Yale Bowl, New Haven, Connecticut, in 1977.

“I made the save.”

Barron was playing for the Connecticut Bicentennials – named after the bicentennial anniversary of the founding of the United States – who attracted their biggest ever crowd, with 17,302 fans in attendance, for their home opener against the New York Cosmos 47 years ago.

Pele’s Cosmos won 3-2 but the three-time Brazilian World Cup winner did not score.

“There’s a picture of me in a newspaper catching the ball and Pele jumping over me,” Barron tells BBC Sport.

“It didn’t matter who it was against, I always took great pride stopping anyone from scoring.”

From playing against a Brazil football legend in the North American Soccer League to caretaker-manager spells with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Birmingham City, Barron has had a long and distinguished career in the game.

Now aged 80, his love of football burns stronger than ever.

At least twice a week, Barron makes the 172-mile round trip from his home in Binfield, Berkshire, to Bath City, where he is assistant manager.

The Romans play in the sixth tier of English football and are managed by Jerry Gill, a former defender who helped Birmingham win promotion to the Premier League in 2001-02.

Barron turns 81 on 19 October and will mark the occasion alongside Gill – who he coached at Birmingham – when Bath visit Hornchurch on his birthday for a National League South game.

Before that they are at league rivals Salisbury on Saturday in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup.

Barron lost a finger in an accident while working on an oil rig during a brief spell away from coaching in the 1980s and suffered a collapsed lung while in charge of Cheltenham in 1989.

How is he feeling as he nears his 81st birthday?

“I’ve got aches and pains, one of my wrists is not so good and I’ve got arthritis in a couple of fingers,” he adds. “Apart from that I feel OK.

“I’d be bored without football. I’ve been paid all my life for something I’d do for nothing.

“Since leaving school I’ve been pretty much involved in football whether that’s playing, coaching, managing or scouting.

“In that respect it’s been a good life. I’ve been lucky.”

Barron was 20 when he marked his first senior appearance for Wolves with a clean sheet in a goalless First Division draw against then-champions Everton at Molineux in 1963.

His first pay packet was £13 plus a crowd bonus of £1 if the gate was more than expected.

The son of former Blackburn goalkeeper James Barron went on to play for Chelsea, Oxford United, Nottingham Forest, Swindon Town, Connecticut Bicentennials and Peterborough United.

After a playing career stretching 400-plus games, Barron had coaching spells in Saudi Arabia and Iceland, as well as Everton, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, Wycombe Wanderers and Northampton Town.

He even managed Aston Villa for one game in the Premier League after Ron Atkinson was sacked in 1994 – seven months after winning the League Cup.

“I was Ron’s assistant and when he went I was asked to take charge against Tottenham while they searched for a replacement,” says Barron.

“We won 4-3 at White Hart Lane. Soon after that they appointed Brian Little and I left. As far as I know I’m the only Aston Villa manager with a 100% winning record in the Premier League.”

Barron signed former Aston Villa, Wolves and Everton striker Andy Gray when manager of non-league Cheltenham Town and encountered Terry Venables and Peter Osgood during his one season as back-up goalkeeper to Peter Bonetti at Chelsea in 1965-66.

But it was facing the legendary Pele that provided the native of Tantobie, County Durham, with a career highlight.

Barron was 33 and in the autumn of his playing career when he was offered the chance to join Connecticut Bicentennials.

It was an offer he did not have to think long about.

George Best (Los Angeles Aztecs), Rodney Marsh (Tampa Bay Rowdies) and Gordon Banks (Fort Lauderdale Strikers) had already made their way over to the United States to play and Barron was eager to get a taste of the action in the North American Soccer League.

“There was a lot of razzmatazz,” he adds. “I remember a game in Dallas where there were skydivers landing on the pitch before kick-off.

“It was just different and very enjoyable. We played in Minnesota on Independence Day and there were almost 50,000 inside the ground.

“The announcer said something like, ‘we’ve got players from nine different countries playing in this game, could you please show them your appreciation’, and it made your hairs stand on end because 50,000 people stood up and started clapping.

“They just kept on clapping throughout the game. That’s what it was like.”

Barron has been assistant at Bath City since the summer of 2023 when Gill asked if he would step up from his scouting role with the non-league club.

“I replied, ‘Gilly, I’m finished with coaching. I’m nearly 80 and it’s a fair distance from where I’m living in Berkshire’,” he reveals.

“In the end I went and met the players. The way Gilly runs it is as good, if not better, than a lot of full-time clubs. In my opinion he should be managing at a higher level.

“It’s all done on a very limited budget, they’re a great set of lads who work their socks off and listen.”

Gill says Barron is one of the most active assistants he has had during his seven years in charge of Bath.

“Jim has the work ethic of an enthusiastic 21-year-old,” Gill, who at 54 is 26 years younger than his assistant, adds.

“I honestly forgot how old Jim was when I went to the board to get permission to appoint him.

“My chairman said, ‘you do you realise he’s nearly 80’.

“But this isn’t some 80-year-old who is sat in an armchair. This is a guy who is extremely active.”