John Paton

The son of a prominent Celtic player, Johnny Paton was an ATC welterweight champion of Glasgow, a prize-winning sprinter, and a schoolboy international footballer. For a time he combined his career as a direct winger with that of a photographer with a national daily newspaper. His loan spell at Chelsea was while he was still serving in the RAF following wartime action as a navigator and bomb-aimer. He made representative appearances for the force, including one against Norway’s national team. After his promotion from the position of Watford’s coach (the first such appointment at Vicarage Road), his brief spell in charge of team affairs included a 6-2 home defeat by Aldershot in the Southern Floodlight Cup, and elimination from the FA Cup by Bedford Town – the club’s third at non-League hands in four seasons. He also had a spell in charge of the Herts FA’s youth-coaching scheme in 1954/55. In the 1980s he took over the management of a snooker hall, at which game he became a professional referee and coach. (See under ‘Managers’ for details of his record in that role.)

West Herts / Watford Career