Martin Allen

Martin James Allen (born 14 August 1965) is an English football manager and former player.

He played more than 100 games as a midfielder for both Queens Park Rangers and West Ham United before finishing his playing career with Portsmouth and Southend United.

Five years later, he took his first job in management, at non-league Barnet.

He has since managed Brentford, Milton Keynes Dons, Leicester City, Cheltenham Town and Notts County.

Often referred to by his nickname of "Mad Dog", Allen began his career with Queens Park Rangers, signing professional in 1983 and spending six years at Loftus Road playing in the 1986 League Cup Final defeat against Oxford United, before a £670,000 move to West Ham United.

Signed by manager Lou Macari, Allen made his debut on 26 August 1989 in a 3–2 home win against Plymouth Argyle.

He scored the second goal, the other West Ham goals coming from David Kelly and Kevin Keen.

He was sent off in a match on 17 January 1990 for a two-footed lunge on Derby County's Mark Patterson.

Under manager Billy Bonds Allen was part of the team which won promotion to the First Division in 1991 and to the Premier League in 1993.

Allen was frequently booked during his West Ham career and had a reputation for poor discipline.

During a game on 30 November 1991 against Sheffield Wednesday, managed by Allen's manager at Queens Park Rangers, Trevor Francis, Allen was booked after only 20 seconds of being on the pitch for a jump tackle on Carlton Palmer which saw Palmer carried off with a suspected broken leg.

Although not sent-off, West Ham manager Bonds fined Allen a week's wages.

During his time at Queens Park Rangers Allen had been refused permission, by manager Francis, to attend the birth of his first child as Allen would miss an important match.

Allen attended the birth and was disciplined by the club.

Under Bonds and Harry Redknapp Allen formed a successful partnership with Peter Butler with Allen contributing 34 goals from midfield in 234 appearances.

However, by 1995 team discipline was poor at West Ham and with Allen playing alongside Julian Dicks, John Moncur and Don Hutchison bookings were commonplace.

Allen was again dismissed in a match against Queens Park Rangers on 3 May 1995 after fouling Rufus Brevett.

He would play only five more games before being allowed to leave.

Allen stayed with the Hammers until September 1995 when he made a £500,000 switch to Portsmouth after a successful loan spell at Fratton Park.

After three frustrating years with Pompey, which took in a brief loan stint at Southend United, he retired and began a coaching career.

Allen began his management career as an assistant manager at hometown club Reading, where he joined Alan Pardew when the Royals were in the relegation zone.

The team produced championship form in their closing 20 fixtures, winning 12 and drawing 4 to secure a top 10 finish.

Two years later they won promotion to Division One.

He succeeded from Peter Shreeves, to whom he was assistant manager from March 2002.

Allen's first full manager role was at Conference side Barnet, from March 2003 to March 2004.

Allen built a team from scratch in pre-season of the 2003–04 campaign.

The team shot straight to the top end of the table, however Allen left for Brentford with a few weeks of the season remaining in a move that disappointed many Barnet fans.

Under the guidance of new manager Paul Fairclough, the Bees made the play-offs but were beaten in the semi-finals by Shrewsbury Town.

He had a good run at the club, saving them from relegation to the Third Division in what remained of the 2003–04 season.

Allen took over from Wally Downes at Second Division side Brentford in March 2004.

In the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons he took Brentford to the play-offs with fourth and third-place finishes respectively, but they were eliminated by Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea City respectively in the semi-finals on both occasions.

Allen won press attention during the 2004–05 season for the success of his self-described "two bob team", which was composed of ageing pros (John Salako, Andy Myers, Scott Fitzgerald and Jamie Lawrence), free transfers (Deon Burton, Chris Hargreaves, Stewart Talbot and Isaiah Rankin) and young guns who would go on to play in the Premier League (Jay Tabb, Stephen Hunt, Sam Sodje and Michael Turner).

Allen took Brentford to the fifth round of the FA Cup in two consecutive years, going out to Premier League sides Southampton in the 2004–05 season (losing 3–1 in a replay, after a 2–2 draw at St Mary's) and Charlton Athletic 3–1 in the 2005–06 season.

He also was in charge of one of the major giant killings in the fourth round in the 2005–06 season, beating Premier League side Sunderland 2–1.

At Brentford, he proved to be a very popular manager with the fans and an object of curiosity to opponents and media alike due to his unconventional managerial methods, which paid off due to the relative success Brentford had under him on a limited budget.

He participated in a 25-mile sponsored bike ride in November 2005 to raise funds for Brentford.

He rejoined Barnet as manager on 16 April 2012 on a short-term, three-match contract succeeding Lawrie Sanchez.

In July 2012 he became manager of Gillingham and in the 2012–13 season led the team to the Football League Two title, earning Allen his first promotion as a manager and Gillingham's first divisional title in 49 years.

He was sacked as Gillingham manager in October 2013.

Allen rejoined Barnet for a fourth spell in 2014, leading the Bees back into League Two before dropping divisions to join Eastleigh in December 2016, a role he held only until the following February.