John Docherty tribute: Salman, Sweetzer and Scales share their memories of Brentford Hall of Famer | OneFootball

Danis Salman, Gordon Sweetzer and Terry Scales have shared their memories of former Brentford player, manager and coach John Docherty, who sadly passed away in December 2024, just a month after he had been inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.

On what would have been Docherty's 85th birthday, the club remembers the influential Scot who was affectionately known as Doc.

Danis Salman: I used to run through brick walls for John

“I knew John from a young age when I was at QPR. He didn’t rant and rave, he spoke very well, very calmly and he was a very good coach.

"I felt very much at home with John because, being from the Mediterranean, I'm a very family orientated guy, and he just had this way about him that I responded to.

“I’ve spoken in the programme in recent seasons about turning down Arsenal to sign for Brentford – having been selected as the Gunners’ first pick out of 280 kids in a trial – and how I felt more comfortable with John. Was it a good idea? I don't know. My life would have gone in a different direction if I hadn’t done that.

“Money's never been a thing for me. Fast forward to when I left Brentford and I was on the same money for six years. Money wasn't the first thing on my mind, it was being happy, being comfortable. John knew how to deal with me and off I went there.

“He had a way about him; he was very thoughtful about what he said to me. He knew what made me tick because I used to run through brick walls for him.

"I remember in the first cross-country, he said to me Gordon Sweetzer would win and I’d want to be up there with him. I was only 15 years old, but I was right behind him all the way.

“John wasn't a person who ever shouted in the dressing room; he was very philosophical about things and he knew what to say and when to say it.

"Sometimes, he would drag you into an office and just sit there looking at you, puffing away on a little cigar. He'd ask you a question and then just think about it for what seemed like forever. Then he would just say, ‘I'll see you later!'

“He was terrific as a man, too. He had a great, dry sense of humour. He was kind, he was generous and I know he cared about the people around him. John's wife Beryl looked after me as a kid and he was invited to my sister's big Turkish wedding, so he was part of our family.

“The sad thing about my relationship with John at Brentford was the fact that it was less than a year after he convinced me to sign that he got sacked. One of the main reasons I went there was because of John, then, all of a sudden, he was gone.

“It was a pity because I don't know what could have been in that sense if he'd stayed for a lot longer, but also I don't know where my career would have been if he hadn't have asked me to go to Brentford. It was a great time in my life and all down to John, really. I just wish I had spent more time with him at Brentford in those early years.

“Though I love the club and Brentford had been there for me for so many years, I needed a new challenge, so when he got the job at Millwall and came in for me, I had no hesitation. We got promoted to the First Division in 1987/88 and I got Player of the Year ahead of Teddy Sheringham and Tony Cascarino.

“The last time I saw John was actually when we had a reunion at Millwall a few years ago. We sat down, had a nice chat and just reminisced about how great a time we had at Millwall and Brentford. I had a bit of a go at him for leaving me when he left Brentford and we had a chuckle about it.

“If we had each other's numbers, we would have kept in touch a bit more, and I was really sad when I suddenly got a phone call from Brian Horne, our goalkeeper at Millwall, to say John had passed away.

"It's just ironic we had a planned meet-up for Millwall’s game against Coventry in December, and we ended up getting there, but without him.

“I’m told a comment he made on his death bed was something like, ‘What game are we watching later on, then?’ That’s just typical of John.

“All I can say is that he was a great man for me and my career. I'm glad I met him, I'm glad that I spent my early days with him and that I knew him. I can't really say any more than that. He was a special guy.”

Gordon Sweetzer: Doc gave me that license to go for it

“I used to go and watch my younger brother Jimmy at QPR. One day, I remember standing there with my dad and he said, well that little lad looks alright - it was Johnny Doc – and he was the youth coach!

"He used to join in every game, every training session; he'd kick you and he'd get stuck in, almost like he was playing for his place in the team.

“Later, I was on a month's trial at Brentford. We were playing in east London somewhere and, on the way back, he said ‘I'm sorry son, I'm not going to sign you’ – but he gave me another month.

"Then we played a midweek game – I think it was in the Midweek League, because it wasn’t the Combination - I scored two goals, and he told me after the game he’d have a contract ready for me in the morning. It was only eight quid a week or something like that, but it was a pro contract.

“Doc was very matter of fact and I loved that. No pain, no gain; tell me what I'm doing wrong I’ll get on with it. He had a fierce attitude and he worked the players hard.

“He didn’t name the team on a Friday. He'd keep everyone on their toes and I think it did have a positive effect. He had quite a hard training schedule and a lot of the older pros didn’t particularly like the physical, but he was hard and if you didn't do it, he'd leave you out of the team. He encouraged people to do the things he wanted, and if you did it, you got rewarded.

“He gave me my professional debut at Huddersfield in September 1975 and I scored. That was the start of it for me and, under Doc, I managed to get in the side. He put me on the right track and he taught me about attitude.

“He’d tell me I had to do my work in the afternoons, that I had to be brave, I had to get into the box and I don't think I ever scored a goal outside the box, which was mainly down to him. He gave me that license to just go for it.

“I hadn't come through the ranks of being an apprentice; I was just a seasoned, regular bloke who played local football and he was the first manager that had coached me or given me any advice. He tried to nurture relationships.

“He was just a great example for someone like me coming through the ranks. If Doc gave you a chance and you couldn't make it, there must have been something wrong, as far as I was concerned.

“After he left Brentford, he followed my career. I wasn’t Bill Dodgin’s type of player, so Doc would call me on weekends and ask how things had gone. He told me, if I kept doing what I was doing, you never know what might happen later down the line and I just kept doing the best I could.

“It sounds funny now, but I was a record signing at Cambridge United, when he lashed out 30 grand for me! I injured my knee and it haunted me for my whole career, which was quite short, but I managed to score the winning goal for him and Cambridge that got us promoted to the Second Division.

“I always stayed friendly with Doc. I knew his family well and the last time I saw him was at [former Brentford chief scout] Bob Pearson's funeral in 2022. We’d chat now and again and once, on his travels, he had a stopover in Toronto and we met up then.

“I'm going to remember him with great respect. He was honest with you, he would help you out, he would advise you, he wanted to be a mentor and he loved passing on information. He was a real scholar of coaching and he was very demanding, but that’s horses for courses - I loved that.

“In training, if we were doing free-kicks or corners, he would be taking them all because he thought he was the best and he never wanted to retire. He was a very fun bloke to play for.”

Terry Scales: Doc could talk and talk and talk about football

“In our era, every top team in any league always had three Scotsmen playing and they were always the backbone of the team. We had Bobby Ross, the captain, John Doc, the senior pro, then young Jackie Graham, who was super. We had John O’Mara and Peter Gelson, who were the stars, but the other three were the most important players.

“Doc could talk and talk and talk about football. I always said he could talk for Scotland! I remember one game coming home on the coach – I couldn’t tell you where or when we played - but he walked up and down the coach and did not stop talking about football for the whole journey.

“He was a buzzy sort of player. Under Frank Blunstone, we played a system that just worked for us, and you couldn't do anything outside that system.

"The system for a full-back was you'd get the ball and you'd curl it up the line, because we never had any wingers. Doc was the one who always came out from the middle, got onto the ball, did a little bit of twisting and turning and a bit of magic, then got the crosses in for John O’Mara.

“After the first season, I lived up in London, rather than travelling 50 miles from home every day. In doing so, it got me more spare time and Doc was running the youth team, so I used to go with him to train kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"He was the perfect coach. I was always in awe and I used to try and stand out of the way and watch him do it because I was never going to be a coach.

“He tried to get me involved and, on one occasion, he got me there and said he had to go home. I'd never had to run the training session before and I didn’t have a clue!

“He was the perfect man to make the change from player to manager as we probably still had five or six players that played with him at the time.

“Mike Allen came in six months after me and was a natural left-back, so Doc put Mike back at left-back, stuck me in midfield and I liked playing as a defensive midfield player. I suppose he looked at things from a team point of view and saw ways it could work better.

“He tried me in different positions and central midfield was something that I could do, up to a level. But any manager at that level in those days had their hands tied. They couldn't go out and buy players, so you had to make the best of the players you had.

“We didn’t keep in touch after Brentford. Most of the time, I lived a long way away from the club, so I didn't get the rapport you would get if you lived locally.

"But, funnily enough, he phoned me once when I was on my way up to my sister’s house in Norfolk. This is before mobile phones! I got there, my dad phoned and said Doc had been trying to phone me when he was at Cambridge.

“By this time, I was playing for Dagenham and, typical Doc, he just wanted to talk about players I was playing with!

“I will just remember him for knowing exactly what he wanted and as a football man through and through.”