He spent all his time at The Valley in the Second Division, making 151 league appearances for the club during an eight-year stay in which he also served as club captain, before moving to fellow second-tier team Wolverhampton Wanderers in March 1966 for a fee of £40,000.[3]
He took up the reins at former club Charlton Athletic in March 1980 and guided them to promotion from the Third Division at the first attempt in 1980–81 before moving to Brighton & Hove Albion. His one season in charge of the Seagulls brought them their highest finish to date, 13th place in the First Division. In December 1984 he tried his luck in Greece coaching the first league team of OFI Crete replacing for the rest of the season the recently resigned Greek coach Lakis Petropoulos. He later also worked as a reserve team coach at Portsmouth until dismissed in 1995.