Over Christmas 1974 regular Cheshunt goalkeeper, Dave O’Neill, dropped a bombshell by announcing he would be leaving the Club and joining the Merchant Navy. Ambers boss John Drabwell wasted no time and immediately snapped up Alan Lowen as his replacement. Many had thought Pat Jennings’ one-time understudy at Spurs, Stuart Skeet, would take over but Drabwell was wary of a knee injury he was carrying and placed his faith in Lowen instead. Alan had been the first choice keeper at Ware but had lost his place in their starting line up and was now playing for the highly-rated local Sunday side, Town FC. He made his debut on January 11th 1975 in a 2-1 win over Ruislip Manor in the Athenian League and would remain unchallenged as the Ambers number one for the next three years.

Physically similar to O’Neill in that both were young and slim, their characters were totally different. Whilst O’Neill was a serious figure, Lowen was far more light-hearted and soon became known as a joker, on and off the pitch. As team-mate Tommy Dillon recalled ‘we were losing 0-3 at half time and Drabwell was reading the riot act to us all but, every time his eyes strayed from me, Alan would give me a little nudge. Eventually I cracked and Drabwell exploded telling me I was substituted! That was typical Alan. Another time, we both fancied a night out in Cheshunt after the match but were both skint. Alan takes a notion, nips into a shop and comes out with a book of raffle tickets. He then goes into a pub at the Pond and starts selling these ‘charity’ raffle tickets, the first prize being a vase that was sitting on the bar. After selling £40 worth of tickets, we slipped out of the pub and went back to the Clubhouse and had a great night!’

On the pitch Cheshunt, who had led the Athenian top division for the early part of the 1974-75 season, faltered in the final months to finish 4th, seven points behind champions Letchworth Town. Some consolation was taken though as Cheshunt won the Athenian League Cup, beating Redhill 1-0 in the final, thanks to a Colin Waters header, and giving Alan his first winners medal at Theobalds Lane.

After learning that, for the third time, the Isthmian League had turned down Cheshunt’s application to join their expanded second division (accepting Ware, Hornchurch and Harrow instead, despite them finishing below Cheshunt), Drabwell’s side went into the 1975-76 season determined to show them an error had been made.

After a good start to the league campaign, almost two months of near-continuous cup football followed… First Cheshunt reached the final of the East Anglian Cup, held over from the previous season, beating Norwich City 2-1 at Theobalds Lane. This was followed by the Herts Charity Cup final, again held over from the 1974-75 season, which Cheshunt lost 1-4 at Letchworth. Two mighty cup ties came next – a 1-2 defeat at home to Wealdstone in the FA Trophy and a 0-1 defeat in the FA Cup at Romford, where Alan performed wonders to keep the scoreline down in front of over a thousand spectators. Cheshunt’s league form stepped up several gears in the final weeks of the season, going top and then winning the league against second-placed Addlestone on Easter Monday. As if that wasn’t enough, the Ambers then beat Eastbourne in the League Cup final to make it an Athenian ‘double’ and finally ended the season by reaching the Mithras Cup final, losing 1-2 over two legs. Alan Lowen played in all those finals, making 59 appearances in a memorable 63 game season.

The following 1976-77 season was never going to match the drama of the previous campaign but early on, another final was played, the 1975-76 East Anglian Cup final that had again, been held over from the previous season. Cheshunt went down 2-4 to Cambridge City over two legs, with Alan in goal for both games but soon after he found himself dropped after breaking club rules by playing against Cheshunt Youth in a Sunday morning game. With an FA Trophy tie with Witney Town coming up, John Drabwell had to state in the local press that ‘Alan Lowen will be back in goal against Witney Town. He is the best goalkeeper at Cheshunt, the best goalkeeper in the Waltham area and the best goalkeeper in the Athenian League’. He did indeed return but their relationship was never the same and two months later on December 22nd 1976, he made his last appearance for Cheshunt – a 0-4 defeat at Hemel Hempstead in the Mithras Cup. It was his 100th appearance for the Club (not 103 as reported in the press, as they included friendlies) and soon it was reported that he had joined Hoddesdon Town.

Alan’s personal honours list at Cheshunt was an Athenian League winner, two Athenian League Cup winners, an East Anglian winner and runner-up, a Mithras Cup runner-up and a Herts Charity Cup runner-up – an extraordinary seven medals in 100 games.

There will be One Minute of Applause in memory of Alan Lowen at Cheshunt v Whitehawk on Saturday January 18th.

Alan’s funeral will take place at Enfield Crematorium on Thursday 30th January at 11am with the wake following at Cuffley Football Club. His family welcomes donations to Age UK using https://alan-lowen.muchloved.com.

Our thoughts are with Paul, Joanne, Louise and Natalie at this sad time