Frank Burrows (30 January 1944 – 24 November 2021) was a Scottish football player and manager who played as a central defender. Life and career Frank Burrows began his football career at Scottish club Raith Rovers. In 1965 he moved south to England and joined Scunthorpe United. Impressive performances as a defender for Scunthorpe led to him being signed by Swindon Town F.C. for the 1968–69 season as a replacement for the departing Mel Nurse. Burrows was a major factor in helping Swindon to their most successful ever season in which they won promotion and the League Cup. Burrows played alongside team captain Stan Harland in the middle of a defence that conceded just 35 goals in 46 League matches. He went on to make over 350 appearances for Swindon. At the start of the 1973–74 season he was made a player coach, such was the feeling that he was a natural leader as well as a solid defender. The 1975–76 season saw his coaching come more into prominence. The season had not gone well for Swindon with a defeat at the hands of Tooting & Mitcham United in the FA Cup and a slide down the Football League Division Three table into a perilous position. Ambitious as a manager, Burrows left Swindon to be appointed assistant manager to Jimmy Dickinson at Portsmouth. When Dickinson resigned in 1979 Burrows replaced him. Burrows enjoyed success at Portsmouth as a manager winning promotion from the fourth division in May 1980, after leaving the club in 1982 he spent time as assistant manager at Sunderland, before being appointed manager at Cardiff City in May 1986. Burrows arrived to a Cardiff side demoralised by two successive relegations under former manager Alan Durban that had left the club in the bottom rung of the Football League. Burrows brought in his own coaching staff, including former City manager Jimmy Goodfellow, Bobby Smith and Gavin Tait, and set to work revitalising a side that had dropped to new depths. Burrows managed to lead City to promotion in the 1987–88 season, but the side struggled in the old Third Division and following disagreements with the board of directors, Burrows resigned in August 1989. Later that year, he returned to Portsmouth as assistant manager to John Gregory, before being appointed manager in Spring 1990. Pompey had been in serious danger all season of a second relegation in three campaigns,