Editing Ron Atkinson (section)

===West Bromwich Albion===
In January 1978, Atkinson moved to manage [[Football League First Division|First Division]] [[West Bromwich Albion F.C.|West Bromwich Albion]]. He soon signed [[Brendon Batson]] from his former club, to play alongside [[Laurie Cunningham]] and [[Cyrille Regis]]. Never before had a team in the top division of English football simultaneously fielded three black players on a regular basis.

Atkinson led West Bromwich Albion to third place in the league in the season [[1978-79 in English football|1978–79]] and also to the [[UEFA Cup]] quarter-finals. On 30 December 1978 they achieved a famous 5–3 victory over [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]] at [[Old Trafford]]. The club were second in the table at the time, only beaten off top spot from [[Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool]] by goal difference. They finished fourth in 1981, and shortly after this Atkinson was appointed the manager of Manchester United following the dismissal of [[Dave Sexton]].