At the end of his playing years, Townley took up coaching as a profession; as the opportunities were limited in England, he left for the continent, where football was beginning to develop a serious following. In Germany, as in the rest of Europe at the time, the game was strictly amateur in character, and players often had to contribute to team expenses. For a club to have a coach was not yet a matter of course, but rather a luxury, as it was more common then for a senior player or club functionary to fill the role and carry out the tasks of a coach. Coaches were often hired for special occasions only, or for a brief period to help develop the skills of a team, before they moved on. Townley's first coaching job was with
DFC Prague, who were beaten by
VfB Leipzig in Germany's first national championship staged in 1903. He later joined
Karlsruher FV, losing finalists in 1905, and led them to a their only national title in 1910. The following year, he was hired by the northern
Bavarian club
SpVgg Fürth. This club owned the most advanced facilities in Germany, and was quickly becoming the largest club in the country with a membership approaching 3,000. Two months after his arrival, Fürth lost against English side
Newcastle United 2–1. He guided the club to its first two Bavarian championships (
Ostkreismeisterschaft), which heralded the onset of a golden era that would last into the 1930s, and which saw the club become one of the most dominant football sides in the country. In December 1913, Townley got the call from
Bayern Munich, but on a loan arrangement he re-joined Fürth in April of the following year to guide them through the national championship rounds. In the final, Fürth captured its first national title, defeating defending champions VfB Leipzig, holders of a then record three German titles. It is not clear, but he may then have returned to Munich, before the horrors of
World War I overtook the continent, obscuring knowledge of Townley's activities during this period. He re-emerged with Bayern in 1919 and coached there until 1921, helping the club earn local and regional titles. It appears he was loaned to the Swiss club
FC St. Gallen in August 1920 for what was probably a summer training camp. Townley's two tenures in Munich coincided with the first two terms of legendary Bayern President
Kurt Landauer, who oversaw the club's first national title victory in 1932 during his third term with the Austrian
Richard Dombi – of later
Feyenoord fame – as coach. Afterward, Townley moved to
SV Waldhof Mannheim, where he spent two months aiding in the club's preparations for the South German Championship. The team's campaign was cut short by eventual national champions
1. FC Nürnberg. It then appears that he may have coached in Sweden, before joining
SC Victoria Hamburg where he and his son, playing as a striker, spent a couple of seasons. The last months of the 1922–23 season, he trained both Be Quick 1887 and Forward from the Dutch town of Groningen. In the latter of half of 1923, Townley returned to St. Gallen, where he stayed until February 1925. Townley interrupted his time in Switzerland for a four-month stint with the
Netherlands national team to guide them through the 1924 Olympics in Paris. In the semi-finals, the Netherlands lost a closely fought match to
Uruguay – the dominant side of that era, who counted the legendary
Andrade and
Pedro Cea in their ranks – and had to settle for fourth place. In May 1926, Townley rejoined SpVgg Fürth for the championship final in which they overcame
Hertha BSC to win their second national title – the third national title to his credit. A year later, he was coaching 1925 finalists
FSV Frankfurt, and spent some time working with nearby Union Niederrad. In 1930, Townley returned for a third time to Fürth, with the club winning the South German Championship, before being ousted from the national playoffs in the quarter-finals by the defending champions Hertha Berlin. Now in his mid-60s, Townley took up his last known posting in 1932 with
Arminia Hannover, then a strong regional side. Arminia defeated
Dresdner SC in a quarter-final match, but lost in the next round at home to eventual champions
Fortuna Düsseldorf, starring the legendary
Paul Janes. This marks the zenith of Arminia's achievement and the last significant role of a great pioneer of the game in Germany. Townley died in
Blackpool, England in 1950 at the age of 84. ==Honours and achievements==