Timothy David "Tim" Flowers (born 3 February 1967) is an English former football goalkeeper who is currently a goalkeeper coach atNorthampton Town.
[edit] Club career
Flowers was born in Kenilworth and began his career with Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1984. He quickly broke into the first team, becoming their regular goalkeeper by his 18th birthday, but his breakthrough came at the bleakest time in the club's history, as the two seasons he spent there both ended in relegation (in 1984–85 to the Third Division and in 1985–86 to the Fourth. After Wolves fell into the Fourth Division to complete a hat-trick of successive relegations, they had to sell Flowers as part of the effort to avoid bankruptcy and he joined First Division club Southampton for £70,000. He was understudy to Peter Shilton in 1986–87, but managed nine league appearances (the first in a 5–1 defeat to Manchester United in mid September) and also played a further nine games on loan to Swindon Town in the Third Division. He made another nine league appearances in 1987–88 (by which time Shilton had joined Derby County) and returned to Swindon for a five-match loan spell, before becoming Southampton's regular goalkeeper in the 1989–90 season.
Within a couple of years of becoming Southampton's first choice goalkeeper, Flowers was regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the English league and inevitable rumours of a transfer to a bigger club began.[1]
He finally left Southampton on 4 November 1993 when a £2.4million move to Blackburn Rovers made him the most expensive goalkeeper in Britain. His excellent goalkeeping wasn't quite enough to win Blackburn the Premier League title that season, but they did finish second to Manchester United, and went one better the following year when they won their first top division title since 1914.
He remained at Ewood Park for another four seasons before Blackburn were relegated in 1999 and he was transferred to Leicester City, where he collected a Football League Cup winner's medal in his first season. He stayed with them for one season after their relegation to Division One two years later before retiring as a player.
His final appearance for Leicester City was against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux in May 2003. It was the final game of the season, and with Leicester 1–0 down, Flowers came on as a late substitute. Leicester were awarded a late penalty, and despite shouts from the travelling Leicester fans for Flowers to take the penalty, and Flowers himself signalling to the bench, Micky Adams (then Leicester manager) ignored the fans, and allowed Trevor Benjamin to take it, who scored. It seemed harsh on Flowers, as Leicester were already promoted to the Premiership, and he could have ended his career with his only goal.
Flowers also won 11 caps with England between 1993 and 1998. He was in the squads for both Euro 96 in England and the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France.[2] He retired following the 2002–03 season.
[edit] Coaching career
Following a spell as goalkeeper coach for both Leicester City and Manchester City, on 19 February 2007 he was appointed as assistant manager to Iain Dowie at Coventry City. Flowers left Coventry on 11 February 2008 after Dowie was sacked, before joining him again at Queens Park Rangers. He left the assistant manager's role at QPR as well after Dowie was sacked again.
In February 2010, he was appointed part-time goalkeeper coach at Northampton Town,[3] as well as mentoring Dean Coleman and Yasbir Singh at Kidderminster Harriers.[4]
On 17 March 2010, he re-joined Dowie when he was appointed as assistant manager at Premiership club, Hull City.[5]
On 14 October he was appointed manager of Conference North team Stafford Rangers.[6]
Flowers resigned on 11 January 2011 after just nine games in charge.[7] He was appointed caretaker manager of Northampton Town on 22 November 2011 replacing previous caretaker manager David Lee whose only game as caretaker was a 7-2 home defeat to Shrewsbury. Flowers didn't fare much better and only endured one game under his spell, a 4-1 loss, away to bottom club Plymouth Argyle. Before Aidy Boothroyd was appointed manager on a permanent basis. Flowers reverted back to his previous coaching position and currently holds it to this day.
[edit] Honours
- Southampton
- Blackburn Rovers
- Leicester City
- England
[edit] References
[edit] External links
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(c) caretaker; (p) player manager; (s) secretary
|
|
| Persondata |
| Name |
Flowers, Tim |
| Alternative names |
|
| Short description |
English footballer and manager |
| Date of birth |
3 February 1967 |
| Place of birth |
Kenilworth, Warwickshire, England |
| Date of death |
|
| Place of death |
|
