Derek Ufton

Derek Ufton

Personal information
Full name	Derek Gilbert Ufton
Batting	Left-handed
Role	Wicket-keeper
Career statistics
Competition First Class Matches 149 Runs scored 3,919 Batting average 19.99 100s/50s 1/10 Top score 119* Catches/stumpings 270/44
Source: CricInfo, 16 March 2019

Derek Gilbert Ufton (born 31 May 1928) is an English former professional cricketer and footballer, and later a football manager for Plymouth Argyle.

Cricket career

An old boy of Dartford Grammar School, Ufton was born in Crayford, Kent and played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club from 1949 to 1962 as a wicket-keeper batsman. He won his Kent cap in 1956.

Football career

He made 263 appearances as a centre half for Charlton Athletic between 1949 and 1960. He was notorious for shoulder injuries, and dislocated his at least twenty times during his football career. He gained his only England cap at football in 1953, against a team from Rest of Europe.

He was captain of Charlton in the record-setting match against Huddersfield Town at The Valley on 21 December 1957. Charlton played most of the match with 10 men after Ufton was injured, and Huddersfield were leading 5–1 with just 27 minutes remaining. At that point, Johnny Summers began a passage of play in which he scored five goals and assisted with two others to allow Charlton to win 7–6. Huddersfield become the first, and still the only, team to score six goals in an English Football League match – or any other professional football match – and still be on the losing side.

Ufton's playing career ended in 1960. He then became a coach at Tooting & Mitcham United in 1961, where he stayed until joining Malcolm Allison as a coach at Plymouth Argyle during the 1964–65 season. He replaced Allison as manager in 1965. He left in 1968.