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Alan Stephenson

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Alan Stephenson
Personal information
Date of birth (1944-09-26) 26 September 1944 (age 80)
Place of birth Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Crystal Palace[1]
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1962–1968 Crystal Palace 170 (13)
1968–1972 West Ham United 108 (0)
1971–1972 → Fulham (loan) 10 (0)
1972–1975 Portsmouth 98 (0)
1975–1977 Durban United
International career‡
England Under-23 team 7 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 09:00, 9 July 2011 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 09:00 9 July 2011 (UTC)

Alan Stephenson (born 26 September 1944) is an English former professional footballer, who played as a defender. He made a total of 386 appearances in the Football league for Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Fulham and Portsmouth. At the end of his career, he played for Durban United in South Africa.

Playing career

Starting as an amateur footballer aged sixteen,[2] Stephenson signed professional terms on 15 February 1962[1] and made his senior debut for Crystal Palace as a seventeen-year-old on 24 March 1962.[3] Dominating in the air and solid in defence he made a major contribution towards Palace's climb up, and promotion from, the Third Division. He was appointed as captain by manager Dick Graham and from 1964, rarely missed a game playing alongside Brian Wood.[4] Stephenson was sold to West Ham in 1968 for a club record fee of £80,000. He made his first appearance for West Ham on 16 March 1968 in a 0-0 away draw with Southampton.[5] Joining a team which contained World Cup winning heroes Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore, he made over 100 appearances for West Ham, most of them alongside Moore. Stephenson failed to solve the defensive problems which had existed since the departure of Ken Brown in 1965 and following a loan spell for Fulham in season 1971-72 he was transferred for £32,000 to Portsmouth for whom he made 98 appearances until 1975. In 1975 Stephenson moved to South Africa, playing for Durban United before returning in 1977 to coach at Orient.[2][6] He coached their reserve team but after four years with Orient quit football to run a pub in Colchester[2] and to work as an education and welfare officer with Essex County Council.[7]

International career

Stephenson made seven appearances for the England Under-23 team.[6] He also played two games for an FA team which played games in Australia in 1971. In both games, in June 1971, the FA team won 1-0.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. p. 332. ISBN 0907969542.
  2. ^ a b c "Alan Stephenson". www.whufc.com. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  3. ^ Mike Purkiss & Nigel Sands. Crystal Palace: A Complete Record 1905–1989. p. 217. ISBN 0907969542.
  4. ^ "Alan Stephenson". www.cpfc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 25 August 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  5. ^ "Alan Stephenson". www.westhamstats.info. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  6. ^ a b Hogg, Tony (1995). West Ham United Who's Who. London: UK Sports Publications. p. 196. ISBN 1-899429-01-8.
  7. ^ Maul, Rob (8 May 2005). "Caught in Time: Leyton Orient reach the 1978 FA Cup semi-final". Timesonline. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
  8. ^ "Alan Stephenson". www.11v11.com. Retrieved 26 December 2014.
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