Nigel Spink

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Nigel Spink

Full name	Nigel Spink
Date of birth	August 8, 1958 (age 48)
Place of birth	Chelmsford, England
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Retired
Youth clubs
1976 1976-1977	West Ham United Chelmsford City
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1977-1996 1996-1997 1997-2000 2000-2001	Aston Villa West Bromwich Albion Millwall Forest Green Rovers	361 (0) 19 (0) 44 (0) 14 (0)
National team
1989-1997	England	1 (0)
Teams managed
	Forest Green Rovers
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Nigel Spink (born Chelmsford, England, August 8, 1958) was a football goalkeeper who made his name at Aston Villa and also made one appearance for England at international level.

Spink began his career at West Ham United, but soon moved to Chelmsford City and then, at the age of just 18, to Aston Villa. It was almost five years before his big break in the first team came along, and it came on the biggest stage of all - the European Cup Final. Ten minutes into the 1982 final against Bayern Munich, Villa's first choice goalkeeper, Jimmy Rimmer, was injured and substitute keeper Spink was called into action, having only made one previous appearance in the first team. Spink performed superbly, keeping a clean sheet, and Villa won the game 1-0.

He went on to make 460 appearances for Villa before moving to neighbouring club West Bromwich Albion in 1996, almost two decades after first joining Villa.

After retiring as a player, Spink worked as a coach at West Bromwich Albion, and after a brief spell as manager of Forest Green Rovers, is now the goalkeeping coach of Villa's arch-rivals Birmingham City.