Darren Beckford

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Darren Beckford
Full name	Darren Beckford
Date of birth	12 May 1967 (1967-05-12) (age 41)
Place of birth	Manchester, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Forward
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984–1987 1985 1987–1991 1991–1993 1993–1996 1996–1997 1997 1997 1997 1997 1997 1997–1998	Manchester City → Bury (loan) Port Vale Norwich Oldham Hearts Preston Fulham Walsall Rushden Southport Bury	011 0(0) 012 0(5) 167 (68) 049 (13) 052 (17) 007 0(0) 002 0(0) 00? 0(?) 008 0(0) 00? 0(?) 001 0(0) 00? 0(?)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Darren Beckford (born 12 June 1967 in Manchester, England) is a former professional footballer.

Beckford was a product of the Manchester City youth team he made eleven appearances for the Maine Road side before spending loan periods at Bury and Port Vale, moving to Vale on a permanent basis.

He played 167 league games and scored 68 times for Port Vale before signing for Norwich in 1991. The fee that Norwich paid for him - £925,000 - was set by a football league tribunal (Vale had wanted £1,500,000) and was a club record that stood until 1994. Norwich manager Dave Stringer had been looking to sign a regular goalscorer for some time, and when Beckford signed he described him as "The answer to the Norwich supporters prayers". His spell at Carrow Road was inconsistent, however, and he only scored 13 times in 49 appearances, including a hat-trick in a 4-3 win against Everton. In 1992 he took over in goal when Bryan Gunn sustained a back injury during a game against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. He made a number of saves but was finally beaten in a 1-0 defeat.

The signing of Mark Robins for £800,000 from Manchester United and the emergence of Chris Sutton coupled with a lack of goal scoring form meant that after less than two seasons with Norwich, Beckford was sold to Oldham in 1993 for £300,000, where he played 52 times and scored 17 goals before being released in the summer of 1996. He then played for Hearts, Fulham, Walsall, Rushden, Southport and Total Network Solutions before retiring.

Beckford also began working for the Prince's Trust working with youngsters in Manchester.In September 1998 he won a successful tribunal case against the trust for being racially victimised.