Graham Benstead
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Graham Mark Benstead (born 20 August 1963 in Aldershot) is a former professional footballer. He was a goalkeeper who played professionally for Norwich City, Colchester United, Sheffield United and Brentford before moving into non-league football.
Benstead began his career with Wimbledon before Terry Venables signed him for Queens Park Rangers. He did not make a first team appearance for QPR - though he did win an England Youth Cap - and moved to Norwich City in 1985. His chance for first team action finally came at the start of the 1986-87 season, when Norwich's England goalkeeper Chris Woods moved to Rangers for £600,000. Benstead was first choice goalkeeper as the season started, but the arrival of Bryan Gunn in October 1986 relegated him to second choice again. Gunn had been due to sign at the start of the season, but an injury to Aberdeen's own regular keeper - Jim Leighton - meant that Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson delayed the transfer.
Benstead was unable to reclaim the number one jersey from Gunn, and joined Sheffield United in the summer of 1988 having had loan spells with United and Colchester during the 1987-88 season. Benstead had made 19 appearances for Norwich. He played 47 times for Sheffield Utd and then 112 times for Brentford before playing for non-league Kettering Town, Rushden and Diamonds, Kingstonian, Basingstoke, Chertsey Town, Farnborough Town and Stevenage Borough. He played for the England semi-professional team while at Rushden & Diamonds. He was appointed assistant manager at Stevenage Borough in May 2004, but left the post in October of the same year.
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[edit] Sources
- Canary Citizens by Mark Davage, John Eastwood, Kevin Platt, published by Jarrold Publishing, (2001), ISBN 0-7117-2020-7
