Steve Whitworth
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| Steve Whitworth | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stephen Whitworth | |
| Date of birth | March 20, 1952 | |
| Place of birth | Coalville, Leicestershire, England | |
| Playing position | Right Back | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1970–1979 1979–1981 1981–1983 1983–1985 1985–1989 |
Leicester City Sunderland Bolton Wanderers Mansfield Town Barnet |
353 (0) 83 (0) 67 (0) 50 (2) ? (?) |
| National team | ||
| 1971–1975 1975 |
England under-23s England |
6 (1) 7 (0) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Stephen Whitworth (born March 20, 1952 in Coalville, Leicestershire) is an English former professional footballer. He was predominantly a right back and earned a total of seven caps for England.
Whitworth began his career with his local side, Leicester City, with whom he made his debut in a 4–0 win against Bristol City on September 2, 1970. In total he spent nine seasons as a first-team regular with Leicester before being sold to Sunderland in March 1979 for a fee of £120,000. In his first season for Leicester, Whitworth was a member of the team that won the Football League Second Division, thereafter Leicester remained in the top flight until 1978. Whitworth also helped Leicester to win the Charity Shield in 1971, a year in which the Second Division champions were invited to play the FA Cup runners-up, Liverpool, owing to the European commitments of Arsenal, who had done the double during the previous season.
Following Don Revie's decision to drop Emlyn Hughes in 1975, Whitworth was given the opportunity to fill the right-back role for England (which at that point had become something of a problem position). Whitworth made his debut in a 2–0 friendly win against West Germany on March 12, 1975, he went on to start in six of England's next eight games. Whitworth's final appearance for England came in 1–1 draw against Portugual in a European Championship qualifying match on November 19, 1975. Don Revie gave international debuts to three young right backs during the course of 1976, Trevor Cherry, Dave Clement and Phil Neal, amidst this new competition for a starting place, Whitworth was never recalled to the England squad.
Whitworth helped Sunderland to promotion from the Second Division during his second season with the club, 1979–80, the team finishing second behind his former club Leicester City. In total Whitworth spent two and a half years with Sunderland before moving to Bolton Wanderers in October 1981. He spent two seasons with Bolton, but moved to Mansfield Town in the summer of 1983 following Bolton's relegation to the Third Division. Whitworth moved to non-league Barnet after two years with Mansfield, he became assistant manager to Barry Fry during his second season with the club.
