Tony Allen (footballer)

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For other persons of the same name, see Tony Allen.

Personal information
Tony Allen
Full name	Anthony Allen
Date of birth	27 November 1939 (1939-11-27) (age 68)
Place of birth	Stoke-on-Trent, England
Playing position	Left Back
Youth clubs
	Stoke Boy's Brigade
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1957–1970 1970–1971 1971–1973 1973–????	Stoke City Bury Hellenic (Cape Town) Stafford Rangers	417 0(2) 029 0(0)
National team
1959	England U-23 England	003 0(0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Anthony Allen (born 27 November 1939) is a retired English footballer who played most of his club career as a left back for Stoke City between 1957 and 1970. He also made three appearances for England in 1959, before his twentieth birthday.

1 Career
2 Honours
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Career

Allen was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and after playing football for his schools and the Boys Brigade, he was signed by Stoke City as an amateur, before turning professional on his seventeenth birthday in November 1956.

Although playing outside the top division, his talents were soon spotted by the England selectors. After winning caps at youth and under-23 levels, he was called up for the full international side for a British Home Championship match against Wales in place of Jimmy Armfield on 17 October 1959. The match was drawn 1–1^[1] and Allen was retained for the next two matches, against Sweden (a 2–3 defeat)^[2] and Northern Ireland (won 2–1).^[3] For the next international match the following April, Ray Wilson was preferred at left-back, remaining first choice for most of the next decade. Although he received further caps at under-23 level (earning seven in all) Allen was never selected again for the full England eleven.

By now he was a fixture in the Stoke side as they generally finished in the middle of the Football League Second Division table, but in 1963, Stoke finished top of the table and returned to the top flight. He was ever-present throughout the 1960–61 and 1960–62 seasons, and only missed one game in the promotion season. In this period, he clocked up a run of 148 consecutive appearances, which remains a Stoke record.^[4]

Stoke finished their first season back in the First Division in 17th place, but also reached the final of the League Cup, where they were defeated by Leicester City 4–3 on aggregate.

In 1967, Allen was involved in an incident which led to a major change in the International Laws of Association Football. On May 13, 1967, Stoke City visited Old Trafford to play Manchester United. Paddy Crerand of United had an altercation with Peter Dobing of Stoke, which was dealt with by referee Pat Partridge holding Crerand close, such that his head was over the referee's shoulder. Unknown to the official, TV cameras picked up Crerand's action of spitting over his shoulder at Allen. Crerand and Dobing were cautioned for their confrontation, but Partridge had not seen the spitting incident. Partridge later received a letter from the Football League, asking for his observations on the incident, in response to many complaints received. Partridge was unable to respond with conclusive evidence, but nevertheless the International Board changed the Laws of the Game to put spitting on a par with violent conduct, and therefore a dismissable offence.

Allen left Stoke in October 1970, when he moved to Bury for a fee of £10,000. After a year with the Gigg Lane club, he moved to Cape Town to play for Hellinic. He returned to England in October 1973, and ended his playing career with non-league Stafford Rangers.

After ending his playing career, he returned to Stoke where he became a publican.^[5]