Alan Durban

William Alan Durban (born 7 July 1941 in Bridgend) is a Welsh former international footballer and manager between the 1970s and 1990s.

Club career

Durban was brought up in Bracken Road, Margam, Port Talbot. He began his career at Cardiff City, making his debut in a 2-1 win over Derby County in 1959. After initially making an impact on the team he fell out of favour and was transferred to Derby County for £10,000 in July 1963 at the age of 22 having played over 50 times for Cardiff. He made his Derby debut on 24 August 1963 in a 3-1 defeat to Newcastle United and helped the side to thirteenth place in his first season and his partnership with the newly arrived Eddie Thomas saw the side begin to move up the table, finishing in 9th and 8th position in the following two years.

After finishing in seventeenth place during the 1966–67 season Tim Ward was replaced as the Derby manager by Brian Clough. Under Clough, Durban was moved from Inside-forward to an attacking midfield role and was handed the captaincy for the first time in a 5-1 win over his former club Cardiff City.^[1] He won a Football League First Division championship medal with Derby in 1971-72, although he then left the club in 1973 to join Shrewsbury Town where he later took charge as player-manager

International career

Durban was handed his debut for Wales on 18 May 1966 in a 1-0 defeat to Brazil at the age of 24. He went on to make 27 appearances for Wales, his final appearance coming on 27 May 1972 in a 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland.^[2]

Managerial career

He began his managerial career at Shrewsbury Town in February 1974; managing them until 1978 when he joined Stoke City, having won promotion from Division Four and the Welsh Cup in 1977. In three years at Stoke, Durban won 53 out of 143 games, and in 1981 he became manager of Sunderland, managing them until 1984 but failing to win anything. After leaving Sunderland he managed Willington in the Northern League. Six months after leaving Sunderland he joined Cardiff City but his two year spell in charge at Ninian Park turned into a disaster as they suffered consecutive relegations, falling from Division Two to Division Four and Durban was replaced by Frank Burrows.

Several years later, Durban returned to Sunderland to become Chief Scout under Peter Reid. He then briefly returned to Stoke as caretaker for five games in 1998.

In Summer 2010, he commenced part time work as a regional scout for Championship side Norwich City.

In July 2011 Durban re-joined Stoke City on a part-time basis as a mentor for young Academy players needing guidance off the pitch.^[3][4]

Statistics

Personal life

He has two daughters, Cathy Burnside and Jane Davis and is now grandfather of six children.

References

• Hayes, Dean (2006). The Who's Who of Cardiff City. Breedon Books. ISBN 1-85983-462-0. 

External links

• Alan Durban management career stats at Soccerbase