| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Keith Morton Houchen | ||
| Date of birth | 25 July 1960 | ||
| Place of birth | Middlesbrough, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1977–1978 | Chesterfield | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1978–1982 | Hartlepool United | 170 | (65) |
| 1982–1984 | Leyton Orient | 76 | (20) |
| 1984–1986 | York City | 67 | (19) |
| 1986 | Scunthorpe United | 9 | (3) |
| 1986–1989 | Coventry City | 54 | (7) |
| 1989–1991 | Hibernian | 57 | (11) |
| 1991–1993 | Port Vale | 49 | (10) |
| 1993–1996 | Hartlepool United | 109 | (27) |
| Total | 509 | (162) | |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1995–1996 | Hartlepool United (player-manager) | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Keith Morton Houchen (born 25 July 1960) is an English former footballer and football manager. A forward, he score 162 goals in 509 league games.
He started his career at Hartlepool United in 1978, having previously been a youth team player at Chesterfield. He made 170 league appearances for Hartlepool in a four year stay, before he transferred to Leyton Orient in 1982. Two years later he moved on to York City. In 1986 he signed with Coventry City via Scunthorpe United. He moved to Scotland in 1989, having signed a contract with Hibernian. Two years later he returned to the Football League with Port Vale. He made his return to Hartlepool in 1993, and in 1995 he was became the club's player-manager. He retired from the game in 1996.
Other than his many years with Hartlepool, he is best remembered for his time with Coventry. He played in the club's FA Cup final victory in 1987, and also appeared in the 1987 FA Charity Shield. He scored a diving header in the final itself, which earned him Match of the Day's Goal of the Season Award for 1986–87.
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Keith Houchen was born in Middlesbrough, in the north of England and went to school at Middlesbrough's St Mary's College. Not an academic by any means, he was a natural athlete and excelled at all sports. He left school at 16. He broke his leg in a motor-bike accident but recovered soon enough to begin his career in football.[1]
After leaving Chesterfield without having made a first team appearance he signed with Hartlepool United in February 1978. He would go on to score an impressive 65 goals in 170 league games for the club, making himself as the club's top scorer for four consecutive seasons, before being transferred to Second Division side Leyton Orient in March 1982 for £25,000.
Two years later, unhappy with the north London-based side, he returned north to York City for a £40,000 fee. York went on to win that season's Fourth Division championship. Unable to quite find the league form he hit at Hartlepool, he managed to score the only goal (a penalty) in York's historic 1-0 giant-killing victory of Arsenal in the FA Cup. He was sold on to Scunthorpe United for £40,000 in March 1986. Though by July that year he moved on to Coventry City for £60,000.
He struck 7 times in 54 league games for Coventry, though it was in the FA Cup once again that he ensured his name went down in the club's history. He bagged five goals in their 1986–87 cup-winning run, including the winning goal away at Old Trafford against Alex Ferguson's Manchester United.
He is most famous for scoring a spectacular diving header in the 1987 FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in a 3-2 win over Tottenham. As well as his FA Cup winning medal, this also earned him the BBC Match of the Day's Goal of the Season award for the 1987 season. This was due to the acrobatic effort involved and partly due to the incredible run he had made from deep midfield to meet the crossed ball delivered by team-mate Dave Bennett. It is generally considered as one of the most famous goals scored at Wembley,[2] and certainly the best headed goal.
Houchen struggled to form a regular striker role in the Coventry City team. His talismanic ability in the FA Cup rarely transferred to regular league form. In his defence, the purchasing of David Speedie and later Gary Bannister meant that competition was high, and a deserved run in the first team never materialised. He did however score the winning goal in November 1988 that would end one of Coventry City's lasting hoodoo's - their inability to beat their arch-rivals Aston Villa. The jinx was broken after Cyrille Regis had opened the scoring before Houchen's close range reaction secured a 2-1 win. It would prove to be his last goal for the Sky Blues.
Houchen left Coventry on a £100,000 transfer in March 1989 for Scottish Premier League side Hibernian, which enabled him to play in the UEFA Cup. In August 1991 he returned to England with a £100,000 move to Port Vale. Initially a regular in the first team, a torn hamstring injury in September 1991 saw him sidelined and he struggled to regain his place. Though he was a member of the sides that won the TNT Tournament in 1992 and played fairly regularly in the 1992–93 season.[3] He left Vale Park on a free transfer in June 1993 and returned to old club Hartlepool. Appointed player-manager in April 1995, his reign was to last until November 1996. The club had lost 37 of his 73 games in charge, though there was a distinct lack of money at the club.
Houchen later spent his time coaching at the Middlesbrough Academy, collecting football statistics and renting out properties.[4]
He appeared as one of the players selected for the new Wembley Stadium's 'Walk of Fame' prior to the venue's first FA Cup final in May 2007,[2] to unanimous applause from the 90,000-strong crowd. It was almost 20 years to the day from his historic goal at the old Wembley stadium, which was scored in front of 98,000 fans.
A 256-page biography of his footballing career entitled A Tenner & A Box of Kippers, written by Jonathan Strange, was published in 2006.
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