Neville Coleman (footballer)

Neville Coleman
Personal information
Full nameNeville James Coleman[1]
Date of birth29 January 1930[1]
Place of birthPrescot, England[1]
Date of death1 January 1981 (aged 50)
Place of deathAustralia
Playing positionForward
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1952Gorleston
1953–1958Stoke City114(46)
1958–1961Crewe Alexandra73(16)
Total187(62)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Neville James "Tim" Coleman (29 January 1930 – 1 January 1981) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City.[1] He holds the record for most goals scored in a match by a Stoke City player (7).[1][2]

Career

Coleman was born in Prescot and joined Stoke City in 1953 as an amateur from Gorleston, Norfolk where he was completing his National Service at the local RAF base.[2] Stoke helped Coleman secure his released from the services in January 1954 although rules meant he could not turn professional for a year.[2] Despite initially being signed as a centre-forward to partner Frank Bowyer, manager Frank Taylor saw him as a right winger witch saw Coleman drop into the reserves to learn his new position. However a career ending injury to John Malkin in October 1956 handed Coleman his chance in the first team. He quickly became a key member of the Stoke team although an often frustrating one becoming notoriously inconstant.[2] Whilst he lacked pace he was very difficult to dispossess.[2]

In the 1956–57 season Coleman hit a rich vain of form in-front of goal scoring 27 goals, including a hat-trick against Middlesbrough.[2] On 23 February 1957 Stoke played Lincoln City at the Victoria Ground and Stoke won the match 8–0 with Coleman scoring a club record seven goals.[2] Although he failed to find the net again thereafter. Coleman scored 14 goals in 37 games in 1957–58 before Taylor decided to sell Coleman to Crewe Alexandra in February 1959 for £1,000. He later worked for Rolls Royce before emigrating to Australia.[2]

Career statistics

Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Stoke City[1] 1953–54 Second Division 530053
1954–55 Second Division 202242
1955–56 Second Division 24551256
1956–57 Second Division 4226114327
1957–58 Second Division 3312423714
1958–59 Second Division 800080
Total 1144612612652
Crewe Alexandra 1958–59 Fourth Division 15400154
1959–60 Fourth Division 409614610
1960–61 Fourth Division 1832130234
Total 731682308418
Career Total 187622083021070

External links

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Stoke City 101 Golden Greats. Desert Islands Books. 2002. ISBN 1-874287554.