Gordon Astall

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Gordon Astall
Personal information
Full name Gordon Astall[1]
Date of birth (1927-09-22)22 September 1927[1]
Place of birth Horwich, England
Date of death 21 October 2020(2020-10-21) (aged 93)
Place of death Ipplepen, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[2]
Position Outside right
Youth career
Royal Marines
Southampton
Bolton Wanderers (trial)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1947–1953 Plymouth Argyle 188 (42)
1953–1961 Birmingham City 235 (60)
1961–1963 Torquay United 33 (10)
Total 456 (112)
International career
1952 England B 1 (0)
1956 England 2 (1)
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gordon Astall (22 September 1927 – 21 October 2020) was an English professional footballer. He played as an outside right, and represented the Football League, the England B team and the full England side. At club level he made 456 appearances in the Football League and scored 112 goals.

Life and career

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Astall was born in Horwich, near Bolton, in Lancashire.[1] He was playing amateur football for Southampton when he signed professional with Plymouth Argyle in November 1947.[3] He had previously been an unsuccessful triallist at his local side Bolton Wanderers.[2] His league debut came in February 1948 at home to Luton Town, and he soon became a regular in the Home Park side, helping Plymouth win the Third Division South title in 1952.[3] Due to his speed down the wing the crowd christened him Flash Astall.[4] That same year he was selected for the England B team.[5] In October 1953 he was signed by Second Division rivals Birmingham City for a fee of £14,000, following his Plymouth wing colleague Alex Govan to St Andrew's. He had made 194 appearances for Plymouth and scored 43 goals.[3][6]

As a goalscoring outside right, Astall replaced the Scot Jackie Stewart in the Birmingham side and quickly became an important member of a team that won the Second Division title in 1955 and reached the 1956 FA Cup final, losing 3–1 at Wembley to Manchester City.[7] Full international recognition followed and he scored on his debut for England against Finland on 20 May 1956. He played again six days later in a 3–1 victory against West Germany, but this proved to be his final international appearance.[2] He also took part in Birmingham's Inter-Cities Fairs Cup campaigns, playing in the 1960 final which the team lost 4–1 on aggregate to Barcelona.[8] At the end of the 1960–61 season, after 271 appearances for Birmingham in which he scored 67 goals, he moved to Torquay United on a free transfer.[2]

Astall made his Gulls debut on 19 August 1961, featuring in a 2–1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace, and went on to score 10 goals in 27 league games in a season that saw Torquay relegated back to the Fourth Division thanks to a 4–2 final-day defeat away to Barnsley, Astall scoring one of Torquay's goals.[9] He played only six times the following season before retiring from the professional game.[6]

Astall settled in the Torbay area, working in insurance and coaching local club Upton Vale.[6] In May 2000, the Torquay Herald Express reported that he was living in retirement in the town and was a keen golfer.[10]

In later life, Astall was diagnosed with dementia.[11] He died at a care home at Ipplepen, Devon, on 21 October 2020 at the age of 93.[2] He was at the time the oldest living England international.[12]

Career statistics

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Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Plymouth Argyle[3] 1947–48 Second Division 14 1 0 0 — — 14 1
1948–49 Second Division 36 5 1 0 — — 37 5
1949–50 Second Division 11 0 0 0 — — 11 0
1950–51 Third Division South 30 7 1 0 — — 31 7
1951–52 Third Division South 45 18 1 0 — — 46 18
1952–53 Third Division South 39 10 3 1 — — 42 11
1953–54 Third Division South 13 1 — — — 13 1
Total 188 42 6 1 — — 194 43
Birmingham City[13] 1953–54 Second Division 24 6 2 0 — — 26 6
1954–55 Second Division 33 11 4 0 — — 37 11
1955–56 First Division 39 12 6 3 — 0 0 45 15
1956–57 First Division 40 11 6 2 — 1[a] 0 47 13
1957–58 First Division 37 5 1 0 — 3[a] 0 41 5
1957–58 First Division 26 8 5 1 — 1[a] 0 32 9
1957–58 First Division 19 4 1 0 — 2[a] 0 22 4
1957–58 First Division 17 3 2 0 1 0 1[a] 1 21 4
Total 235 60 27 6 1 0 8 1 271 67
Torquay United[14] 1961–62 Third Division 27 10 0 0 1 0 — 28 10
1962–63 Fourth Division 6 0 0 0 0 0 — 6 0
Total 33 10 0 0 1 0 — 33 10
Career total 456 112 33 87 2 9 8 1 498 120
  1. ^ a b c d e Appearance(s) in Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

Honours

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Plymouth Argyle

Birmingham City

Sources

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  • Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).

References

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  1. ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  2. ^ a b c d e Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  3. ^ a b c d Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  6. ^ a b c Matthews (1995), p. 69.
  7. ^ Matthews (2010), pp. 342–347.
  8. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  9. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  10. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  11. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  12. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  13. ^ Matthews (2010), pp. 342–359, 473.
  14. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  15. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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