Dean Peter Spink is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 former professional footballer who played either as a striker

Striker

Forwards, also known as strikers, are the players on a team in association football who play nearest to the opposing team's goal, and are therefore principally responsible for scoring goals...

 or a defender

Defender (association football)

Within the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to prevent the opposition from attacking....

. After retiring as a player he became a physiotherapist for Shrewsbury Town

Shrewsbury Town F.C.

Shrewsbury Town Football Club is an English Association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, who play in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1886 and has played in all the bottom three divisions in various guises since being elected into the Football...

.

Career

Spink was born in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, and began his football career at non-league Halesowen Town

Halesowen Town F.C.

Halesowen Town is an English association football club formed in 1873, since 2011 playing in the Southern League Division One South & West]]. The team is nicknamed "The Yeltz".-History:...

 before signing for First Division

Football League First Division

The First Division was a division of The Football League between 1888 and 2004 and the highest division in English football until the creation of the Premier League in 1992. The secondary tier in English football has since become known as the Championship....

 Aston Villa

Aston Villa F.C.

Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...

 for £30,000 in 1989. He never made the grade at Villa, and spent loan spells at Scarborough

Scarborough F.C.

Scarborough Football Club was an English football club based in the seaside resort of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. They were one of the oldest football clubs in England, formed in 1879, before they were wound up on 20 June 2007, with debts of £2.5 million.In the 2006–07 season...

 and Bury

Bury F.C.

Bury Football Club is an association football team based in Bury, Greater Manchester. The team currently play in League One. The club's nickname is The Shakers which was bestowed upon them by club chairman JT Ingham, an industrialist and ironmonger of the late 1890s.-Formation of the club and the...

 before moving to Shrewsbury Town where he spent seven years. In his first year with the club he was switched from centre-forward to centre-back, and won the club's player of the year award.

He had played over 300 games for Shrewsbury before moving across the border in 1997 to local rivals Wrexham, where he spent three seasons. Whilst at Wrexham he returned to Shrewsbury on a month's loan, and when he left the Welsh club in 2000 he didn't travel too far to his next two clubs, Chester City

Chester City F.C.

Chester City Football Club was an English football team from Chester. The club was founded as Chester F.C., and joined the Football League in 1931, spending most of their time in the lower divisions. They changed their name to Chester City in 1983. Chester won their first league title in 2004, the...

 and Telford United

Telford United F.C.

Telford United F.C. was an English football club based in Telford, Shropshire.The club existed under various names for a total of 132 years from its formation in 1872. The club was founder members of the Alliance Premier League in 1979 and played at this level for 25 years before being wound up in...

, who were both in the Nationwide Conference at the time. His spell at Chester saw him have a very brief spell as joint caretaker-manager with Owen Brown and Andy Porter

Andy Porter (footballer)

Andrew Michael "Andy" Porter is an English former footballer, turned coach and manager, who is now a youth team coach at Stockport County...

, between the departure of Steve Mungall

Steve Mungall

Steve Mungall is a former manager of Chester City who had a long playing spell with Tranmere Rovers.After joining Tranmere from Motherwell in 1979, Mungall went on to make more than 500 Football League appearances for Rovers in a 17-year period. This spell saw Rovers rise up the league and make...

 in December 2001 and the arrival of Mark Wright in January 2002. He later had short spells with Kidsgrove Athletic

Kidsgrove Athletic F.C.

Kidsgrove Athletic F.C. is an English football club based in based in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, England currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division One South...

 (where he was assistant manager to Porter) and Colwyn Bay

Colwyn Bay F.C.

Colwyn Bay F.C. are a Welsh football club, as of the 2011–12 season are playing in the Conference North. Nicknamed the Seagulls, the club play at Llanelian Road in Old Colwyn.-History:...

.

Personal

Since retiring Spink has ventured into nursery care and gym training, and returned to Shrewsbury initially as youth-team physiotherapist before getting promoted to first-team physio. .

Honours

with Shrewsbury Town

• Football League Division Three champions: 1993–94
• Auto Windscreens Shield
  Football League Trophy
  The Football League Trophy, currently known as the Johnstone's Paint Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football knock-out competition open to the 48 clubs in Football League One and Football League Two, the bottom two divisions in the four fully professional top...
  
   runners-up: 1995–96

Personal

• Voted Shrewsbury Town F.C.
  Shrewsbury Town F.C.
  Shrewsbury Town Football Club is an English Association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, who play in League Two, the fourth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1886 and has played in all the bottom three divisions in various guises since being elected into the Football...
  
  's "all-time cult hero" by viewers of the BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
   show Football Focus
  Football Focus
  Football Focus is a BBC television show, broadcast on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes, covering football, presented from the 2009/2010 season by Dan Walker...
  
   in 2004.

External links