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Ray Crawford (footballer)
Encyclopedia
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...
international footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
, who played 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...
in a career that saw him score over 300 goals at club level.
Club
Crawford began his career as a trainee at his hometown club PortsmouthPortsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
. He made his league debut on 24 August 1957 in a goalless draw with Burnley
Burnley F.C.
Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...
. He managed 19 appearances for the club at senior level before joining second flight Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....
in August 1958.
A prolific striker, he helped Ipswich to win back-to-back titles, the Second Division
Football League Second Division
From 1892 until 1992, the Football League Second Division was the second highest division overall in English football.This ended with the creation of the FA Premier League, prior to the start of the 1992–93 season, which caused an administrative split between The Football League and the teams...
in 1959/60
1959-60 in English football
The 1959–60 season was the 80th season of competitive football in England.-Diary of the season:17 November 1959: Phil Taylor resigns as manager of Liverpool after three years as manager, with all three of his seasons in charge ending with a narrow failure to win promotion to the First...
and the 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....
in 1961/62
1961-62 in English football
The 1961–62 season was the 82nd season of competitive Football in England.-Overview:The season was notable for the remarkable achievement of Ipswich Town winning the League Championship. Under the managership of Alf Ramsey, the club progressed from the old Third Division South to the First Division...
. In the latter season, he was joint leading scorer in Division One
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....
– alongside Derek Kevan
Derek Kevan
Derek Tennyson Kevan is a retired English footballer. He played for West Bromwich Albion as an attacker. He earned 14 caps for the England national football team, scoring a total of eight goals, including two in the 1958 FIFA World Cup. During his Albion career, he earned the nickname "The Tank"...
of West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion F.C.
West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...
– with 33 goals. During this time, he won the first of his two England
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
caps, becoming the first Ipswich Town player to be capped for England.
He was sold to Wolves
Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club that represents the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands region. They are members of the Premier League, the highest level of English football. The club was founded in 1877 and since 1889 has played at...
in September 1963 where he scored 41 goals in 61 appearances (in total), before moving to rivals West Brom
West Bromwich Albion F.C.
West Bromwich Albion Football Club, also known as West Brom, The Baggies, The Throstles, Albion or WBA, are an English Premier League association football club based in West Bromwich in the West Midlands...
in January 1965, shortly before Wolves dropped out of the top flight. He failed to establish himself though at The Hawthorns
The Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an all-seater football stadium in West Bromwich, Sandwell, England, with a capacity of 26,484. It has been the home of West Bromwich Albion F.C. since 1900, when it became the sixth ground to be used by the club. The ground was the last Football League ground to be built in the...
and rejoined Ipswich
Ipswich Town F.C.
Ipswich Town Football Club are an English professional football team based in Ipswich, Suffolk. As of 2011, they play in the Football League Championship, having last appeared in the Premier League in 2001–02....
in March 1965, where he played another three full seasons, lifting his tally for the club to 259 goals in all competitions.
He joined Charlton
Charlton Athletic F.C.
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...
in March 1969, but soon dropped into the non-league with Kettering Town
Kettering Town F.C.
Kettering Town Football Club are a football club originating in Kettering, Northamptonshire but currently based in the nearby village of Irthlingborough. The club play in the Conference National after winning the Conference North in 2007–08...
. He signed for Colchester United
Colchester United F.C.
Colchester United Football Club is an English football club based in Colchester. The club was formed in 1937, and briefly shared their old Layer Road home with now defunct side Colchester Town who had previously used the ground from 1910....
in June 1970 for £3,000 and in his only season with the club, scored 24 goals from 45 appearances. Most notably, he scored two goals for Colchester United in a giant-killing 3–2 victory against Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
in the fifth round of the FA Cup
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
in 1971.
Crawford left English football after this season, heading to Durban City in South Africa, leaving an exceptional scoring rate in the Football League of 289 goals in 476 games. In his only season in South Africa, he won the cup and came finished runner-up in the league.
He became youth-team coach at Brighton
Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club are an English association football club based in the coastal city of Brighton & Hove, East Sussex. They currently play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system....
in 1972 but left after Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
became manager the following year. He then worked as youth team club at his former side Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
until 1979 and later managed non-league Fareham Town
Fareham Town F.C.
Fareham Town F.C. is a football club based in Fareham, Hampshire, England. They were formed in 1946 and have reached the 1st round proper of the FA Cup on four occasions in their history. Fareham's most successful exploit in the FA Trophy came in the 1986–87 season when they reached the semi finals...
for a short while beforein retiring from the game in 1984, and becoming a merchandising rep.
In 2007, he published his autobiography entitled "Curse of the Jungle Boy".
Crawford now works as a summariser on Express FM commentaries on Portsmouth
Portsmouth F.C.
Portsmouth Football Club is an English football club based in the city of Portsmouth. The club is nicknamed Pompey. Portsmouth's home matches have been played at Fratton Park since the club's formation in 1898. The team currently play in the Football League Championship after being relegated from...
matches.
International
Crawford's international career was surprisingly brief, winning only two caps. He made his international debut against Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland national football team
The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. Before 1921 all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team, organised by the Irish Football Association...
on 22 November 1961 and played in their next fixture, versus Austria
Austria national football team
The Austria national football team is the association football team that represents the country of Austria in international competition and is controlled by the Austrian Football Association ....
on 4 April 1962, where he opened the scoring in a 3–1 win. It can be argued that Crawford's low amount of caps was because he was around when Jimmy Greaves
Jimmy Greaves
James Peter 'Jimmy' Greaves is an English former football player, England's third highest international goalscorer, the highest goalscorer in the history of Tottenham Hotspur football club, the highest goalscorer in the history of English top flight football and more recently a television pundit -...
was also creating a reputation as a proflic goalscorer.
He also represented the Football League
The Football League
The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...
.