Stan Crowther (footballer) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Stanley "Stan" Crowther (born 3 September 1935) is an English former footballer who played in 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...

for 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...

, Manchester United

Manchester United F.C.

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

, Chelsea

Chelsea F.C.

Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...

and Brighton & Hove Albion

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....

during the 1950s and early 1960s. He was born in Bilston

Bilston

Bilston is a town in the English county of West Midlands, situated in the southeastern corner of the City of Wolverhampton. Three wards of Wolverhampton City Council cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, and won three caps

Cap (sport)

In sports, a cap is a metaphorical term for a player's appearance on a select team, such as a national team. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of association football...

for the England under-23 team, though he was never selected at senior level.

Career

A wing half

Wing half

In association football, the position of wing half or wing half back) was popularly used in the late nineteenth and first half of the 20th centuries...

, Crowther signed for Aston Villa

Aston Villa F.C.

from non-league

Non-league football

Non-League football is football in England played at a level below that of the Premier League and The Football League. The term non-League was commonly used well before 1992 when the top football clubs in England all belonged to The Football League; all clubs who were not a part of The Football...

club Bilston Town

Bilston Town F.C.

Bilston Town Football Club is an English association football club based in Bilston, West Midlands. In the 2011–12 season they are playing in the West Midlands League Division One...

for a fee of £750 in 1955. He was part of the Villa team which beat Manchester United

Manchester United F.C.

2–1 to win the 1957 FA Cup Final

1957 FA Cup Final

The 1957 FA Cup Final was a football match played on 4 May 1957 at Wembley Stadium. The match was contested by Aston Villa and Manchester United. Villa won 2-1, with both of their goals scored by Peter McParland...

. Less than a year later, in February 1958, Crowther was hastily signed by United for £18,000 in the wake of the Munich air disaster

Munich air disaster

The Munich air disaster occurred on 6 February 1958, when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. On board the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the "Busby Babes",...

. The transfer was completed around an hour before their match against Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...

in the FA Cup was due to kick off.

Having already played for Villa in the competition that year, Crowther would normally have been cup-tied

Cup-tied

Cup-tied is an adjective, used primarily in association football, to describe a player who is ineligible to play in a knockout cup competition after transferring from another club during that competition.-Application:...

, but United's squad had been ravaged by Munich and were therefore given special dispensation by the Football Association

The Football Association

The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...

to field him. United won the match 3–0, and Crowther and United went on to reach a second consecutive final

1958 FA Cup Final

The 1958 FA Cup Final was contested on 3 May 1958 by Bolton Wanderers and Manchester United at Wembley Stadium, London, in front of a crowd of almost 100,000. The referee was J. Sherlock. Bolton won 2–0, with a double by Nat Lofthouse, who scored the goals in the 3rd and 55th minutes...

, though they lost 2–0 to Bolton Wanderers

Bolton Wanderers F.C.

Bolton Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the area of Horwich in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. They began their current spell in the Premier League in 2001....

.

His time at Old Trafford was short-lived, however, and in December that year he joined Chelsea

Chelsea F.C.

for £10,000; coincidentally, his debut for the Blues was against United. Crowther stayed with the west London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

side for two seasons, making 58 appearances in all competitions, before having brief spells with Brighton & Hove Albion

Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.

, where his contract was terminated apparently because of the player's refusal to appear for the club's third team, and non-league sides Hednesford Town

Hednesford Town F.C.

Hednesford Town Football Club are an association football team based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They play at Keys Park.-History:...

and Rugby Town

Rugby Town F.C.

Rugby Town F.C. is a football club based in Rugby, Warwickshire, which plays in the Southern Football League Division One Central. It is nicknamed The Valley, and plays its home matches at Butlin Road...

. Crowther announced his retirement at the age of 27, citing his disillusionment with the game.

External links

League stats at Neil Brown's site

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