Alan Devonshire

Alan Devonshire

Personal information
Full name	Alan Ernest Devonshire
Date of birth	(1956-04-13) 13 April 1956 (age 56)
Place of birth	Park Royal, London, England
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Braintree Town (manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1976–1990	West Ham United	358	(29)
1990–1992	Watford	25	(1)
National team
1980–1983	England	8	(0)
Teams managed
1997–2000	Maidenhead United
2003–2011	Hampton & Richmond Borough
2011–	Braintree Town
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Alan Devonshire (born 13 April 1956 in Park Royal, London) is a retired English footballer and manager of Conference National club Braintree Town. He was a wide midfielder who made his name in the late 1970s playing for West Ham United (1976–1990). He won eight caps for England between 1980 and 1983.^[1] He finished his career at Watford.

Playing career

He signed for West Ham United in 1976 for a fee of £5,000, from non-league Southall.^[2]

Devonshire's made his debut for West Ham on 27 October 1976 in a League Cup tie against Queens Park Rangers, in which West Ham lost 2-0.^[3] He made his League debut three days later on 30 October 1976 against West Bromwich Albion, where he played in a 3–0 defeat. He scored 29 goals in 345 full (and 13 substitute) appearances.

He collected an FA Cup winner's medal in 1980, when the Hammers (then a Second Division club) beat favourites Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley. He collected a Second Division title medal the following year as the Hammers won promotion, and was still a very integral part of the side when they finished third in the league in 1986, just two places and four points short of what would have been the club's first ever top division title - an accolade that the club has yet to achieve 25 years later.

He remained at Upton Park until 1990, a year after the Hammers were relegated to the Second Division, and then signed for Watford, where he played for two years before retiring as a player in 1992. He had played a total of 446 competitive games for the Hammers over 14 years, scoring 32 goals.^[4]

Appearances for West Ham United

Management

Devonshire became the manager of Hampton & Richmond Borough in the Conference South. He was previously manager of Maidenhead United.

As manager of Hampton & Richmond, he took the club from Isthmian League Division One South to the play off-final of the Conference South. In his first season he guided them to fifth place in the Isthmian Division One South which due to re-organization of the leagues was enough to see the club promoted to the Isthmian League Premier Division. He then guided the club to a sixth placed finish in their debut season at that level missing out on the play-offs on goal difference on the final day of the season. The 2005–06 season would see Devonshire take the team into the play-offs. Having won a dramatic play-off semi-final on penalties away to Heybridge Swifts the team then faced Fisher Athletic away who beat Hampton 3–0. Devonshire finally managed to get Hampton & Richmond Borough promoted the following season in style by bringing the Isthmian Premier Division title to the Beveree. In their debut season in the Conference South he has managed to guide his team to third place in the league and into the play-offs for the Conference National.

On 23 May 2011, it was announced that Devonshire was appointed the manager of newly promoted Conference National club Braintree Town.^[5]

Managerial statistics

As of 11:22, 13 May 2012 (UTC)

Personal life

Devonshire's father, Les, was a professional footballer with clubs including Chester City and Crystal Palace.

He has a race horse named after him.^[6]

References

External links