Alan Durban

Alan Durban
Personnel
Surname	William Alan Durban
birthday	July 7, 1941
place of birth	Bridgend ,  Wales
position	Midfielder , winger
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1959-1963	Cardiff City	52 0(9)
1963-1973	Derby County	346 (93)
1973-1978	Shrewsbury Town	156 (32)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1966-1972	Wales	27 0(2)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1974-1988	Shrewsbury Town
1978-1981	Stoke City
1981-1984	Sunderland AFC
1984	Willington FC
1984-1986	Cardiff City
1998	Stoke City
1 Only league games are given.

William Alan Durban (born July 7, 1941 in Bridgend ) is a former Welsh football player and coach who won the English championship in 1972 with Derby County as a player. In 1979 he led Stoke City as a coach in the first division.

Player career

Cardiff City

Alan Durban started his playing career in 1959 with the Welsh club Cardiff City , which was playing in the English Second Division at that time . In the season 1959/60 Durban rose with Cardiff in the first English division and reached in the Football League First Division 1960/61 with his team by the 15th place relegation. In the following season 1961/62 , however, the club rose as penultimate back to the second division.

Derby County

In July 1963 Alan Durban moved to Derby County for £ 10,000 . His new club also played in the Second Division in the 1963/64 season and also spent the next few years in the second-highest English division. It was only with the arrival of the new coach Brian Clough and assistant coach Peter Taylor at the beginning of the 1967/68 season that the most successful period in the club's history began. A change also occurred for Alan Durban with the change of coach. Instead of a winger, he subsequently acted as an attacking midfielder behind strikers Kevin Hector and John O'Hare . In the Second Division 1968/69 Derby managed to return to the First Division after 16 years. The start in the top English division began very successfully in the 1969/70 season with fourth place. After a ninth place in 1970/71 Derby County won the first league title in the club's history in 1971/72 . Alan Durban played 31 league games in the championship season and scored 6 goals. In the 1972/73 season, County could not repeat this success with 7th place, but the team around Ron Webster , Archie Gemmill , Alan Hinton , Roy McFarland and Durban managed to make it into the semifinals of the European Cup in 1972/73 . After u. a. In the second round Benfica Lisbon could be defeated, the Italian champions Juventus Turin waited in the semi-finals . After a 1: 3 defeat in Turin, Derby was eliminated from the competition after a 0: 0 at home and thus missed the final against Ajax Amsterdam .

With 112 competitive goals, Alan Durban is seventh in Derby County's all-time best list. In December 2009 he was also elected to the club's All Star Team.

Welsh national team

Between 1966 and 1972, Alan Durban made 27 international appearances for the Welsh national team. He made his debut on May 18, 1966 in an international match against Brazil. His 27th and last international match took place on May 27, 1972 against Northern Ireland.

Coaching career

Shrewsbury Town

In 1973 Alan Durban moved from Derby County to the third division club Shrewsbury Town . At his new club, he took over the position of assistant coach and was also still active as a player. On February 1, 1974, he took over the position of head coach, but rose at the end of the season with his team in the fourth division. In the following season 1974/75, however, he led his team back to the Football League Third Division by finishing second behind Mansfield Town . After two midfield placements in the following two years, Alan Durban left Shrewsbury on February 13, 1978 after 4 years and took over the coaching position at the second division club Stoke City .

Stoke City

With his new team he finished the 1977/78 season in seventh place in the Football League Second Division . In the following season 1978/79 Alan Durban rose with Stoke City as third in the table in the first division. There the climber reached relegation as eighteenth in the Football League First Division 1979/80 . in the 1980/81 season he increased this result and finished the First Division in eleventh place.

Sunderland AFC

At the end of the 1980/81 season, Durban left Stoke after more than three years and took over the first division rivals AFC Sunderland . With Sunderland he spent the 1981/82 season mostly in the relegation battle and achieved relegation only thanks to two points ahead of Leeds United . After 16th place in the First Division 1982/83 Alan Durban was released on March 2, 1984 for the first time in his coaching career.

Cardiff City

After an interim position at the amateur club Willington FC, he started on September 23, 1984 at his home club Cardiff City, his next coaching position. The former first division team only played in the second division at this time and even rose to the third division with the new coach Alan Durban at the end of the 1984/85 season. The low point was not yet reached, however, as in the 1985/86 season the team found itself in a relegation battle and even rose to the fourth division at the end of the season. Durban was released shortly before the end of the season on April 28, 1986. After this failure, Alan Durban was only active for five games as an interim coach at his former club Stoke City in 1998.

After the end of his coaching activity, Alan Durban took on various positions as a scout and in the junior division, most recently in July 2011 at Stoke City.

Web links

• Alan Durban at Derby County
• Alan Durban at Derby County Part 2
• Soccerbase trainer data
• Player data from Alan Durban

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Derby County - Juventus Turin (europeancuphistory)
2. ↑ Derby County All Star Team ( Memento from May 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (dcfc.co.uk)
3. ↑ Games in the Welsh national team (sporting heroes)
4. ↑ Denis Smith and Alan Durban to assist Stoke's academy (BBC Sport)