Allan Evans (soccer player)

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Allan Evans
Alan Evans.jpg
Alan Evans (1983)
Personnel
Surname Allan James Evans
birthday October 12, 1956
place of birth PolbethScotland
size 185 cm
position Central defender
Juniors
Years station
Dunfermline United
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1973-1977 Dunfermline Athletic 98 (14)
1977-1989 Aston Villa 380 (51)
1989-1990 Leicester City 14 ( 00)
1991 Darlington FC 1 ( 00)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1982 Scotland 4 ( 00)
1 Only league games are given.

Allan James Evans (born October 12, 1956 in Polbeth ) is a former Scottish football player . The four-time national player and World Cup participant from 1982 worked as a central defender at Aston Villa for twelve years . He won the English championship on the side of Ken McNaught in 1981 and a year later the European Cup and the Super Cup .

Athletic career

Club career

The first stop for Evans, who was born not far from Edinburgh , was in professional football at Dunfermline Athletic , also just a few kilometers north of the Firth of Forth . The debut went very badly and ended against the Glasgow Rangers with a broken leg. The sporting successes remained largely from now on and after first appearances in the highest Scottish league he had to compete in the second division after the introduction of the new Scottish Premier Division in 1975 and the associated league reduction from 18 to 10 participating clubs. After a further descent in the 1975/76 season, the sporting leadership used the trained defensive player as a striker in the third division and with 13 goals this experiment was also successful, although the direct rise with the third place in the final table did not succeed. After a total of 98 league games and 15 goals, he was drawn to the English first division club Aston Villa in May 1977 .

In Birmingham one saw the newcomer from the Scottish third division initially as an attack reinforcement for the reserve team. From March 1978 he came in three league games of the A-team sporadically in offensive roles and against Newcastle United (1: 1) he scored his first competitive goal. Immediately after the Newcastle game, coach Ron Saunders tried him on the central defender position instead of Welsh Leighton Phillips and not only held on to him in the remaining games of the season, but also found a new regular for the following season 1978/79. Especially his headball and tackle strength as well as his leadership qualities made him a key player in the defense of Aston Villa. Within the next two years, the team developed from a midfield to a championship contender and when the "Villans" won the English league title in 1981 , Evans formed a defense center with Ken McNaught , which allowed only 40 goals against in 42 league games. In contrast to McNaught, he showed himself to be more dangerous than average with seven goals and in the subsequent 1981/82 season Evans was in good shape with Aston Villa in the European Cup . In the end, after beating FC Bayern Munich in the final, the team won the competition and the Evans-McNaught axis was again harmless in the 1-0 win. In addition, a few months later came the success in the Super Cup after defeating FC Barcelona .

In the further course of the 1980s, the trophies for Evans and Aston Villa failed to appear and the steady downward trend found its low point with relegation in 1987 to the second division. Evans, who was eventually promoted to team captain, was one of the few constants for a long time and after McNaught's departure, Brendan Ormsby , Paul Elliott and Steve Sims were his next partners in the defense center. After he had lost his regular place in the second half of the 1986/87 season , he then returned to the team in the decisive phase of the second division season in 1987/88 and was largely responsible for the direct return to the elite league. After another year, 27 league appearances, a close relegation and a total of 475 competitive games, he left the club in August 1989 free of charge for the second division Leicester City . There he began to let his career run out and as a player without a contract he played on April 27, 1991 for Darlington FC by substitution against Northampton Town (3-0), his last professional league player as an active player.

He later moved to Australia and he gained his first coaching experience at Leicester City and Aston Villa under his former teammate Brian Little .

Scottish national team

Arrived at the sporting climax, Evans played his only four internationals for the Scottish national team between March and June 1982 . He made his debut on March 23, 1982 in the friendly against the Netherlands (2-1) and a short time later coach Jock Stein appointed him to the squad for the upcoming World Cup finals in Spain . His only appearance there was in the first group game against New Zealand (5: 2), but then came in the remaining games against Brazil (1: 4) and the Soviet Union (2: 2) to Alan Hansen and Willie Miller who were "seeded" in the defense center not over.

Title / Awards

literature

  • Rob Bishop / Frank Holt: Aston Villa - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, Derby, 2010, ISBN 978-1-85983-805-1 , pp. 216 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Scotland 1976/77 in the RSSSF database (English)
  2. "Allan Evans: Aston Villa FC, (Part 2) 1983 / 84-1988 / 89" (Sporting Heroes)
  3. Rothman's Football Yearbook 1990-91, p. 310
  4. ^ "Allan Evans: Scotland Caps 1982" (Sporting Heroes)