Bob Allen (soccer player, 1916)

Bob Allen
Personnel
Surname	Albert Robert Allen
birthday	October 11, 1916
place of birth	Bromley-by-Bow , London ,  England
date of death	February 7, 1992
Place of death	Epping Forest ,  England
position	Winger (left), defender (left)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
	Tottenham Hotspur	0 (0)
	Leytonstone FC
1933-1934	Clapton Orient	1 (0)
1934-1937	Fulham FC	11 (0)
1937-1938	Doncaster Rovers	31 (6)
1938-1939	Brentford FC	0 (0)
1939–	Dartford FC
1945-1947	Northampton Town	5 (0)
1947-1951	Colchester United	99 (7)
1951-1952	Bedford Town
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1931	England pupil	2 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Albert Robert "Bob" Allen (born October 11, 1916 in Bromley-by-Bow , † February 7, 1992 in Epping Forest ) was an English football player . He completed a total of 77 games in the Football League for five different clubs in an almost 20-year professional career, initially as an offensive and later as a defensive player .

Career

Allen was selected during his school days in West Ham for the student national team and played against Scotland and Wales in 1931; He also stood out as a tennis player and sprinter in his youth.

As a result, Allen played as an amateur at Leytonstone FC and was registered by Tottenham Hotspur in the Football League , but he did not come to a use for the first team. In December 1933 he came as an amateur to Clapton Orient and played his only games in the Third Division South on February 24, 1934 against Northampton Town . In May 1934 he became a professional at Fulham FC and came in the following three years to a total of eleven league appearances in the Second Division . Despite his speed and a powerful left-footed shot, he could not displace the more experienced Johnny Arnold on the left wing . In June 1937 he left London and moved to the Northern English third division Doncaster Rovers for a transfer fee of £ 350 . There he completed 31 games (6 goals) in the 1937/38 season and, as second in the table with the club, just missed direct recovery. Nevertheless, he returned to London after a year and joined the first division club Brentford , for which he did not play a competitive game. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II , Allen moved to the Southern League for Dartford FC in 1939 .

In the army, Allen served as a physical training instructor ; in the war-related substitute competitions he made sporadic visits to Northampton Town and joined this club when regular operations resumed in 1945. At Northampton in the first post-war season 1946/47 mostly Tom Smalley and Bill Barron formed the defender pair, Allen came as a left defender to five missions, mostly he led the reserve team as captain. In mid-1947 Allen was presented as a test player at Colchester United and after some convincing appearances on the reserve team, he received a contract with the club competing in the Southern League. In the following three seasons Allen completed 70 league appearances in the Southern League, won the Southern League Cup in 1950 and played all five main round games in the 1947/48 FA Cup when Colchester advanced to the round of 16 of the national cup competition. With the expansion of the Football League, Colchester successfully applied for admission to the Third Division South in 1950. Allen was a regular in the first few months in the left-back position before he suffered a serious knee injury in an away game at Watford FC in February 1951 and ended his football league career at Colchester.

In August 1951, Allen joined Bedford Town and played again in the Southern League. A year later he became seriously ill and was in hospital with the prospect of a year in hospital. To support his family financially, Colchester organized a benefit game that was attended by 4,500 spectators. After his recovery, Allen, resident of Ilford, served in Redbridge as an education officer.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gavin Willacy / English Schools Football Association: England Schoolboys, International Players records 1907-99 . Redwood Books Ltd., Trowbridge 1999, p. 7 .
2. ^ ^{A b c} Jeff Whitehead, Kevin Drury: The Who's Who of Colchester United: The Layer Road Years . Breedon Books, Derby 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-629-3 , pp. 11 .
3. ^ Neilson N. Kaufman: The Men Who Made Leyton Orient Football Club . Tempus Publishing Ltd., Stroud 2002, ISBN 0-7524-2412-2 , pp. 12 .
4. ↑ Alex White: The Men Who Made Fulham Football Club . Tempus Publishing Ltd, Stroud 2002, ISBN 978-0-7524-2423-1 , pp. 10 f .
5. ↑ ^{a b} coludata.co.uk: Bob Allen - Players - Colchester United , accessed September 25, 2016
6. ↑ Frank Grande: Northampton Town FC Who's Who: Football League Players 1920 to 2013 . SoccerData, Nottingham 2013, ISBN 978-1-905891-78-8 , pp. 7 .