Colin Irwin

Colin Irwin
Personnel
Surname	Colin Thomas Irwin
birthday	February 9, 1957
place of birth	Liverpool ,  England
position	Central defender
Juniors
Years	station
	Liverpool FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1974-1981	Liverpool FC	29 (3)
1981-1984	Swansea City	48 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Colin Thomas Irwin (born February 9, 1957 in Liverpool ) is a former English football player . The central defender , who came from the youth work of Liverpool FC , did not make his sporting breakthrough after moving to the professional field. He then moved to Swansea City in 1981 . He stayed there until his premature retirement in the summer of 1984.

Athletic career

Liverpool FC (1974–1981)

Irwin was part of the youth department of Liverpool before he signed his first professional contract with the "Reds" in November 1974 at the age of 17. Although he was considered very talented in the center-back position, he could not prevail against high-profile competitors such as Alan Hansen and Phil Thompson . In contrast to most of the regular players in Liverpool, Irwin was only a part-time footballer and at the same time he worked as a camera technician and electrician. It was not until August 25, 1979 that he represented the injured Hansen for the first time and made his debut in the 3-1 home win against West Bromwich Albion . While Hansen paused, Irwin also played a large part of the next league games and on September 1, 1979 he scored his first competitive goal against FC Southampton . In addition, he was part of the team that surprisingly failed in the first round of the European Cup at Dinamo Tbilisi . After a 2-1 win in the first leg, the 3-0 defeat in Tbilisi was Irwin's last appearance for Liverpool. Hansen returned to the starting line-up and it wasn't until about six months later that there was another opportunity to replace left-back Alan Kennedy . At this point the championship was almost "dry" and with a total of eight league games Irwin's contribution was not enough to receive an official medal.

The longest phase in Liverpool's starting line-up was granted to Irwin from late November 1980, when he was in the starting line-up for the first time in a league game in the 1980/81 season in a 2-1 win against eventual champions Aston Villa . Due to an injury from Phil Thompson and later Alan Hansen, he completed the following 13 championship matches, but with just four wins, the Reds slipped to a disappointing fifth place in the final table. The second attempt in the European national championship competition went far better for him . Here he was substituted in for Thompson in the quarter-final first leg against CSKA Sofia (5-1) after just under 20 minutes. After that, he was in the starting line-up for the second leg in Sofia (1-0) as well as shortly afterwards in the second semifinal game at Bayern Munich , when he and his team fought 1-1 with his team after a 0-0 first leg and made it to the final co-responsible. There he was only on the bench in the 1-0 win against Real Madrid at the Prinzenparkstadion in Paris . After a total of 44 competitive appearances for Liverpool, he left the club in August 1981 for Swansea City . Significant for this decision was also the recently made commitment of the Irish international Mark Lawrenson from Brighton.

Swansea City (1981-1984)

The former Liverpool player John Toshack was the coach of the "Swans" in 1981, who had just been promoted to the top English division. He let the Irwin transfer cost the record transfer fee of 340,000 pounds and the newcomer received the captain's armband straight away. The 1981/82 season went surprisingly well and the “little” Swansea City finished in sixth place . Irwin had played 37 of 42 league games.

However, the positive approaches were not continued. Irwin had serious knee problems and so he was only used in eleven championship games in the following two years. Swansea also rose in 1983 to the second division. In the summer of 1984 Irwin ended his active career in English football, emigrated to Australia and played there for a club called Perth Azzurri .

In December 1985 he returned to his homeland. His former teammate Phil Neal had become a player- coach for the Bolton Wanderers and hired him as an assistant. Irwin worked in this capacity until the end of the 1986/87 season. He then moved back to Perth, Western Australia, where he began to work as a sales manager for a wine and liquor retailer.

Title / Awards

• Welsh Cup (2): 1982, 1983

Web links

• Profile at LFCHistory.net
• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Colin Irwin: Liverpool FC" (Sporting Heroes)