Eddie Spicer

Eddie Spicer
Personnel
Surname	Edwin Warren Spicer
birthday	September 20, 1922
place of birth	Liverpool ,  England
date of death	December 25, 2004
Place of death	Rhyl ,  Wales
position	Defense (left)
Juniors
Years	station
1937-1939	Liverpool FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1939-1954	Liverpool FC	158 (2)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1937	England pupil	2 (?)
1 Only league games are given.

Edwin Warren "Eddie" Spicer (born September 20, 1922 in Liverpool , † December 25, 2004 in Rhyl ) was an English football player . As a left-back at Liverpool FC , he was often a regular in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The career was marked by several narrowly missed trophies and injuries. When he won the championship in 1947, he missed four games to receive the official medal and three years later he lost the FA Cup final with Liverpool. After two serious injuries in the summer of 1951 and December 1953, the active career ended abruptly.

Athletic career

Spicer was a promising football talent even in his early teenage years, representing the English school selection. In 1937 he joined his hometown club Liverpool FC on an amateur basis and in October 1939 he was promoted to the professional squad. As with many hopeful footballers of his generation, Spicer's sports career also suffered an emergency stop with the outbreak of World War II and the associated long break in official game operations. Instead, he served in the British Armed Forces with the Royal Marines . After the fighting ended, Spicer was still in his early twenties, so the outlook was initially little clouded. On January 30, 1946, he made his FA Cup debut against the Bolton Wanderers as a left winger .

When the league was resumed for the 1946/47 season , he was against Sheffield United (1-0) there also his first division debut, but coach George Kay preferred from the half-left runner position Bob Paisley . Spicer only came into play sporadically and ten league appearances were not enough to receive an official medal after Liverpool had won the English championship that year. He found a regular place in the team only in the 1949/50 season , in which Spicer was transferred to the left defensive position and the Welsh international Ray Lambert moved to the right. Liverpool FC started 19 games in a row without defeat, but hopes of a new league title had to be buried after a crash in the spring of 1950. Another opportunity arose with the final in the FA Cup , but Spicer did not find a "happy ending" there either, as he lost 2-0 to Arsenal with the "Reds" . Despite these disappointments, he had now established himself in the top English division and in the 1950/51 season he did not miss any of the 42 league games. He was considered a strong defender who had special skills in man marking. Typical for his style of play were the "won second duels", which he often forced on his opponent and although he felt at home on the left side of defense, he had little problems due to his two-footed position when he was set up on the right.

The sporting development, which could also have led to the English national team , suffered a major setback in the summer of 1951. Spicer broke his leg on a short preparatory tour of Sweden and missed the entire 1951/52 season . He worked ambitiously on his comeback and when he recommended himself for the right defender position in the 1952/53 season , this reinforcement came at the right time for Liverpool FC, as the club had now slipped significantly into the lower regions of the table. The team, now coached by Don Welsh , barely held the 1953 class with Spicer's assistance. On December 19, 1953, Spicer's professional career ended with a serious injury. In the game against Manchester United (1: 5) he clashed with Manchester's Tommy Taylor and Liverpool goalkeeper debutant Dave Underwood . While Taylor and Underwood were largely harmed, the broken leg at Spicer was serious. Without his help, the Reds rose in 1954 from bottom of the table . Spicer's popularity was shown afterwards when he received a benefit game in recognition of his services (168 games as "One-Club Man"), which took place in front of 41,000 spectators and brought in 4,500 pounds.

In his later life, Spicer worked as a football correspondent for the Liverpool Daily Post and ran a pub near the northern Welsh town of Ruthin . He died at the age of 82 - also in Wales - in Rhyl .

Web links

• Eddie Spicer in the barryhugmansfootballers.com database
• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League AZ Player's Database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eddie Spicer: Reliable Liverpool full-back invalided out of football at the peak of his powers (The Independent)
2. ↑ Players - Eddie Spicer (LFCHistory.net)