Frankie Lane

This article is about a soccer player; for the equally pronounced singer and actor, see Frankie Laine

Frankie Lane
Personnel
Surname	Frank Lane
birthday	July 20, 1948
place of birth	Wallasey ,  England
date of death	May 19, 2011
Place of death	Wirral ,  England
position	goalkeeper
Juniors
Years	station
	Stanley Arms
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1968-1971	Tranmere Rovers	76 (0)
1971-1975	Liverpool FC	1 (0)
1975-1977	Notts County	2 (0)
1978-1980	Kettering Town
1980-1981	Bedford Town
1 Only league games are given.

Frank "Frankie" Lane (born July 20, 1948 in Wallasey , † May 19, 2011 in Wirral ) was an English football goalkeeper . Coming from the vicinity of Liverpool, he developed into a promising goalkeeper at Tranmere Rovers before he did not get beyond the reserve role behind Ray Clemence after his move to Liverpool . He only played two competitive games for the "Reds" and after leaving the club in 1975, his career ended quietly in the further course of the 1970s.

Athletic career

Lane stood between the posts at the small club Stanley Arms before he was signed in August 1968 by the Tranmere Rovers - just a few miles south of his hometown. In the third division, he initially acted exclusively in the reserve team before he suddenly received his probation chance in the 1969/70 season as the fourth choice behind Jim Cumbes , Eddie Roberts and Kevin Thomas . After his professional league debut on December 20, 1969 against Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic (2-2) captured a regular place, which he defended until autumn 1971. After a total of 76 championship matches, he took the opportunity to switch to the nearby first division club Liverpool .

In the team of Bill Shankly Lane served as a replacement behind the "number 1" Ray Clemence and only when he was injured, he received on September 2, 1972 against Derby County his first probation. The game ended in a 2-1 defeat and Lane looked unhappy when Alan Hinton's final goal in the 87th minute was when he intercepted Hinton's cross but then took a step back into his own goal with the ball. Three days later he made no mistakes in the League Cup match against Carlisle United (1-1), but this was his last appearance in Liverpool. This was followed by a long period in the reserve team and, moreover, he only found himself on the bench in European Cup games - these included the two final games in the UEFA Cup against Borussia Mönchengladbach , which ended with winning the title. In July 1975 he finally hired at the second division Notts County .

The desired development step did not take place for Lane in Nottingham either, because he was also unable to displace the Northern Irish regular goalkeeper Eric McManus . In the end, he completed just two league games in the 1975/76 season and so he soon said goodbye to the dream of professional footballer. With small (semi-professional) clubs such as Kettering Town and Bedford Town , he let his active career end “beyond the big stage”. With Kettering Town he reached the final of the FA Trophy in 1979 and lost there with 0-2 against the Stafford Rangers .

Lane passed away after a brief illness on May 19, 2011 at the age of only 62.

Web links

• Profile at LFCHistory.net
• Statistical data from the Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Database
• Profile at Playerhistory.com ( Memento from February 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Stafford Rangers v. Kettering FA Trophy Final Program “  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Staffordshire Past Track)  
2. ↑ "Archive - Wednesday, May 25, 2011" ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Wirral Globe)