Les Mutrie

Les Mutrie
Personnel
Surname	Leslie Alan Mutrie
birthday	April 1, 1951
place of birth	Newcastle upon Tyne ,  England
date of death	3rd October 2017
Place of death	Dudley ,  England
position	Storm
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1972-1974	Ashington AFC
1974-1977	Gateshead United
1977-1988	Carlisle United	5 0(0)
1978-1979	Gateshead FC
1979-1980	Blyth Spartans
1980-1984	Hull City	115 (49)
1983-1984	→  Doncaster Rovers  (loan)	6 0(1)
1984	Colchester United	14 0(2)
1984-1985	Hartlepool United	18 0(4)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1979-1980	England Semi-Pro	5 0(2)
1 Only league games are given.

Leslie Alan "Les" Mutrie (born April 1, 1951 in Newcastle upon Tyne , † October 3, 2017 in Dudley ) was an English football player . The striker scored 56 goals in 158 games in the lower division of the Football League and was particularly successful at Hull City in the early 1980s .

Career

Selected player in non-league football (until 1980)

Les Mutrie played soccer in Sunday Leagues as a youth , and at the age of 15 he had an unsuccessful trial training at Blackpool FC . For the 1972/73 season he joined the AFC Ashington , for which he played the following two seasons in the amateur league Northern League and with the club in 1974 reached the semi-finals of the last edition of the FA Amateur Cup . In 1974 Mutrie moved to Gateshead United in the more athletic Northern Premier League (NPL). In his three years at Gateshead there were no successes in the league, but three times he reached the main round of the FA Cup . In the first round replay of the FA Cup 1974/75 Mutrie scored the 1-0 winning goal in extra time against fourth division club Crewe Alexandra , in the cup competition 1975/76 he was also successful as a scorer in the 3-1 first round win against third division Grimsby Town .

At the end of the 1976/77 season Gateshead United broke up, Mutrie was meanwhile moving to the professional field to Carlisle United in the Football League Third Division . He was part of coach Bobby Moncur's team at the beginning of the season, but his breakthrough was denied due to a broken leg and his contract was not extended at the end of the season. Mutrie then returned to Gateshead, where he joined the successor club FC Gateshead , also playing in the NPL . In March 1979 he was piloted by Jackie Marks, under whom he had already played at Ashington, to the Blyth Spartans back in the Northern League.

With the Spartans he not only won the Northern League Cup 1979 ( 4-3 win against AFC Consett after 3-0 deficit, two goals by Mutrie) and the league championship in 1980, but also rose to the rank of selection player. In the Inter-League Cup he was active against the selection of the Northern Premier League, a little later he was appointed to the newly created English semi-professional national team, which was composed of the best players in non-league football . Like his teammate Keith Houghton , he took part in a four-nation tournament in 1979 and scored a goal in the 5-1 semi-final victory over the Scottish selection. He also participated in the 1-0 final win against a Dutch amateur selection. A year later he was again part of the squad when the tournament was held again in Zeist , the Netherlands . He was used in all three tournament games when the English selection finished the tournament in second place, his only goal he scored in the 2: 4 defeat against tournament winners Scotland.

Late professional career (1980–1985)

In the FA Cup 1980/81 Mutrie met in December 1980 with the Spartans in the second main round on the third division Hull City . Only in the second replay did the favorite from Hull prevail, Mutrie had scored in all three games and Hull coach Mike Smith signed the striker immediately (after 58 goals in 86 competitive appearances for Blyth) for a transfer fee of £ 30,000 - a record sum at the time for a player from non-league football; so that he made his debut for Hull City on Boxing Day in 1980 just four days after the last cup clash . By the end of the season Mutrie scored five goals in 20 league appearances and was behind Keith Edwards second-best goalscorer of his team, but he could not prevent the club's first relegation to the fourth division as bottom of the table.

Mutrie secured a place in Hull's club history in February / March 1982 with a series of nine games in a row, in which he was successful as a goalscorer. In the league games against Tranmere Rovers (2 goals), Hartlepool United (4), Mansfield Town (1), Halifax Town (1), Wigan Athletic (1), Scunthorpe United (1), FC Aldershot (2), York City (1) and Port Vale (1) he scored a total of 14 of his 27 league goals, but this was not enough to bring Hull into the promotion ranks. He was nicknamed "Sir Les" by fans for his achievements. In the 1982 break, Don Robinson took over the club and signed Colin Appleton for the coaching post. Under Appleton, Hull finished second in the table at the end of the 1982/83 season and rose again to the third division. Mutrie had formed the storm duo with Billy Whitehurst or Andy Flounders in front of the midfield row Garreth Roberts - Brian Marwood - Steve McClaren - Billy Askew , contributed twelve goals this season and was voted PFA Team of the Year by the league players .

A difficult relationship with coach Appleton finally resulted in a one-month loan to the Doncaster Rovers in December 1983 , before moving to Colchester United in January 1984 for £ 10,000 , where the former Hull trainer Cyril Lea accompanied the head coach. His stay in the south of England was short-lived and after two goals in 16 competitive appearances, he returned to the north-east of England during the summer break. His last position in professional football was the fourth division Hartlepool United , where he scored three games in a row after seven goalless games at the start of the season, including the 1-0 winner in the derby against Darlington FC. Increasing physical problems - operations were only possible with cortisone injections - finally ensured that he played his last game in January 1985 and ended his professional career.

After his professional career, Mutrie was initially a player-coach at Dudley Welfare in the Northern Alliance , later he coached the amateur club Rutherford AFC for two seasons . He made his living as a pub operator in Northumberland .

With his brother Ian "Archie" Mutrie, who was also a successful striker in non-league football and also worked for Ashington and Blyth, he only belonged to the same squad once in the men's field: both of them belonged to a charity match for a former teammate a Spartans selection against an eleven from Newcastle United , since Les was substituted on for his brother, but both never played together.

The father of three died of cancer on October 3, 2017 at the age of 66. Before the following home game by Hull City against Nottingham Forest , he was remembered with a minute of applause .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Date of birth according to the English National Football Archive (ENFA) , accessed June 25, 2020; barryhugmansfootballers.com names 1952 differently
2. ↑ barryhugmansfootballers.com: Profile Les Mutrie , accessed June 25, 2020
3. ↑ ^{a b c} blythspirit.wordpress.com: Green & White Cult Heroes - The Mutrie Brothers (Dec. 14, 2015) , accessed November 1, 2017
4. ↑ ^{a b c} blythspartans.com: Former Spartans Striker Les Mutrie Passes Away (Oct. 3, 2017) , accessed November 1, 2017
5. ↑ Ken Sproat: We're the Famous Blyth Spartans: The Official History of Blyth Spartans Association Football Club . Blyth Spartans Supporters' Club, Blyth 2013, ISBN 978-0-9927221-0-4 , pp. 151 f .
6. ↑ ^{a b} blythspirit.wordpress.com: For club and country (April 7, 2014)
7. ↑ wsc.co.uk: Tribute to Les Mutrie - Hull City's scoring sensation plucked from non-League (Oct. 4, 2017) , accessed on November 1, 2017
8. ↑ hulldailymail.co.uk: Brave, skilful and prolific, how Les Mutrie lit up Boothferry Park during its darkest days (Oct. 4, 2017) , accessed November 1, 2017
9. ↑ Chris Elton: Hull City - A Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 1989, ISBN 978-0-907969-49-5 , pp. 93 .
10. ^ 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. 179 f .
11. ^ Colin Foster: A Century Of Poolies: The Who's Who Of Hartlepool United, 1908-2008 . 2008, p. 172 .
12. ↑ hulldailymail.co.uk: Former Hull City forward Les Mutrie loses cancer battle (Oct. 3, 2017) , accessed Nov. 1, 2017
13. ↑ hullcitytigers.com: 2017/18 A Minute For Les | Hull City Tigers (Oct 5, 2017) . Accessed November 1, 2017