Peter Swan (soccer player, 1936)

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Peter Swan
Personnel
Surname Peter Swan
birthday October 8, 1936
place of birth South Elmsall ,  England
position Middle runner , central defender
Juniors
Years station
1952-1953 Sheffield Wednesday
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1953-1964 Sheffield Wednesday 260 (0)
1972-1973 Sheffield Wednesday 15 (0)
1973-1974 Bury FC 35 (2)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1959-1960 England U-23 3 (0)
1960–1962 England 19 (0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
Matlock Town
Worksop Town
Buxton FC
1 Only league games are given.

Peter Swan (born October 8, 1936 in South Elmsall ) is a retired English football player . As a central defender, he was one of the regulars for many years at Sheffield Wednesday and in the early 1960s in the English national team , before his career came to an abrupt end in 1964 due to his significant involvement in a betting scandal. After his guilty verdict, the English Football Association banned him for life before he was given the opportunity to make a short comeback after his pardon in 1972.

Athletic career

From Sheffield to the English national team (1953–1964)

Born in West Yorkshire not far from Pontefract in South Elmsall, Swan was born as one of seven children - all sons. Soon after, the family moved to Armthorpe , near Doncaster , where Swan learned to play football at Armthorpe Secondary Modern School . At his side, Alan Finney grew up , a later teammate in Sheffield. Originally he was used on the right wing , but he soon retrained to the position of center runner . In 1952 Swan joined the Youth Department of Sheffield Wednesday and later worked in the Armthorpe Colliery. Only with the signing of a professional contract in November 1953 did the signs clearly point to a professional career as a footballer.

At the age of 18 he was called up for military service and although he spent two years there with the Royal Signals in the field of physical training, he was usually allowed to play in Sheffield Wednesday games. Swan made his second division debut on November 5, 1955 against FC Barnsley (3-0), but he had to wait for the sporting breakthrough, as he was usually only used when Don McEvoy was down for the first three seasons . From the end of February 1958, coach Eric Taylor and especially in the following season 1958/59 his successor Harry Catterick made the change from the center stage to Swan, who from then on matured into a key player in the club - the defensive formation made up of Peter Swan, Tom McAnearney and Tony Kay was increasingly recognized as one of the best in English football. After rising to the top division in 1959 , Swan was involved in all the first division games of the 1959/60 season and thus largely responsible for the surprising achievement of fifth place . The following year Swan won the runner-up with the "Owls" and only had to admit defeat to the outstanding double winner Tottenham Hotspur .

Swan's rapid sporting development was also reflected in the English national teams when, after three appearances for the U-23 selection, from May 1960 he regularly appeared in the senior national team. He played his first international game on May 11, 1960 against Yugoslavia (3: 3) and by his last game two years later against Switzerland (3: 1) on May 9, 1962, he had accumulated a total of 19 national team appearances. Also in May 1962 he was part of the English squad for the upcoming 1962 World Cup in Chile , but suffered from tonsillitis at that time . Although he recovered from it in time and traveled with the team to Chile, the English defense center there were Maurice Norman and Bobby Moore .

Betting scandal: participation and consequences (1962–1964)

Swan was one of the main characters involved in a well-known English betting scandal in the early 1960s. Together with Tony Kay and David Layne , two other players from Sheffield Wednesday, he participated in an agreement that provided for the defeat of their own team to Ipswich Town on December 1, 1962. In fact, Ipswich won the game 2-0 and Swan then always stated that the opponent had won "fair" - that is, in the usual way without "help". The matter came to the fore in 1964 when an initiator of the collusion, Jimmy Gauld, sold his story to the Sunday People newspaper . Sound recordings that clearly convicted Swan were used as evidence. The guilty verdict followed on April 13, 1964, and in addition to a four-month prison sentence, the sentence provided for a life ban in relation to professional football. The successor to his position went to Sheffield Vic Mobley .

In search of a new professional activity, Swan first worked as a car salesman and later as an innkeeper in Sheffield and Chesterfield. In 1972 the English Football Association pardoned him and lifted the ban after a total of eight years.

Comeback, coaching and life after (from 1972)

Swan joined Sheffield Wednesday once more and on the first day of the 1972/73 season he made his comeback against Fulham (3-0). The club was now back in the second division and the team was also weak. Among other things, this led to Swan losing his place again and his appearance on November 11, 1972 against Oxford United (0-1) was the last. Although coach Derek Dooley offered him another contract for the 1973/74 season, but this stipulated that Swan trained junior staff at his side in the reserve team. Instead, he moved to the fourth division club Bury - previously business games with Chesterfield FC had failed . Swan's debut for Bury against Torquay United was somewhat curious when he scored after just a few minutes after not scoring a single time in Sheffield during his 301 competitive appearances. After a year for Bury FC, he ended his active career in professional football. He turned down an offer to extend his membership, which was to be limited and renewed on a monthly basis.

His path to coaching led him from the summer of 1974 to the amateur field at Matlock Town . He led the team straight away in the main round of the FA Cup , which the club had only achieved once in its history. In addition, his men won the FA Trophy and defeated the actually favored Scarborough FC 4-0 in the final . He later left the club with the aim of finding a head coach role at a more ambitious club. However, this wish did not come true and instead he hired himself into the 1980s in the non-league area at clubs such as Worksop Town and FC Buxton .

He also ran a restaurant in Chesterfield until his retirement. He did not go public again until 2006, when he published his biography Setting The Record Straight , written in collaboration with Nick Johnson .

Title / Awards

literature

  • Peter Swan, Nick Johnson and Jimmy Greaves: Peter Swan: Setting the Record Straight . Tempus, 2006, ISBN 0-7524-4022-5 .
  • Brodie, John & Dickinson, Jason: Sheffield Wednesday - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-85983-973-7 , pp. 221-222 .
  • Hayes, Dean P .: England! England! The Complete Who's Who of Players since 1946 . Sutton Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7509-3234-1 , pp. 136-137 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "England - U-23 International Results- Details" (RSSSF)
personal data
SURNAME Swan, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH South Elmsall