Ray Houghton

Ray Houghton
Houghton (1995)
Personnel
Surname	Raymond James Houghton
birthday	January 9, 1962
place of birth	Glasgow ,  Scotland
size	170 cm
position	Central midfield
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1980-1982	West Ham United	1 0(0)
1982-1985	Fulham FC	129 (16)
1985-1987	Oxford United	83 (10)
1987-1992	Liverpool FC	153 (28)
1992-1994	Aston Villa	95 0(6)
1995-1997	Crystal Palace	72 0(7)
1997-1999	Reading FC	43 0(1)
1999	Stevenage FC	3 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1986-1997	Ireland	73 0(6)
1 Only league games are given.

Raymond James "Ray" Houghton [ ˈhaʊtən ] (born January 9, 1962 in Glasgow , Scotland ) is a former Irish football player and sports commentator.

The midfielder was a member of the successful Liverpool team in the late 1980s and also played 73 times for the national team of Ireland . Houghton is of a short, stocky stature and was especially known at Liverpool FC and the national team as a player who always gave everything, and was popular with the fans precisely because of his willingness to fight and run. Houghton showed his best performances especially in important games with decisive assists and goals - for example with the 1-0 winning goals in the games against England at the European Championship '88 and against Italy at the World Cup '94 - but also tended to be over-motivated and excessive harshness.

Career as a player

Houghton was signed as a 17-year-old by the London club West Ham United , but he only came to the former First Division (1982) before moving to the promoted second division Fulham FC for the 1982/83 season. In 1985 he moved to Oxford United's then First Division . With Oxford he was able to win his first title in 1986, the English League Cup called the Milk Cup at the time . Houghton contributed a goal to the 3-0 final win against Queens Park Rangers .

A year later, in October 1987, he moved to Liverpool , he quickly integrated into the team and - behind the attack, consisting of Peter Beardsley , John Barnes and John Aldridge - was a key player in the team, each with two English champions - and runners-up in four years as one of the best Reds teams of all time.

After five years with the Reds, he went to the then first division club Aston Villa . With this club he won the English League Cup again before he went to relegation-threatened club Crystal Palace in the summer of 1995 , to which he remained loyal for two years in the second division even after relegation after the 1995/96 season. Within the then second-rate First Division , he then moved to Reading in 1997 , with whom he was relegated to the third-rate Second Division at the beginning of the 1998/99 season, he played another season for Reading in this league.

At the end of his career, he played a few more games for the fifth division Stevenage Borough FC in autumn 1999 before he finally decided his active career.

National team

Born in Glasgow, Houghton was able to choose between the British national teams and the selection of the Irish Republic because of his Irish father, he decided on the Irish. In March 1986 he came to the first international match against Wales in Dublin. He quickly became a regular and until his retirement in 1997 followed 72 more senior internationals, including all of Ireland's games at a European and two world championships .

At the European Championship in 1988 , Houghton succeeded in the first group game to score the 1-0 win over the English national football team , which made him a hero in Ireland. At the '90 World Cup, Houghton was a regular in the Irish selection, which was only eliminated in the quarter-finals and just 1-0 against Italy . In 1994 in the United States, the two sides met again in the first game of the group stage, and now Houghton was able to score the only goal in the 1-0 victory over Italy, which ultimately allowed Ireland to play in the round of 16.

After the active time

After his playing days, Houghton became a sports commentator, currently mainly on RTÉ television . In addition, since 2002 he has been advising the computer game company Sports Interactive on the development of football manager games. In 2002 he was briefly under discussion as a possible new Irish national coach.

successes

• Society:
  • English Championships (2): Liverpool FC 1987/88, 1989/90
  • English runner-up (2): Liverpool FC 1988/89, 1990/91
  • FA Cup winners (2): Liverpool FC 1988/89, 1991/92
  • Unsuccessful FA Cup final (1): Liverpool FC: 1987/88
  • League Cup winners (2): Oxford United 1985/86, Aston Villa 1992/93
• National team:
  • Quarter-finals World Cup 1990
  • Round of 16 World Cup 1994
  • Preliminary round EM 1988

Web links

• Ray Houghton in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Björn Hoeftmann: "Yesterday: Irlands Stuttgarter Erlebnis", article on goal.com from September 1, 2006 ( [1] ).
2. ↑ Profile Houghtons on The Liverpool Way ( Archived copy ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note .; english ) 
3. ↑ All league appearances and goals in English professional leagues according to Houghton's entry on sporting-heroes.net ( [2] ; English ).
4. ↑ ^{a b} Profile of Houghtons on the website of Liverpool FC liverpoolfc.tv ( [3] , English )
5. ↑ "Ray Houghton becomes consultant for new soccer game" message from TCM Breaking News from April 1, 2002 ( archived copy ( memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , English ).