Ray Crawford (footballer): Difference between revisions

{{Aboutshort description|theEnglish footballer|the racecar driver|Ray Crawford}}

| image =Ray_Crawford_and_Ted_Phillips.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1936|7|13|df=yesy}}<ref>[https://www.eurosport.com/football/ray-crawford_prs536560/person.shtml Ray Crawford | Eurosport]</ref>

| birth_place = [[Portsmouth]], [[England]]

| position = [[Striker (association football)|Striker]]

| caps7 = –

| caps8 = 45

| goals7 = -

| nationalcaps1nationalyears1 = 2 1956

==CareerClub career==

A prolific striker, he helped Ipswich to win back-to-back titles, the [[Football League Second Division|Second Division]] in [[1959-601960–61 in English football|1959/601960–61]] and the [[Football League First Division|First Division]] in [[1961-621961–62 in English football|1961/621961–62]]. In the latter season, he was joint leading scorer in [[Football League First Division|Division One]] – alongside [[Derek Kevan]] of [[West Bromwich Albion F.C.|West Bromwich Albion]] – with 33 goals.<ref>{{cite web | title=English League Leading Goalscorers 1889–2007 | url=httphttps://www.rsssf.comorg/tablese/engtops.html | date=14 June 2007 | publisher=[[RSSSFRec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation]] | access-date=2007-06-14 |October accessdate=2007-10-14}}</ref> During this time, he won the first of his two [[England national football team|England]] caps, becoming the first Ipswich Town player to be capped for England.

He was sold to [[Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.|Wolves]] in September 1963 where he scored 41 goals in 61 appearances (in total), before moving to rivals [[West Bromwich Albion F.C.|West Brom]] in January 1965, shortly before Wolves dropped out of the top flight. He failed to establish himself though at [[The Hawthorns]] and rejoined [[Ipswich Town F.C.|Ipswich]] in March 1965, where he played another three full seasons, lifting his tally for the club to 259 goals in all competitions.

He joined [[Charlton Athletic F.C.|Charlton]] in March 1969, but soon dropped into the non-league with [[Kettering Town F.C.|Kettering Town]]. He signed for [[Colchester United F.C.|Colchester United]] in June 1970 for £3,000 and in his only season with the club, scored 24 goals from 45 appearances. Most notably, he scored two goals for Colchester United in a giant-killing 3–2 victory against [[Leeds United A.F.C.|Leeds United]] in the fifth round of the [[FA Cup]] in 1971.

Crawford left English football after this season, heading to [[Durban City]] in South Africa, leaving an exceptional scoring rate in the [[Football League]] of 289 goals in 476 games. In his only season in South Africa, he won the cup and came finished runner-up in the league.

He became youth-team coach at [[Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.|Brighton]] in 1972 but left after [[Brian Clough]] became manager the following year. He then worked as youth team clubManager and assistant Manager to Jimmy Dickinson at his former side [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] until 1979 and later managed non-league [[Fareham Town F.C.|Fareham Town]] and Winchester City for a short while beforeinbefore retiring from the game in 1984, and becoming a merchandising reprepresentative. He is now retired but still plays a big active role within the community of Portsmouth, appearing at a lot of charity events and is a popular figure at Fratton Park every home game.

In 2007, he published his autobiography entitled "Curse of the Jungle Boy".<ref name="Matthews2012">{{cite book|author=Mark Metcalf & Tony Matthews|title=The Golden Boot: Football's Top Scorers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J1-oAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT81|date=30 August 2012|publisher=Amberley Publishing Limited|isbn=978-1-4456-1118-1|page=81}}</ref>

Crawford now works as a summariser on Express FM commentaries on [[Portsmouth F.C.|Portsmouth]] matches and occasionally on Radio Suffolk on [[Ipswich Town F.C.|Ipswich Town]] games. He is known for his loud cheers and shouts and became an instant hit on Express FM. The former frontman also provides a weekly column for the Yellow Advertiser online newspaper discussing the fortunes of Colchester United FC.

===International= career==

He also representedplayed for the [[the Football League XI|Football League]] representative team.

{{Reflistreflist}}

*[http://football.guardian.co.uk/FA_Cup/Story/0,5764,628020,00.html Heroes who shaped the history of the Cup &nbsp;– Guardian report]

[[Category:PeopleFootballers from Portsmouth]]

[[Category:English men's footballers]]

[[Category:England men's international footballers]]

[[Category:AssociationMalaysia footballmen's forwardsinternational footballers]]

[[Category:TheBritish Footballexpatriates Leaguein playersMalaysia]]

[[Category:FirstMen's Division/Premierassociation Leaguefootball topscorersforwards]]