Alex Stepney

Football player infobox


playername = Alex Stepney
fullname = Alexander Cyril Stepney
height =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1942|9|18|df=y
cityofbirth = Mitcham, Surrey
countryofbirth = England
position = Goalkeeper
youthyears =
youthclubs = Tooting & Mitcham United
years = 1963–1966
1966
1966–1978
1979–1980
clubs = Millwall
Chelsea
Manchester United
Dallas Tornado
Total
caps(goals) = 137 (0)
001 (0)
433 (0)
054 (0)
625 (0)
nationalyears = 1967–1970
nationalteam = England
nationalcaps(goals) = 001 (0)

Alexander Cyril Stepney (born 18 September 1942 in Mitcham, Surrey) was an English football player who was Manchester United's goalkeeper when they became the first English club to win the European Cup.

London beginnings

Stepney had unsuccessful trials with Fulham and joined Tooting & Mitcham United in the non-league pyramid afterwards. Here he was spotted by Millwall, who signed him as an amateur in 1963, but quickly realised his potential and made him a professional within two months of his arrival. Stepney is regarded as Millwall's best goalkeepeer of all time. Stepney was ever-present for almost three seasons, making 158 appearances, only missing the last game of the 1965-66 season. During this period, he achieved three England under-23 caps. [Chris Bethel and David Sullivan. "Millwall Football Club 1940-2001". Tempus Publishing Limited 2002. p56 ISBN 0-7524-2187-5]

In May 1966, Stepney joined Chelsea for £50,000. Manager Tommy Docherty initially intended to play Stepney and fellow goalkeeper Peter Bonetti in alternate weeks, but just three months later Stepney was sold to Manchester United for a record fee of £55,000, having made just one appearance for the club. He made his debut for United later the same year against Manchester City at Old Trafford which United won 1–0 with a first half goal from Denis Law.

League and European honours

With Stepney in goal, Manchester United won the League Championship in 1967, entitling them to entry into the European Cup the following season, a competition which no English club had yet won. Stepney featured throughout United's progress to the final at Wembley, memorably making a late close-range save from Benfica striker Eusebio in the closing stages with the score at 1–1. Eusébio was so astonished at Stepney's save - he caught a vicious close-range shot - that he stopped to applaud the keeper as Stepney threw the ball back into play. United eventually won 4–1 after extra time. Stepney will also be remembered for conceding a goal scored by Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper, Pat Jennings, in the 1967 Charity Shield match at Old Trafford. With Tottenham leading 1–0, Jennings punted the ball upfield from the Stretford End. The ball bounced over the stranded Stepney into the net. The game ended 3–3.

International recognition

Although a highly talented keeper, Stepney was a distance down the pecking order when it came to the England team. Gordon Banks was the undisputed number one, with the likes of Peter Bonetti, Gordon West and the more experienced Ron Springett all in Stepney's way. When England qualified for the final stages of the 1968 European Championships, coach Alf Ramsey selected Stepney and West as his two back-up keepers to Banks and, in what turned into a momentous week for Stepney, he made his England debut in a friendly win over Sweden in May 1968, seven days before the European Cup final. England won 3–1.

Ramsey kept Stepney in his thoughts in his preparations for England's defence of the 1970 World Cup, for which England didn't have to qualify due to their status as holders, but didn't give him another cap as the likes of Bonetti and West added to their meagre tallies of appearances. However, when the preliminary squad of 27 was announced, Stepney was in, along with Banks, Bonetti and uncapped rookie Peter Shilton, with no sign of West. When the final 22 which would travel to Mexico was confirmed, Shilton was the goalkeeper sent home.

Nevertheless, Stepney was clearly the third choice goalkeeper in the squad and the chances of his appearing on the pitch in Mexico were negligible. When Banks went down with food poisoning prior to the quarter final with West Germany, it was to the slightly more experienced Bonetti - who had six caps to Stepney's one - whom Ramsey turned. England squandered a two goal lead to lose 3–2 and it was Stepney who told the groggy, ill Banks the scoreline in his hotel room by holding up three fingers on one hand and two on the other.

United's fall and rise

Stepney was occasionally recalled by Ramsey but would ultimately not add to his solitary England cap, with Shilton emerging as the new deputy and ultimate long-term replacement. He continued to play in goal for Manchester United in a period of significant underachievement for the club, which culminated in their relegation to the Second Division in 1974, a season which saw Stepney, unusually for a goalkeeper, score two goals from penalties thus making him the leading scorer at Christmas. By now, with Stepney's former Chelsea manager Tommy Docherty in charge, they bounced back as champions the following season (1974-75). During this time, Stepney suffered a freak injury when he dislocated his jaw shouting at fans behind his goal.

The next two seasons saw Stepney as the wise head behind a new, youthful team collated by Docherty courtesy of some astute purchases and a prolific youth set-up. Stepney was the only player with any Wembley experience at club level at all when United reached the 1976 FA Cup final and the nerves of the youngsters got the better of them as Southampton, a division below United but containing some experienced heads of Stepney's generation, won 1–0. Stepney had no chance with the goal from Bobby Stokes, a late, low, crossfield shot which United claimed fruitlessly was from an offside position.

United reached the Cup Final again in 1976-77 and this time were successful. Stepney got a hand to a bullet shot on the turn from Jimmy Case but couldn't stop it entering the net and levelling the match after Stuart Pearson had scored for United. Jimmy Greenhoff instantly restored United's lead and Stepney made some good saves in the closing stages as Liverpool, chasing an unprecedented 'treble' of trophies, piled on the pressure.

End of an era

The following year, Stepney was again not an automatic choice, playing fewer than half of United's games in the League. He played the last of his 546 games for Manchester United in April 1978, prior to leaving for Dallas Tornado in the North American Soccer League in the United States, where he remained until he retired from professional football in 1980.

He kept 175 clean sheets, made a club record 92 consecutive appearances (later broken by Steve Coppell) and, with those two goals, remains United's top scoring goalkeeper. Aside Peter Schmeichel (who scored in a UEFA Cup game in the 1995-96 season) no other Manchester United goalkeeper has scored in a competitive game for the club in the post Second World War years.

Towards the end of his career, he turned out for non-league side Altrincham in the early 1980s, when they were competing in the Alliance Premier League (which became the Football Conference in 1986). He helped them win the Alliance Premier League title in 1980-81 (they had won it the 1979-80 season as well), but they did not win promotion to the Football League as the re-election system was still in place and the majority of the league's members voting against them joining the Football League, ending Stepney's hopes of a professional comeback.

Stepney became a coach specialising in goalkeeping after he stopped playing, including a spell at Manchester City as recently as 2000-01. He also works as an after-dinner speaker and currently hosts The Legends Football Phone in on 105.4 Century Radio in Manchester, replacing Mickey Thomas - another former Manchester United player.

References