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Alec Lindsay (born 27 February 1948) is an English former
footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...
who played in
the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...
for Bury,
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
and Stoke City.


Career

Born in Bury,
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, England, Lindsay played 139 matches for Bury, helping the club gain promotion in 1967–68. Manager
Bill Shankly William Shankly (2 September 1913 – 29 September 1981) was a Scottish association football, football player and Manager (association football), manager who is best known for his time as manager of Liverpool F.C., Liverpool. Shankly brought su ...
signed him for
Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
in March 1969 for £67,000. He made his debut against Irish side
Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...
in the European Fairs Cup, on 16 September 1969. Liverpool won by an emphatic 10-0 scoreline, a record win until Liverpool thumped Norwegian side Strømsgodset I.F. 11–0 in the
Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renamed the UEFA Cup Winne ...
, on 17 September 1974. After an initial settling in period in which Lindsay played seven times, he was the selected as first choice left back during the 1970–71 season, which included the 1971 FA Cup Final at
Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...
. League champions and double hunting
Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
lay in wait. After the allotted 90 minutes the scores were level 0–0; during extra time the Reds took the lead, the Gunners scored a scrappy equaliser and went on to win the game 2–1 thus completing the league and FA Cup double. Arsenal were victorious that day - Lindsay would be back for another go in 1974 - but first Liverpool won a double of their own in 1973, winning the League championship and
UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
, against
Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...
in the final. He played in the 1974 FA Cup Final against
Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...
and despite him having a goal ruled out for offside, Lindsay got his winners medal as Liverpool beat the Magpies 3–0. This was to be the peak of Lindsay's Liverpool career. Shankly, the man who brought Lindsay to
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...
, decided to retire in the summer of 1974. Unfortunately, for Lindsay, new manager
Bob Paisley Robert Paisley (23 January 1919 â€“ 14 February 1996) was an English professional football manager and player who played as a wing-half. He spent almost 50 years with Liverpool and is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time. ...
selected Phil Neal as his regular left-back the following season and even after Neal then moved to his favoured right back role, Lindsay was still rarely selected with Paisley preferring Welshman Joey Jones. He had already played four times for the England team, but was not selected for England again after falling out of favour at
Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...
. Liverpool won two more League titles during the next three years but Lindsay did not play enough games on either occasion to collect a league title medal. He also missed out on the 1976 UEFA Cup success and the 1977 FA Cup final when Liverpool, in search of a "treble", lost narrowly to rivals
Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...
. However, he was named as one of the five substitutes for the
European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...
final in Rome three days later, when Liverpool beat
Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...
3–1. He left Anfield in the summer of 1977 and joined Stoke City. He made a good start to his Stoke career converting three penalties in his first five matches for the club under George Eastham. However, with the expectation at the
Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. Histor ...
to gain an instant return to the First Division Eastham was sacked in early January 1978 with the club languishing in mid-table. New manager Alan Durban decided to play the younger Geoff Scott at left back and Lindsay was allowed to make a move to America. In 1978, Lindsay moved to the
Oakland Stompers The Oakland Stompers were a soccer team based out of Oakland, California that played the 1978 season in the North American Soccer League (1968–1984), North American Soccer League (NASL). The Stompers played in the Western Division of the Amer ...
of the
North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...
(NASL). Following the 1978 season, the Stompers moved to
Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...
, Alberta, Canada and Lindsay moved to the Toronto Blizzard, also of the NASL. He played four times for Toronto Blizzard in 1979 before hanging up his boots at the age of 31.


International career

Alec was given his first cap, and subsequently all of his caps, by caretaker manager
Joe Mercer Joseph Mercer (9 August 1914 – 9 August 1990) was an English footballer and manager. Mercer, who played as a defender for Everton and Arsenal in his footballing career, also went on to manage Aston Villa and Manchester City, and was the ...
on 22 May 1974, England were playing host, at Wembley, to a friendly with
Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...
, he was in good company as fellow Reds
Kevin Keegan Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. Nicknamed "King Kev" or "Mighty Mouse", Keegan was recognised for his dribbling ability, as well as his finishing and presence in the air, and is regard ...
and the England captain Emlyn Hughes were in the starting line-up, the game was played in front of 68,000 people and ended in a 2–2 draw.


Post-retirement

Lindsay is placed at 85 in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop. He is now retired and lives with his partner in Scotland. He remains an avid Liverpool supporter and was a contributor to the Hillsborough Family Support Group's (HFSG) "Project 96" in August 2009. After his retirement he became a publican.


Career statistics


Club

Source: :A.  The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Charity Shield.


International

Source:


Honours

Bury *
Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 Football League, 1920–21 and again from 1958–59 Football League, 1958 until 1991–92 Football League, 1992. When the FA Premier League ...
runner-up: 1967–68 Liverpool *
Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...
: 1972–73, 1975–76 *
FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...
: 1973–74; runner-up: 1970–71 *
FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier ...
:
1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...
,
1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...
*
UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
: 1972–73


References


External links


Profile
at the Liverpool F.C. website
Player profile at LFChistory

Thisisanfield.com Forgotten Heroes


* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsay, Alec 1948 births Living people Bury F.C. players England men's international footballers English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Canada English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English men's footballers English people of Scottish descent Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Men's association football defenders Liverpool F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Oakland Stompers players Footballers from Bury, Greater Manchester Stoke City F.C. players Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players English Football League players UEFA Champions League–winning players UEFA Europa League–winning players