Kevin Charles Dearden (born 8 March 1970) is an English former professional

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 made more than 400 appearances 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 ...

, playing as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for many clubs. He later became a coach, and is currently goalkeeper coach at his home-town club

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

Playing career

He began his career as an apprentice with

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

, turning professional on 5 August 1988. In need of first-team experience, he joined

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

on loan on 9 March 1989, making his league debut two days later in a 3–0 away win against

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

. The next season, he joined

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

on loan in August 1989, moving to

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

on loan on 14 December, with a third loan move that season when he joined

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

on 23 March. He moved to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

on loan on 24 August 1990, with a further loan spell at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

, which began on 10 January 1991. The following season, he was still no closer to gaining a first team place at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

, joining

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

on loan on 16 August 1991, and

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

on loan on 19 March. He played 12 games for the St. Andrews side, but returned to

, starting the next season on loan to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, whom he joined on 6 August 1992. He finally made his debut for Tottenham later that season, coming on as a substitute for the injured

Erik Thorstvedt Erik Thorstvedt (born 28 October 1962) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He won 97 caps for the Norway national team, and was the starter in goal at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He played for Viking, Eik-Tøn ...

in a 2–1 defeat against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

at the City Ground. He left White Hart Lane in September 1993, joining

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

on a free transfer and quickly becoming a regular at

Griffin Park Griffin Park was a association football, football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground was in a predominantly resi ...

, acquiring the nickname "The Flying Pig". He played 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 ...

for Brentford, but was on the losing side as

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, England. Its first team competes in League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' ...

won the Second Division play-off final in May 1997. He lost his place in 1998–99 season, joining Barnet on loan on 4 February 1999, before moving to

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

on a free transfer on 11 March, having played 213 league games for Brentford. He failed to appear in the Huddersfield league side and moved to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

on a free transfer on 2 June 1999. He was the first-choice goalkeeper for the following season, missing only one game. He lost his place at the start of the following season to

Kristian Rogers Kristian Rogers (born 2 October 1980) is an English former footballer. Career Wrexham An England schoolboys international, Rogers began his career at Wrexham, making his professional debut at the end of the 1999–2000 season on 24 April 2000 ...

, and although he fought back to make 20 league appearances he was released at the end of the season, his final game for Wrexham being in the winning

FAW Premier Cup The FAW Premier Cup (until 1998 the FAW Invitation Cup) was a Wales, Welsh association football, football cup competition, organised annually by the Football Association of Wales from 1997 to 2008. Since the FAW excluded clubs playing in English fo ...

Final side. He signed on non-contract terms for

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

on 9 August 2001 to enable him to be registered in time to play in the opening game of the season away to

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

. He soon signed a one-year contract in the knowledge that he would be

Roy McFarland Roy Leslie McFarland (born 5 April 1948) is an English former football manager and player. With Derby County, he played 442 league games, helping him to earn 28 caps for England. Born in Liverpool, McFarland developed his skills at Tranmere Ro ...

's first choice goalkeeper for the 2001–02 season. He began helping manager

Leroy Rosenior Leroy De Graft Rosenior (born 24 August 1964) is a football coach and pundit. He is a former footballer whose clubs included Fulham, Queens Park Rangers (for whom he appeared as a substitute in the 1986 League Cup Final), Bristol City and Wes ...

with the coaching and

Plainmoor Plainmoor is an association football stadium located in the Plainmoor suburb of Torquay, Devon, England. Since 1921, the stadium has been the home of Torquay United F.C., Torquay United Football Club, who currently compete in the National Leagu ...

and although a knee injury forced him into retirement in March 2005, he stayed on until the end of the season as a voluntary coach. In February 2006 he signed as a player for non-league Boreham Wood.

Coaching

In July 2006 he joined the coaching staff at

briefly for a matter of days before deciding instead to take a full-time post at

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

. After coaching for Luton, Stevenage and

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

, he took on a full-time role as goalkeeping coach and chief scout at Leyton Orient in June 2008. When manager

Martin Ling Martin Ling (born 15 July 1966) is an English Association football, football manager and former player currently director of football for Leyton Orient F.C., Leyton Orient. He played in over 100 The Football League, Football League matches for ...

and assistant Dean Smith left Orient by mutual consent on 18 January 2009 he was appointed as assistant to Kevin Nugent, caretaker manager for the home match against

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

on 20 January. He resigned from the club on 8 December 2014 for personal reasons. On 24 December 2014, Dearden joined home-town club

as goalkeeping coach.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dearden, Kevin 1970 births Living people Footballers from Luton English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Woking F.C. players Isthmian League players Brentford F.C. non-playing staff Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff Millwall F.C. non-playing staff Luton Town F.C. non-playing staff Stevenage F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. non-playing staff Torquay United F.C. non-playing staff