Lance William Key (born 13 May 1968) 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 ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

, who played 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 ...

. He is the former manager of Histon FC.

Career

Born in

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

, Northamptonshire, Key began his professional career in April 1990 when he joined

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

from non-league

Histon Histon is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is immediately north of Cambridge – and is separated from the city – by the A14 road (England), A14 road which runs eas ...

for a fee of £10,000. He spent six years with Wednesday, but made just one appearance, as a substitute in the

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 ...

at Gillingham. This followed the sending off of

Kevin Pressman Kevin Paul Pressman (born 6 November 1967) is an English football coach, former professional goalkeeper, and goalkeeping coach and assistant manager for Gainsborough Trinity. As a player, he made over 500 appearances in both the Premier Leagu ...

. Key's first touch was to pick the ball out of the net following the penalty which led to the sending off. Loan spells with

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...

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 ...

, Lincoln City,

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 ...

and

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 ...

followed before a free transfer move to

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

in July 1996. At Tannadice, Key was understudy to regular keeper Ally Maxwell and made his debut on 2 November 1996 in a 3–1 win away to

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

. He played twice more later that month, and after a horrendous error against Dunfermline Athletic returned to England in March 1997 without making any further first team appearances, joining

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

on a free transfer. In August 1997 he joined

on a free transfer. He moved to

Northwich Victoria Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers River Weaver, Weaver and River Dane, Dane, east of Chester, south of Warr ...

on loan in December 1998, with the move being made permanent in February 1999. He moved to Kingstonian in June 2001 and rejoined Histon in September 2004, where he helped the team to Southern League and

Conference South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 of the NLS and sixth-highest ti ...

championships. He left Histon in September 2008 and joined

Wivenhoe Town Wivenhoe Town F.C. is an English association football, football club based in Wivenhoe, Essex. The club are currently members of the and play at Broad Lane. History The club was established as Wivenhoe Rangers by Frank Slaughter and students ...

, but left the club after just one

FA Vase The Football Association Challenge Vase, also known as the Isuzu FA Vase for sponsorship reasons, is an annual football competition run by and named after The Football Association (The FA), for teams playing in Steps 5 and 6 of the English Nation ...

appearance. In July 2010 he joined

Rushden & Diamonds Rushden & Diamonds Football Club was an association football club based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England. Nicknamed "The Diamonds", the club played at Nene Park. The club's main rivals were county neighbours Kettering Town F.C., Ket ...

as goalkeeping coach. He was released by the club in May 2011.

Managerial career

Key was appointed manager of Histon on 7 October 2016, replacing Steve Fallon. He was relieved of duties on 28 September 2023 after winning only one of their opening ten league games.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Key, Lance 1968 births Footballers from Kettering Living people English men's footballers Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Northwich Victoria F.C. players Kingstonian F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players Histon F.C. players Wivenhoe Town F.C. players Rushden & Diamonds F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Football League players National League (English football) players English football managers Histon F.C. managers Men's association football goalkeepers