David Nigel Sims (9 August 1931 – 6 January 2018), known as Nigel Sims, was an English

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 ...

who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting ...

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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa P ...

and

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standin ...

in the 1950s and 1960s. Sims was born at

Coton in the Elms Coton in the Elms is a village and parish in the English county of Derbyshire. At from the coast, it is the one of the furthest places in the United Kingdom from coastal waters. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 896. ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the no ...

. He joined Wolverhampton Wanderers from

Stapenhill Stapenhill is a suburban village and civil parish in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire in the UK. It was a small village owned by Nigel of Stafford as far back as 1086, however, this ancient parish area has long since been surrounded by new hous ...

in August 1948 as understudy to

Bert Williams Bert Williams (November 12, 1874 – March 4, 1922) was a Bahamian-born American entertainer, one of the pre-eminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He is credited as bei ...

, and made his first-team debut on 18 April 1949 in a 1–1 draw with

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games a ...

in the First Division. While a National Serviceman in 1950, Sims played for the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

in a representative match against an

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

XI. During his eight seasons at Wolves he only made 39 appearances before transferring to Midlands rivals Aston Villa in March 1956. He made his debut against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

that same month. He was on the winning side in the 1957 FA Cup Final, in which Villa beat

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

2–1, followed three years later by a

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

winners' medal. In 1961, he helped Villa lift the inaugural

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. He played representative matches for 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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

, and in 1958, was the first winner of Aston Villa supporters' "Terrace Trophy". In September 1964, having lost his place in the side, he transferred to Peterborough United. He appeared only 16 times for them before trying his luck in Canada, having already spent a summer with

Toronto City Toronto City was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario. Between 1961 and 1967, teams using this name competed in both the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League and the United Soccer Association. History ECPSL In 1961, along with ...

in the

Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League The Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada. The league operated for six seasons from 1961 to 1966 across four cities in two Canadian provinces and one American state. In the 1960s, the Eastern Canada Professiona ...

. He appeared twice for the Toronto Falcons in the National Professional Soccer League, and also played for

Toronto Italia The National Soccer League was a soccer league in Canada that existed from 1926 to 1997. Teams were primarily based in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The league was renamed to Canadian National Soccer League in 1993 following the foldin ...

. ''In Safe Hands'', a book about his footballing memories, was published in August 2012.

References

External links

NPSL stats and photo
at NASL Jerseys * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sims, Nigel 1931 births 2018 deaths People from South Derbyshire District Footballers from Derbyshire English footballers Association football goalkeepers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Toronto City players Peterborough United F.C. players Toronto Falcons (1967–68) players Toronto Italia players English Football League players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer players in Canada English Football League representative players Canadian National Soccer League players Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League players FA Cup Final players