Ray Crawford (footballer)

Football player infobox
playername= Ray Crawford


fullname = Raymond Crawford
height =
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1936|7|13
cityofbirth = Portsmouth
countryofbirth = England
position = Striker
youthyears = 1954–1957
youthclubs = Portsmouth
years = 1957–1958
1958–1963
1963–1965
1965–1966
1966–1969
1969
1969–1970
1970–1971
clubs = Portsmouth
Ipswich Town
Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Bromwich Albion
Ipswich Town
Charlton Athletic
Kettering Town
Colchester United
caps(goals) = 019 00(9)
197 (143)
057 0(39)
014 00(6)
123 0(61)
021 00(7)
00 - 00(-)
045 0(24)
nationalyears = 1961–1962
nationalteam = England
nationalcaps(goals) = 002 00(1)

Raymond Crawford (born 13 July, 1936 in Portsmouth) is a former English international footballer, who played as a striker in a career that saw him score over 300 goals at club level.

Career

Club

Crawford began his career as a trainee at his hometown club Portsmouth. He made his league debut on 24 August 1957 in a goalless draw with Burnley. He managed 19 appearances for the club at senior level before joining second flight Ipswich Town in August 1958. A prolific striker, he helped Ipswich to win back-to-back titles, the Second Division in 1959/60 and the First Division in 1961/62. In the latter season, he was joint leading scorer in Division One – alongside Derek Kevan of West Bromwich Albion – with 33 goals. [cite web | title=English League Leading Goalscorers 1889-2007 | url=http://www.rsssf.com/tablese/engtops.html | publisher=RSSSF | date=2007-06-14 | accessdate=2007-10-14] During this time, he won the first of his two England caps, becoming the first Ipswich Town player to be capped for England.

He was sold to Wolves in September 1963 where he scored 41 goals in 61 appearances (in total), before moving to rivals West Brom in January 1965, shortly before Wolves dropped out of the top flight. He failed to establish himself though at The Hawthorns and rejoined Ipswich in March 1965, where he played another three full seasons, lifting his tally for the club to 259 goals in all competitions.

He joined Charlton in March 1969, but soon dropped into the non-league with Kettering Town. He signed for Colchester United in June 1970 for £3,000 and in his only season with the club, scored 24 goals from 45 appearances. Most notably, he scored two goals for Colchester United in a giant-killing 3-2 victory against Leeds United in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 1971.

Crawford left English football after this season, heading to Durban City in South Africa, leaving an exceptional scoring rate in the Football League of 289 goals in 476 games. In his only season in South Africa, he won the cup and came finished runner-up in the league.

He became youth-team coach at Brighton in 1972 but left after Brian Clough became manager the following year. He then worked as youth team club at his former side Portsmouth until 1979 and later managed non-league Fareham Town for a short while beforein retiring from the game in 1984, and becoming a merchandising rep.

In 2007, he published his autobiography entitled "Curse of the Jungle Boy".

Crawford now works as a summariser on BBC Suffolk commentaries on Ipswich away matches.

International

Crawford's international career was surprisingly brief, winning only two caps. He made his international debut against Northern Ireland on 22 November 1961 and played in their next fixture, versus Austria on 4 April 1962, where he opened the scoring in a 3-1 win. It can be argued that Crawford's low amount of caps was due to the fact that he was around when Jimmy Greaves was also creating a reputation as a proflic goalscorer.

He also represented the Football League.

References

External links

* [http://football.guardian.co.uk/FA_Cup/Story/0,5764,628020,00.html Heroes who shaped the history of the Cup - Guardian report]