56 Tommy English

Position : Forward

Played : 1984-5

Appearances : 3

Goals : 1

Now this was a major surprise. Tommy was a 23 year old England Youth international who'd broken into the Coventry first team at 18 bagging 17 goals in 66 appearances. When Gordon Milne moved to Leicester in 1982 he took Tommy with him swapping him for Jim Melrose. Melrose had been popular with the fans and when Tommy didn't instantly impress the fans started to criticise and according to Milne he couldn't handle it and stopped performing at all scoring just 3 goals in 44 appearances. He was released in the summer of 1984 and was still available in September to come to Spotland for a trial.

He got off to a great start scoring the opening goal in our first win of the season away at Hartlepool. He almost scored in his home debut against Torquay when his sharp shot on the turn was brilliantly saved by Torquay's veteran keeper (and good egg) , Kenny Allen.

But that was our lot. Tommy decided to try his luck with Plymouth instead, scoring once in four games before signing on a more permanent basis for Colchester. Despite a decent return of 17 goals from 43 appearances he dropped out of league football in 1987 playing for Wealdstone and Bishop Stortford before re-signing for Colchester in 1989 . He got another 3 goals in 13 appearances but then moved to Happy Valley, Hong Kong in 1990. When he returned he played out his career with a number of southern non-league clubs.