Wednesday, 29 September 2010
150 Vince Chapman
Vince is the guy on the right. That's his wife Julie next to him.
Position : Left back (also played centre half)
Played : 1989-90 to 1990-91 ; retained for 1991-92 but didn't kick a ball
Appearances : 24
Goals : 1
This is a rather sad chapter. Vince accompanied Peter Ward to Spotland after being released by Huddersfield. They signed him from Tow Law Town and he played 6 games in their disastrous 1987-88 campaign. The following season he didn't feature at all, going to York on loan and they didn't give him a game either.
His first season with us didn't go much better. He got 4 games as a stopgap centre half (for which role his slender 5'9 build didn't seem to equip him) and either went off injured or scored an own goal (spectacularly flicking the ball over his own shoulder at Wrexham).He had become the forgotten man of Spotland when Dave Sutton brought him back into the side at left back to cover an injury to Jimmy Graham in 1991.
No one was expecting much but from his first game Vince was a revelation raiding down the left flank in a manner we didn't see from a full back again until Scott Wiseman except that Vince was even faster. In the latter part of a season which had gone sour Vince was the bright spot and thrilled everyone - except one. My mate, let's call him Mr P, is a good guy but when he latches on to a player he really falls in love with them. One of his heroes at the time was Jimmy Graham (who we'll discuss shortly) and as soon as it became clear that Vince had displaced Jimmy he went bananas. Everything that went wrong on the pitch after that was Vince's fault even if it happened on the opposite flank and his runs were reckless indiscipline not an exciting extra dimension to our play.
Vince scored his goal after another great run in a thinly- attended last home game against Hereford where he picked up a knock to his knee. No one expected it to be serious and Jimmy Graham was offered for sale at the end of the season. However the operation buggered up Vince's cruciate ligaments and he had to stagger in on crutches for the team photo in the summer. A year later Sutton called time on his career and he never played football again.
Vince settled in Yorkshire and returned to football in 2001 when his daughter started playing .He was roped in to becoming Football Development Officer for her club, Tingley Athletic FC near Leeds and both he and his wife are on the committee of the West Riding Girls League.
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