Position : Left back (also played at centre half and on wing)
Played : 2004-05 to 2006-07 ; 2010-11
Appearances : (first spell) 120 ; (second spell) 5
Goals : (first spell) 8 ; (second spell) 0
After three topsy-turvy seasons , 2004-05 was very steady after a shaky start. At one point we were in tenth place for 10 successive games and finished 9th. Obviously this was a considerable improvement on the last two seasons. It was based on the goals of Grant Holt and a better than usual batch of summer signings including two squad players who exceeded expectations.
The first of these was Alan, a young full back from Bangor City generously recommended by their manager Peter Davenport. He already had UEFA Cup experience with the Welsh club.
Alan was intended to be understudy to fellow new signing Tony Gallimore but the latter wasn't fit at the start of the season so Alan made his League debut in the opening game at Scunthorpe. In fact he and Gallimore were often in the sde together with the latter playing at centre half or Alan playing on the wing. Alan adapted to League football instantly looking a decent player from the word go. He was good in the air, tackled well and had a lot of pace.He was also good going forward where he could beat a man and scored some great goals from outside the box. He also kept his head up and continued to play well when team form began to decline after Holt's departure.
At the end of the 2006-07 season Keith Hill could not persuade him to stay and he joined Luton in League One. This turned out to be a bad move as although Alan made 29 appearances scoring once the club went into financial meltdown and Alan wasn't always paid on time. At the end of the season he escaped to Chesterfield where he had a good first season apart from being sent off twice. Last season he picked up an ankle injury in pre-season and didn't appear until January. He was released at the end of the season.
Then of course he returned to us but had to go through a trial period as we had already signed Joe Widdowson. He signed up to December and got his first team chance in September. He looked to have lost a bit of pace but his play was still pretty good. However he did something to upset the management during his third game away at Exeter and was farmed out to Newport on loan. That was expected to be the last we saw of him but when he returned we had an injury crisis and he came back in at right back. Although he made a cock-up in the farcical game against Leyton Orient he was generally impressive and got the offer of another contract. However Alan preferred regular first team football even if it was at relegation certainties Stockport and walked out on us again.
Alan has played 9 games and picked up one red card for County at the time of writing.
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