Alan Francis McLoughlin (20 April 1967 – 4 May 2021)
was an Irish professional
footballer and coach, who played as a
midfielder for the
Republic of Ireland and various English club sides, most notably
Swindon Town and
Portsmouth. His most notable moment at international level was scoring the equaliser against
Northern Ireland in Belfast that qualified the Republic of Ireland for the
1994 FIFA World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...
.
Career
Manchester United
McLoughlin began his career as a trainee at
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 ...
on leaving school in July 1983, turning professional at the start of the
1985–86 season. However, he never played a first team game for United even when featuring over 40 times for the
reserves.
Swindon Town
After his release from Old Trafford, McLoughlin played in a trial tournament for
Stoke City
Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...
but was not signed. He featured in an exit trial match at Durham University. He was then offered a one-week trial by
Oldham Athletic but joined
Swindon Town in August 1986, just after they had won promotion to the
Football League Third Division. He made his debut in a 2–2 draw with
Newport County on 12 September 1986. However, he did not fit with then-manager
Lou Macari's "long ball" style, and seven months and nine appearances later, he moved to
Torquay United on loan. His Swindon career looked to be over when he returned to Torquay at the start of the following season for another loan spell, but suspensions to other players meant McLoughlin was given another chance in the first team and he soon established himself as a regular for Swindon.
It was under Macari's successor as manager,
Osvaldo Ardiles, that McLoughlin really blossomed. He was an ever-present in Ardiles' first season, scoring 16 goals. He capped a fine season by scoring the winning goal in the
play-off final
The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...
at
Wembley Stadium on 28 May 1990 against
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
.
However, before the next season began, Swindon were demoted by
The Football League for making irregular payments to players. This initially meant that Sunderland were promoted to the First Division in their place, and Swindon were demoted to the Third Division; their place in the Second Division was given to losing Third Division play-off finalists
Tranmere Rovers. However, an appeal saw Swindon restored to the Second Division.
Southampton
With Swindon in financial trouble, players had to be sold, and McLoughlin left for
Southampton in December 1990, for a club record
£1 million. However, he failed to find the same level of form that he had at Swindon, and he was loaned first to
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 Park ...
and then to
Portsmouth.
Portsmouth
The latter were impressed enough by McLoughlin to make a bid for him, and so in February 1992 he moved to
Fratton Park
Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history.
The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...
for £400,000 after making only 29 appearances for the Saints. He helped Portsmouth to the
1992 FA Cup semi-final, scoring the winning goal in the quarter-final tie with
Nottingham Forest, only for them to lose the semi-final to
Liverpool on a penalty shoot-out. He helped Portsmouth to the brink of the
Premier League in
1992–93
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...
, but they were pipped to automatic promotion by
West Ham United and lost to
Leicester City in the play-offs.
Wigan Athletic
In December 1999, he was sold to
Wigan Athletic for £260,000. However, injuries prevented him from making a major impact and he made only 22 appearances for Wigan, scoring three goals. He scored once in the league against
Gillingham. and also scored a brace in a Football League Trophy tie against Oldham Athletic.
Rochdale
McLoughlin moved on a free transfer to
Rochdale in December 2001 and played his part in Rochdale reaching the play-offs in 2001–02 and scored a twice-taken penalty for them on his last league appearance against
Bristol Rovers.
Forest Green Rovers
With his career winding down McLoughlin joined
Forest Green as a player-coach for the 2002–03 season and also featured in Rovers FA Cup first round tie with
Exeter City which was broadcast live on the BBC's ''
Match of the Day'' programme. At the end of the season, McLoughlin retired from playing to concentrate on coaching with the club.
International career
Republic of Ireland
McLoughlin's performances at club level won him international recognition, and he was named by
Jack Charlton in the
Ireland squad for the
1990 World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being M ...
in Italy. He made his International debut on 2 June 1990 in a 3–0 friendly win against
Malta. He made two appearances at the 1990 World Cup, coming on as a substitute in the matches with
England and
Egypt.
On 17 November 1993, McLoughlin came on as a substitute and scored a 76th minute equaliser against
Northern Ireland in a 1–1 draw at
Windsor Park in a critical
1994 World Cup qualifier; the draw, combined with Spain's defeat of Denmark, meant that the Republic of Ireland team qualified for the
1994 World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...
in the United States. McLoughlin became the first Portsmouth player to be included in any World Cup squad since the
1958 tournament – nine years before McLoughlin himself was born. He was capped 42 times in total for the Republic of Ireland and scored two goals, his other goal coming on 2 April 1997 in a 3–2 away defeat to
Macedonia
Macedonia most commonly refers to:
* North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia
* Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity
* Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...
.
Media career
After the end of his playing career, McLoughlin returned to Portsmouth, where he became a co-commentator on the now-defunct Portsmouth-based radio station
The Quay. In February 2011, he joined
BBC Radio Solent as matchday co-commentator for Portsmouth matches. He stopped this when offered a role in Portsmouth coaching set up in 2011. He occasionally deputised for
Guy Whittingham as co-commentator on BBC Radio Solent.
Managerial career
In July 2011, he joined Portsmouth as Senior Academy Coach, working alongside other club favourites
Andy Awford
Andrew Terry Awford (born 14 July 1972) is an English association football, football coach and former footballer who was most recently the Youth Academy and Development Manager at Luton Town F.C., Luton Town. Prior to this, he was the manager of ...
and
Paul Hardyman
Paul George Hardyman (born 11 May 1964 in Portsmouth) is an English former footballer and coach. He was a left-back for Portsmouth, Sunderland, Bristol Rovers, Barnet, Wycombe and Slough Town.
He is currently Academy manager and assistant coach ...
. On 8 July 2013, McLoughlin was appointed Portsmouth's first-team coach. Alongside manager
Guy Whittingham, he assisted the side in their first season in
League Two after relegation. Whittingham was sacked in November 2013 and replaced by
Richie Barker, who lasted just three months. Andy Awford then took charge for the rest of the season as along with Hardyman and McLoughlin, Portsmouth were unbeaten in their final seven matches, keeping in the league and finishing 13th. Awford was appointed permanent manager and McLoughlin kept his role as first-team manager alongside new assistant Paul Hardyman in May 2014. He was released from his position as first-team coach at Portsmouth on 4 December 2014.
Personal life
Born in Manchester in 1967 to Irish parents, McLoughlin grew up on Maine Road, near to
Manchester City
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 Salford to the west. The tw ...
's then
home ground of the same name. He attended Catholic school Saint Mark's, in the same year as former Oasis guitarist and singer
Noel Gallagher. He lived in Swindon with his wife and two daughters.
McLoughlin was diagnosed with a kidney tumour in 2012 and had a successful operation. However, he later died of cancer in the kidneys, chest wall and lungs on 4 May 2021, aged 54.
Career statistics
Honours
Swindon Town
*
Football League Second Division play-offs
The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...
:
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
*
Football League Third Division play-offs:
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
Individual
*
FAI Senior International Player of the Year: 1996
*
Swindon Town Player of the Year: 1990
*
Swindon Town Hall of Fame
*
Portsmouth Hall of Fame: 2010
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLoughlin, Alan
1967 births
2021 deaths
Republic of Ireland association footballers
Association football midfielders
Republic of Ireland international footballers
Republic of Ireland B international footballers
Manchester United F.C. players
Swindon Town F.C. players
Torquay United F.C. players
Southampton F.C. players
Aston Villa F.C. players
Portsmouth F.C. players
Wigan Athletic F.C. players
Rochdale A.F.C. players
Forest Green Rovers F.C. players
1990 FIFA World Cup players
1994 FIFA World Cup players
Footballers from Manchester
British people of Irish descent
Portsmouth F.C. non-playing staff
Swindon Town F.C. non-playing staff