Albert James Evans (18 March 1874 – 24 March 1966) was an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

who made over 170 appearances in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

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 ...

. After his retirement as a player he managed Coventry City and coached

and Sarpsborg FK.

Career

Player

Following a spell at his hometown team, non-league Barnard Castle, Evans was signed for Aston Villa by secretary

George Ramsay George Burrell Ramsay (4 March 1855 – 7 October 1935) was a Scottish footballer and manager. Ramsay was the secretary and manager of Aston Villa Football Club during the club's 'Golden Age'. As a player he was the first Aston Villa captain ...

on the advice of player

Bob Chatt Robert Samuel Chatt (August 1870 – c. 1955) was an English footballer who was a member of the Aston Villa team which won the Football League championship three times in the 1890s. Chatt was credited with scoring the fastest goal in FA Cup Fina ...

(also from Barnard Castle) in August 1896. He soon took the place of James Welford – coincidentally another Barnard Castle man –and played a total of 206 games for Villa, achieving major success as the club won three

championships in his time, including a ' double' with the FA Cup in 1896–97. In 1907 Evans signed for West Bromwich Albion, but remained there only until December 1908 when a broken leg – one of many that he had suffered in his career – forced him to retire from the professional game.

Manager

When Harry Pollitt departed as manager of Coventry City in the summer of 1920, the club appointed Evans as his replacement. Evans signed some exciting new players such as Jerry Best and Jimmy Dougall but the 1920–21 season, City's second in the

, was largely unsuccessful. They spent most of it in last place and were saved only through a run of six wins and two draws in their final nine games. They remained poor on the field in 1921–22, escaping relegation by one point. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-place finishes followed in the subsequent two seasons and in 1924–25 and, facing their sixth relegation battle in a row, Coventry finally succumbed and were relegated to the Third Division North. It looked for a while as if they would stage another dramatic escape, climbing out of the relegation zone in March, but the form was not sustained and they slipped back to last place. Evans left the club in November 1924 and at the end of the season James Kerr was named as his replacement. Evans briefly returned to football after his return to England from international travel, working as a coach for Aston Villa between 1950 and 1956.

Personal life

Evans served as a corporal in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment during the First World War. Evans travelled overseas between 1924 and 1950, finding employment as he travelled, including sheep farming and gold prospecting in Canada. He returned to England in 1950. Evans died on 24 March 1966 in Warwick, at the age of 92.

Honours

Aston Villa *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

: 1896–97, 1898–99, 1899–1900 * FA Cup: 1896–97

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Albert 1874 births 1966 deaths People from Barnard Castle English men's footballers English Football League players Aston Villa F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Coventry City F.C. managers English Football League representative players English football managers English Football League managers British Army personnel of World War I Royal Warwickshire Fusiliers soldiers Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff English expatriate sportspeople in Norway Men's association football fullbacks English expatriates in Canada Gold prospectors Footballers from County Durham Association football coaches Military personnel from County Durham