Alec Lindsay (born 27 February 1948) is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for Bury,

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and Stoke City.

Career

Born in Bury,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

, England, Lindsay played 139 matches for Bury, helping the club gain promotion in 1967–68. Manager Bill Shankly signed him for

in March 1969 for £67,000. He made his debut against Irish side

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

in the European Fairs Cup, on 16 September 1969. Liverpool won by an emphatic 10-0 scoreline, a record win until Liverpool thumped

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

side Strømsgodset I.F. 11–0 in the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, on 17 September 1974. After an initial settling in period in which Lindsay played seven times, he was the selected as first choice left back during the 1970–71 season, which included the

1971 FA Cup Final In the finale to the 1970–71 FA Cup season, the 1971 FA Cup Final was contested by Arsenal and Liverpool at Wembley on 8 May 1971. Arsenal won 2–1 after extra time, with all three goals coming in the added half-hour. Steve Heighway opened ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. League champions and double hunting Arsenal lay in wait. After the allotted 90 minutes the scores were level 0–0; during extra time the Reds took the lead, the Gunners scored a scrappy equaliser and went on to win the game 2–1 thus completing the league and FA Cup double. Arsenal were victorious that day - Lindsay would be back for another go in 1974 - but first Liverpool won a double of their own in 1973, winning the League championship and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

, against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the final. He played in the

1974 FA Cup Final The 1974 FA Cup Final was an association football match between Liverpool and Newcastle United on Saturday, 4 May 1974 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1973–74 FA Cup, the 93rd season of England's primary cup competiti ...

against Newcastle United and despite him having a goal ruled out for offside, Lindsay got his winners medal as Liverpool beat the Magpies 3–0. This was to be the peak of Lindsay's Liverpool career. Shankly, the man who brought Lindsay to

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

, decided to retire in the summer of 1974. Unfortunately, for Lindsay, new manager Bob Paisley selected

Phil Neal Philip George Neal (born 20 February 1951) is an English retired footballer who played for Northampton Town, Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers as a full back. He is one of the most successful English players of all time, having won seven First D ...

as his regular left-back the following season and even after Neal then moved to his favoured right back role, Lindsay was still rarely selected with Paisley preferring Welshman

Joey Jones Joseph Patrick Jones (born 4 March 1955) is a Welsh former international football full-back who most notably played for Liverpool, with whom he won two European Cups. Club career Wrexham Jones was born in Llandudno, and joined Wrexham in 19 ...

. He had already played four times for the England team, but was not selected for England again after falling out of favour at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 189 ...

. Liverpool won two more League titles during the next three years but Lindsay did not play enough games on either occasion to collect a league title medal. He also missed out on the 1976 UEFA Cup success and the 1977 FA Cup final when Liverpool, in search of a "treble", lost narrowly to rivals Manchester United. However, he was named as one of the five substitutes for the European Cup final in Rome three days later, when Liverpool beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 3–1. He left Anfield in the summer of 1977 and joined Stoke City. He made a good start to his Stoke career converting three penalties in his first five matches for the club under

George Eastham George Edward Eastham, OBE (born 23 September 1936) is an English former footballer. He is known for playing for Newcastle United, Arsenal and Stoke City, as well as a member of England's 1966 World Cup-winning squad. However, he is also nota ...

. However, with the expectation at the

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

to gain an instant return to the First Division Eastham was sacked in early January 1978 with the club languishing in mid-table. New manager Alan Durban decided to play the younger Geoff Scott at left back and Lindsay was allowed to make a move to America. In 1978, Lindsay moved to the Oakland Stompers of the North American Soccer League (NASL). Following the 1978 season, the Stompers moved to

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

, Alberta, Canada and Lindsay moved to the Toronto Blizzard, also of the NASL. He played four times for Toronto Blizzard in 1979 before hanging up his boots at the age of 31.

International career

Alec was given his first cap, and subsequently all of his caps, by caretaker manager

Joe Mercer Joseph Mercer, OBE (9 August 1914 – 9 August 1990) was an English football player and manager. Mercer, who played as a defender for Everton and Arsenal in his footballing career, also went on to manage Aston Villa, Manchester City and Engl ...

on 22 May 1974, England were playing host, at Wembley, to a friendly with

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, he was in good company as fellow Reds Kevin Keegan and the England captain

Emlyn Hughes Emlyn Walter Hughes (28 August 1947 – 9 November 2004) was an English footballer. He started his career at Blackpool in 1964 before moving to Liverpool in 1967. He made 665 appearances for Liverpool and captained the side to three league ti ...

were in the starting line-up, the game was played in front of 68,000 people and ended in a 2–2 draw.

Post-retirement

Lindsay is placed at 85 in the 2006 poll 100 Players Who Shook The Kop. He is now retired and lives with his partner in Scotland. He remains an avid Liverpool supporter and was a contributor to the Hillsborough Family Support Group's (HFSG) "Project 96" in August 2009. After his retirement he became a

publican In antiquity, publicans ( Greek τελώνης ''telōnēs'' (singular); Latin ''publicanus'' (singular); ''publicani'' (plural)) were public contractors, in whose official capacity they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed th ...

Career statistics

Club

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Charity Shield.

International

Source:

Honours

; Bury *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...

runner-up: 1967–68 ; Liverpool * Football League First Division champions: 1972–73, 1975–76 *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

winner: 1974 * UEFA Cup winner:

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

* Charity Shield winner: 1974,

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 ...

References

External links

Player profile at LFChistory

Thisisanfield.com Forgotten Heroes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindsay, Alec 1948 births Living people Bury F.C. players England international footballers English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Canada English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English footballers English people of Scottish descent Expatriate soccer players in Canada Expatriate soccer players in the United States Association football defenders Liverpool F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Oakland Stompers players Footballers from Bury, Greater Manchester Stoke City F.C. players Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players English Football League players UEFA Champions League winning players UEFA Cup winning players FA Cup Final players