Calvin Ian Palmer (21 October 1940 – 12 March 2014) was an English

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

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

, Sunderland and Stoke City. Palmer began his career with

making 101 appearances in six seasons at the

City Ground The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445. The stadium was a venue when En ...

before joining Stoke City in September 1963 for £30,000. He impressed for Stoke due to his high energy levels and was on the verge of gaining an international call up but he gained a reputation for off the field confrontations after a training ground 'bust up' with

Maurice Setters Maurice Edgar Setters (16 December 1936 – 22 November 2020) was an English football player and manager. As a player, he made more than 400 appearances in the Football League for Exeter City, West Bromwich Albion, Manchester United, Stoke City, ...

. He was sold to Sunderland in February 1968 but did not get along with manager Alan Brown and left for South African football with

Cape Town City A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

, Hellenic, Durban United and Berea Park. In between his time in South Africa he turned out for

and

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

Career

Palmer was born in

Skegness Skegness ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Lindsey District of Lincolnshire, England. On the Lincolnshire coast of the North Sea, the town is east of Lincoln and north-east of Boston. With a population of 19,579 as of 2011, ...

and began playing non-league football with Skegness Town before being spotted by

, signing in March 1958. He established himself in

Andy Beattie Andrew Beattie (11 August 1913 – 20 September 1983) was a Scottish professional football player and manager. He was the first manager of the Scottish national team. Playing career Beattie was born in Kintore, Aberdeenshire and was emplo ...

's side as a tough tackling midfielder and made 90 league appearances for Forest, scoring 14 goals and playing in seven different positions. His performances for Forest earned him recognition as a reserve for the England under-23 side. On the lookout for new players as Stoke City suffered five successive defeats early in 1963–64, manager

Tony Waddington Anthony Waddington (9 November 1924 – 21 January 1994) was an English football manager at both Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City. Waddington had a seven-year playing career with Crewe Alexandra before becoming a coach at Stoke City. He progre ...

was so impressed by Palmer's display he sought out Beattie after the match to broker a deal. Palmer cost Stoke £30,000 and was seen as a long-term replacement for the ageing

Eddie Clamp Harold Edwin Clamp (14 September 1934 – 14 December 1995) was an English footballer who played in the Football League for Arsenal, Peterborough United, Stoke City and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Through his career he was renowned for his 'tak ...

. He was blessed with boundless energy and regularly ran back to make a tackle in his own penalty area before charging up field again. He had a decent goal ratio for a midfielder averaging one every five games. In his first season with Stoke he played in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

, as Stoke lost to

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

after two legs. He was also known for having a short fuse and at the end of the 1964–65 season with the squad preparing for a tour of the United States, Palmer was involved with a training ground altercation with

. Setters apologised to Waddington but Palmer did not and was made to remain in England. He returned to the side for the 1965–66 season and there was speculation that a call up to the England side would be forthcoming. Alas it never came and Palmer made few friends when he publicly criticised the Stoke crowd for showing a lack of support. He tabled a transfer request in December 1966 and, although it was granted, it took him 12 months to find a new club. In the meantime Palmer starred in a remarkable 4–3 win away at

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

in 1967–68, having been informed prior to kick-off that his family had been involved in a car crash. He filled in at centre back for the injured

Alan Bloor Alan Bloor (born 16 March 1943) is an English former footballer and manager. He made 394 league appearances in the Football League for both Potteries teams. He spent eighteen years as a centre-half at Stoke City between 1960 and 1978, helpi ...

and at half time Stoke were 3–0 down before coming back to claim an unlikely victory. His legs began to go and in February 1968 he was sold to Sunderland for £70,000 and signed his Stoke career off by scoring the winning goal away at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. His time at

Roker Park Roker Park was a football ground in Roker, Sunderland, England, which was the home of Sunderland A.F.C. from 1898 to 1997, before the club moved to the Stadium of Light. Its final capacity was around 22,500, with only a small part being seated ...

was marked by friction with the management and despite being just 28 his reputation for confrontation counted against him and no other English club was willing to sign him. So he then moved to South Africa playing for

and Hellenic before returning to help

Dennis Viollet Dennis Sydney Viollet (20 September 1933 – 6 March 1999) was an English footballer who played for Manchester United and Stoke City as well as the England national team. He was famous as one of the Busby Babes and survived the Munich air disa ...

in 1971. He then played for non-league

and made a return to South Africa with Durban United and Berea Park. After a long illness Palmer died on 12 March 2014 at a Brighton hospice, at the age of 73.

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

; Stoke City * Football League Cup: runner-up:

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palmer, Calvin 1940 births 2014 deaths People from Skegness English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Nottingham Forest F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Cape Town City F.C. (NFL) players Hellenic F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Durban United F.C. players Berea Park F.C. players Skegness Town A.F.C. players English Football League players National Football League (South Africa) players Footballers from Lincolnshire