Colin Foster (born 16 July 1964) is an English retired

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 ...

defender.

Career

Starting out at non-League club Elmstead,Club history
at fcelmstead.co.uk Foster made his league debut for

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

in January 1982 whilst still an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

. He moved to

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 ...

, for a fee of £50,000 in May 1987, making 72 league appearances under manager,

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

. In September 1989, he became manager

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Kenny ...

's second and most expensive signing for

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 ...

for £750,000. Never a regular player under Macari, he became so under new manager

Billy Bonds William Arthur Bonds (born 17 September 1946) is a former professional footballer and manager, who is most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 799 first-team games for West Ham in a ...

in a team which won promotion from the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in season 1990-91. Foster's time at West Ham is most often associated with scoring a spectacular mid-air volley in an FA Cup Quarter Final versus Everton in March 1991. Everton were in the upper reaches of the First Division (then the top tier) while West Ham were a second-tier side. West Ham won the match 2-

before being knocked out in the semi finals by Foster's old club Nottingham Forest. Three seasons broken by regular injury followed and after a projected £400,000 move back to Nottingham Forest fell through, when Foster could not agree terms, he remained at West Ham on a weekly contract. A loan to Notts County F.C., Notts County followed before he eventually moved, for a fee of £100,000, to

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

in March 1994.

References

External links

*
SportingHeroes.netSince 1888... The Searchable Premiership and Football League Player Database
(subscription required)
Wonderful World of West Ham United statistics
1964 births Living people People from Chislehurst English footballers Association football defenders Premier League players English Football League players F.C. Elmstead players Leyton Orient F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Watford F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players {{england-footy-defender-1960s-stub