Richard John Guy (born 6 January 1949) is an English former

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

during the 1960s and 1970s. Today, Guy is the President of

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

, the supporter-owned club which represents

Playing career

Guy made nearly 600 first team appearances for Wimbledon between 1967 and 1978. He was signed from local rivals Tooting & Mitcham United who had taken him on as a junior from

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

. During his Wimbledon career, he once made 275 consecutive appearances, and only missed a single game in a run of 449 consecutive matches between January 1970 and August 1977. Guy shot to national fame during the then non-league club's spectacular 1975

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 ...

run, initially keeping a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

as the Dons knocked out First Division

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Turf Moor Turf Moor is an association football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Burnley F.C. since 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the second-longest continuously used ground in English professional football ...

in the third round, thus becoming the first non-league club in a century to beat a First Division team on their own ground. But it was in the fourth round that Guy became a Dons legend, with a heroic display at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The g ...

, not only keeping another clean sheet but, most famously, saving a

Peter Lorimer Peter Patrick Lorimer (14 December 1946 – 20 March 2021) was a Scottish professional footballer, best known for his time with Leeds United and Scotland during the late 1960s and early 1970s. An attacking midfielder and the club's youngest-ever ...

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

to earn Wimbledon a replay against reigning English Champions,

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

. In the replay, he was again superb and was eventually only beaten by a single deflected own goal. When Wimbledon were elected to

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 ...

in 1977, he made a total of 19 appearances for the club before deciding that he wished to remain a semi-professional player, rather than give up his successful career outside football. His final game for Wimbledon was at

Plough Lane Plough Lane – named The Cherry Red Records Stadium for sponsorship reasons – is a football stadium in Wimbledon, south-west London, which has been the home of AFC Wimbledon since 3 November 2020. A groundshare with rugby league side London ...

against

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

on 21 February 1978. At the end of the season, in recognition of his devoted service to the club he was awarded a testimonial match against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

on 11 April 1978. He moved to Maidstone United after leaving Wimbledon and played in their F.A. Cup tie against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

at The Valley, which saw two Charlton players (Mike Flanagan and Derek Hales) sent off for fighting each other. The match ended in a 1–1 draw. Maidstone lost the replay 2–1.

More recently

As a renowned former player, Dickie Guy was a very outspoken opponent of the club's proposed re-location to

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary ...

, and their subsequent re-branding as

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

. He was a popular choice among Wimbledon fans when appointed as President of

in 2004. Guy made a brief comeback playing for a Wimbledon old boys team against a rival

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 popul ...

team at a charity event at

Kingsmeadow Kingsmeadow is a football stadium in Norbiton, Kingston upon Thames, London, which is used for home matches by Chelsea Women and Chelsea U21s. It was formerly the home of Kingstonian F.C. and AFC Wimbledon and has a capacity of 4,850, with 2, ...

in 2004. On 21 April 2010, Guy suffered a serious heart attack and was subsequently taken to hospital and operated on. On 16 July 2021 it was announced that he was to receive the

Freedom of the Borough The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...

of Merton in September 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guy, Dickie 1949 births Living people Wimbledon F.C. players AFC Wimbledon Tooting & Mitcham United F.C. players Association football goalkeepers English footballers Southern Football League players English Football League players Maidstone United F.C. (1897) players