Stephen Allan John Crabbe (born 20 October 1954) is an English former professional

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 le ...

. He played for six

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 ...

clubs, with his most successful spell coming at Gillingham.

Playing career

Crabbe, nicknamed "Buster" after the actor, was born in

Weymouth, Dorset Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, on the English Channel coast of England. Situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey, south of the county town of Dorchester, Weymouth had a population of 53,427 in 2021. It is the third l ...

and began his career with

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 ...

where he graduated through the youth channels. He made his first-team debut in the

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 ...

match against

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 ...

on 4 January 1975, replacing David Peach who had been dropped following a poor performance in the previous league match. Described as "a tenacious midfielder", Crabbe retained his place for the next few Division Two matches before the arrival of

Jim McCalliog James McCalliog (born 23 September 1946) is a Scottish former football player and coach. He played in the Football League for Chelsea, Sheffield Wednesday, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Manchester United, Southampton and Lincoln City, as well as in ...

at the end of January. He made occasional appearances over the rest of the year but found it hard to break into the team on a permanent basis. In March 1976 he was loaned to Hellenic in South Africa. Upon his return to English football in January 1977 he was sold to Gillingham for £10,000. He quickly became a first team regular at

Priestfield Stadium Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium in Gillingham, Kent. It has ...

and went on to make over 180 Football League appearances, a figure which would have been higher had he not spent a long spell on the sidelines after breaking his arm in 1979. In 1981 Crabbe moved to

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

, where he helped the team gain promotion to 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 ...

a year later. Shortly after this he moved to

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 'The ...

and later had spells with

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 ...

and

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 ...

before dropping into

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

in 1986 where he played for

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

, Canterbury City, Ashford Town and Whitstable Town, serving as player-coach at the latter two clubs. Summers 1984 and 1988 he played in Finland.

Managerial career

Crabbe returned to his home town as coach of Weymouth in July 1997 under manager

Neil Webb Neil John Webb (born 30 July 1963) is an English football manager, former footballer and television pundit. He primarily played as a midfielder but also played as a defender between 1980 and 1997, notably in the top flight for Manchester Unit ...

. He was promoted to manager upon Webb's departure just three months later, but was himself dismissed before the end of the year. He later had a spell as assistant manager at Lordswood.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crabbe, John 1954 births Living people Sportspeople from Weymouth English men's footballers Footballers from Dorset Men's association football midfielders English Football League players Southampton F.C. players Hellenic F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Kemi City F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Canterbury City F.C. players Kuopion Palloseura players Ashford United F.C. players Whitstable Town F.C. players English football managers Weymouth F.C. managers