Keith Bryn Bowen (born 26 February 1958) is an English retired 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 ...

who made over 230 appearances as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

in 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 ...

for Colchester United, Northampton Town and

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

Club career

Bowen joined Northampton Town as a trainee in 1976 and made 65

appearances for the club, scoring 24 goals. In September 1981, he was transferred to

where he made 58 appearances, scoring 12 goals, before moving to Colchester United in March 1983. There he made 132 appearances, scoring 48 goals, before his professional career was ended prematurely by a car crash in 1986. He dropped 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 ...

with

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

club

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

during the 1987–88 season, before returning to

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

to join

United Counties League The United Counties League (also known after its sponsor as the ''Uhlsport United Counties League'') is an English football league covering Northamptonshire, Rutland and Bedfordshire and most of Leicestershire as well as parts of Buckinghamshi ...

Premier Division club Northampton Spencer. As of February 1995, he was still playing for the club.

Coaching career

Bowen was installed as player-assistant manager to manager

Gary Sargent Gary Alan Sargent (born February 18, 1954) is an American former professional ice hockey defenseman who played 402 games in the National Hockey League between 1975–1983. A first team all-star and league MVP at Bemidji State University, his pro ...

at Northampton Spencer in the late 1980s and remained in the role until December 2002. He had a spell as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

of the club in late 2001, after the departure of Sargent.

International career

Bowen played for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

at schoolboy level.

Personal life

Bowen's father

Dave Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...

was a Wales international footballer and his brother Barry played for Brentford Reserves. Prior to becoming a footballer, Bowen worked as an

accountant An accountant is a practitioner of accounting or accountancy. Accountants who have demonstrated competency through their professional associations' certification exams are certified to use titles such as Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certifi ...

and resumed his career after leaving professional football.

Career statistics

References

External links

* Living people 1958 births Welsh footballers English Football League players Northampton Town F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Footballers from Northampton Association football forwards Barnet F.C. players National League (English football) players Welsh football managers English accountants {{Wales-footy-forward-stub