Keith Barrington Cassells (born 10 July 1957) is an English retired professional

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 ...

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 ...

, best remembered for his four seasons 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 ...

with

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

. He also played league football for

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 ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

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 ...

and briefly in the First Division for

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 ...

. He acquired the nickname " Rosie" during his playing career.

Career

Early years

, Cassells began his career at

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

club

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, before joining

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

club

for a £500 fee in October 1977. A double promotion from the Fourth 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 ...

hampered Cassells' chances at

Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of championship club Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from Cassi ...

and he made just 17 appearances before his departure in November 1980.

Oxford United and Southampton

In November 1980, Cassells dropped back down to the Third Division to join

as the makeweight in the deal which saw Les Taylor join Watford for a £100,000 fee. He scored 25 goals in 60 matches, before making a surprise move to First Division club

for an £80,000 fee in March 1982. At the end of the 1981–82 season, he was named in the Third Division

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

. Cassells failed to make a breakthrough at The Dell and made just 27 appearances and scored five goals before leaving the club in February 1983.

Brentford

Cassells dropped back down to the Third Division to join

for a £25,000 fee in February 1983. Signed as a replacement for the injured

Tony Mahoney Anthony Joseph Mahoney (born 29 September 1959) is an English retired professional association football, footballer who played in the The Football League, Football League for Fulham F.C., Fulham, Brentford F.C., Brentford and Crystal Palace F. ...

, over the following seasons he proved himself to be "a powerful-running frontman" and "a consistent, if unspectacular goalscorer". A switch to the

right wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...

during the 1984–85 season saw Cassells finish the season as the team's leading league goalscorer (12) and the team's joint-leading goalscorer (18, with Gary Roberts). He also helped the team to the

1985 Football League Trophy Final The 1985 Associate Members' Cup Final, known as the Freight Rover Trophy for sponsorship reasons, was the 2nd final of the domestic football cup competition for teams from the Third and Fourth Divisions. The final was played at Wembley Stadium ...

and the match proved to be his final Brentford appearance. After rejecting a new contract, Cassells departed

Griffin Park Griffin Park was a football ground in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow, England. It was the home ground of Brentford F.C. from its opening in September 1904 to August 2020. The ground is in a predominantly residential area and was ...

in August 1985 and finished his Bees career with 102 appearances and 28 goals.

Mansfield Town

Cassells joined Fourth Division club

for a £17,000 fee in August 1985. He had an excellent 1985–86 season, scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

on his debut and helping the club secure promotion to the Third Division with a third-place finish. He experienced more success in the following season, winning the 1987 Football League Trophy Final, despite missing a

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) * Penalty ...

in the deciding

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

. His career was ended by injury in 1989, by which time he had made 163 league appearances and scored 52 goals for the Stags.

Personal life

Before becoming a professional footballer, Cassells worked as a

postman A mail carrier, mailman, mailwoman, postal carrier, postman, postwoman, or letter carrier (in American English), sometimes colloquially known as a postie (in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), is an employee of a post ...

. After his retirement from football in 1989, he joined the

Hertfordshire Constabulary Hertfordshire Constabulary is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Hertfordshire in England. Its headquarters is in Welwyn Garden City. The current chief constable is Charlie Hall. As of March 2019, the force consi ...

and rose to the rank of

detective sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

. He was awarded the

Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal The Police Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is a decoration for police officers of the United Kingdom. First instituted in 1951, the medal is presented for twenty aggregate years of service in the police services of the United Kingdom. Criter ...

in 2011.

Honours

;Mansfield Town *

Football League Fourth Division The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...

third-place promotion: 1985–86 *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

: 1986–87 Individual * Football League Third Division PFA Team of the Year: 1981–82

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cassells, Keith 1957 births Footballers from Islington (district) Living people Watford F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players English footballers Wembley F.C. players English Football League players Isthmian League players British police officers Association football forwards