Kevin Charles Dearden (born 8 March 1970) 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 ...

who made more than 400 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

, playing as a

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 many clubs. He later became a coach, and is currently goalkeeper coach at his home-town club

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

Playing career

He began his career as an apprentice with

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

, turning professional on 5 August 1988. In need of first-team experience, he joined

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on Ne ...

on loan on 9 March 1989, making his league debut two days later in a 3–0 away win against

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

. The next season, he joined

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded i ...

on loan in August 1989, moving to

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 ...

on loan on 14 December, with a third loan move that season when he joined

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

on 23 March. He moved to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

on loan on 24 August 1990, with a further loan spell at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

, which began on 10 January 1991. The following season, he was still no closer to gaining a first team place at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...

, joining

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on loan on 16 August 1991, and

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

on loan on 19 March. He played 12 games for the St. Andrews side, but returned to

, starting the next season on loan to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, whom he joined on 6 August 1992. He finally made his debut for Tottenham later that season, coming on as a substitute for the injured

Erik Thorstvedt Erik Thorstvedt (born 28 October 1962) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He won 97 caps for the Norwegian national team, and was the starter in goal at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He played for Viking, Eik- ...

in a 2–1 defeat against

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 ...

at the City Ground. He left White Hart Lane in September 1993, joining Brentford on a free transfer and quickly becoming a regular at Griffin Park, acquiring the nickname "The

Flying Pig The phrase "when pigs fly" (alternatively, "pigs might fly") is an adynaton—a figure of speech so hyperbolic that it describes an impossibility. The implication of such a phrase is that the circumstances in question (the adynaton, and the circ ...

". He played at

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 ...

for Brentford, but was on the losing side as

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 ...

won the Second Division play-off final in May 1997. He lost his place in 1998–99 season, joining Barnet on loan on 4 February 1999, before moving to

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

on a free transfer on 11 March, having played 213 league games for Brentford. He failed to appear in the Huddersfield league side and moved to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

on a free transfer on 2 June 1999. He was the first-choice goalkeeper for the following season, missing only one game. He lost his place at the start of the following season to Kristian Rogers, and although he fought back to make 20 league appearances he was released at the end of the season, his final game for Wrexham being in the winning

FAW Premier Cup The FAW Premier Cup (until 1998 the FAW Invitation Cup) was a Welsh football cup competition, organised annually by the Football Association of Wales from 1997 to 2008. Since the FAW excluded clubs playing in English leagues (including six Welsh ...

Final side. He signed on non-contract terms for

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 9 August 2001 to enable him to be registered in time to play in the opening game of the season away to

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

. He soon signed a one-year contract in the knowledge that he would be

Roy McFarland Roy Leslie McFarland (born 5 April 1948) is an English former football manager and former player. With Derby County, he played 442 league games, helping him to earn 28 caps for England. Playing career Born in Liverpool, McFarland was a player f ...

's first choice goalkeeper for the 2001–02 season. He began helping manager Leroy Rosenior with the coaching and

Plainmoor Plainmoor is an association football stadium located in the Plainmoor suburb of Torquay, Devon, England. Since 1921, the stadium has been the home of Torquay United Football Club, who currently compete in the National League, the fifth tier of E ...

and although a knee injury forced him into retirement in March 2005, he stayed on until the end of the season as a voluntary coach. In February 2006 he signed as a player for non-league

Boreham Wood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...

Coaching

In July 2006 he joined the coaching staff at Brentford briefly for a matter of days before deciding instead to take a full-time post at

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, eas ...

. After coaching for Luton, Stevenage and

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 profession ...

, he took on a full-time role as goalkeeping coach and chief scout at Leyton Orient in June 2008. When manager

Martin Ling Martin Ling (born 15 July 1966) is an English football manager and former player currently director of football for Leyton Orient. He played in over 100 Football League matches for each of Exeter City, Southend United, Swindon Town and Leyto ...

and assistant Dean Smith left Orient by mutual consent on 18 January 2009 he was appointed as assistant to Kevin Nugent, caretaker manager for the home match against

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

on 20 January. He resigned from the club on 8 December 2014 due to personal reasons. On 24 December 2014, Dearden joined home-town club

as goalkeeping coach.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dearden, Kevin 1970 births Living people Footballers from Luton English footballers Association football goalkeepers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Woking F.C. players Isthmian League players Brentford F.C. non-playing staff Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff Millwall F.C. non-playing staff Luton Town F.C. non-playing staff Stevenage F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. non-playing staff Torquay United F.C. non-playing staff