Philip Damien Hoadley (6 January 1952 – 5 May 2024) was an English

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 more than 400 appearances in the Football League playing as a central defender for Crystal Palace,

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

and Norwich City.

Career

Hoadley was born in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

, London. He began his career as an apprentice with Crystal Palace. He made his first-team debut on 27 April 1968, as a substitute in the Second Division match away to

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

. At 16 years 112 days, he became Palace's then youngest player. After appearing in 88 matches in all competitions for Crystal Palace, he joined

, in September 1971, whom he captained to the semi-finals of the

1977–78 FA Cup The 1977–78 FA Cup was the 97th season of the world's oldest knockout football competition, The Football Association Challenge Cup, or FA Cup. The final saw Ipswich Town beat Arsenal 1–0, with a goal from Roger Osborne. First round proper ...

. Having played nearly 300 games for Orient, his transfer to Norwich City in 1978 was the first move under freedom of contract legislation with a tribunal setting his value at £110,000. After three years with Norwich he moved to play in Hong Kong football in February 1982, but was forced to retire from professional football following a knee injury. He returned to England and became a publican.

Later life and death

Following his professional football career Hoadley remained involved with amateur football in the Norfolk area and worked in a variety of jobs before returning to Norwich City in the 1990s as football in the community officer. , he was landlord of a community-run public house in his local village. Hoadley died on 5 May 2024, at the age of 72.

References

External links

Stats and photo
at Sporting Heroes

at Neil Brown's site
Phil Hoadley at holmesdale.net
1952 births 2024 deaths Footballers from the London Borough of Wandsworth People from Battersea English men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Crystal Palace F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players English Football League players Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff {{England-footy-defender-1950s-stub