Phil Purnell (born 16 September 1964) is a former professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

er who spent the majority of his career with

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 c ...

. Before turning professional in 1985, Purnell played for

West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...

non-league sides

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

, Frome Town and Mangotsfield United, until signing for Bristol Rovers in September 1985. He went on to make 153 league appearances for The Pirates in a -year spell at the club, scoring twenty-two goals. He was loaned to Swansea City for a month in December 1991, where he played five league games and scored once. Purnell's playing career ended when he suffered a broken leg in April 1993. He was awarded a testimonial match in the summer of 1994, when Bristol Rovers faced a

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

side managed by former Rovers manager Gerry Francis, and featuring a number of former Bristol Rovers players. After retiring from playing, he worked in

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

, and also continued in football on a part-time basis as assistant manager of Yate Town, where his former Rovers teammate Ian Alexander was manager, and also at Winterbourne United.

Sources

* * 1964 births Living people Footballers from Bristol English footballers Association football midfielders English Football League players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players Frome Town F.C. players Mangotsfield United F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players {{england-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub