Robert James Savage (born 8 January 1960) is 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 played as a midfielder in the Football League for Wrexham,

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

and

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 ...

Career

Savage was born in Liverpool, and began his football career with Liverpool, but never played a competitive game for their first team. He spent time on loan at Wrexham in 1982–83, then signed for

at the end of that season, but after making just seven appearances in the first four months of the 1983–84 season he moved on to

in December 1983. He was part of

Harry Redknapp Henry James Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is an English former football manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City. In his ...

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

side that beat

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

2–0 to eliminate them from the

1983–84 FA Cup The 1983–84 FA Cup was the 103rd season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, The Football Association Challenge Cup, or FA Cup. The competition was won by Everton, who defeated first-time finalists Watford 2–0 at Wembley. F ...

. He also played as Bournemouth won the inaugural

Associate Members' Cup 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 Le ...

by beating Hull City in the final. After a short spell with

, Savage signed for

in September 1987 for a fee of £30,000. He made his debut against Halifax Town on 12 September, and scored his first Bolton goal a week later at Torquay. On 7 May 1988 he scored the winning goal against his old club Wrexham to give Bolton promotion from the

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 ...

, and played on the winning side at Wembley in the Football League Trophy final in 1989, the second time he had won the tournament in his career. Savage's final professional appearance was on 7 April 1990, playing against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

. During the match, he broke his leg, and was later forced to retire due to the injury. He became player-manager of Knowsley United. In 2006 Savage was working with Tranmere Rovers' Football in the Community scheme.

Career statistics

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Football League Trophy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Savage, Robert 1960 births Living people Footballers from Liverpool English footballers Men's association football midfielders Liverpool F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Bradford City A.F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Knowsley United F.C. players