Raymond Crawford (born 13 July 1936) is an English former international

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, rugb ...

, who played as a striker in a career that saw him score over 300 goals at club level.

Career

Club

Crawford began his career as a trainee at his home town club

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 d ...

. He made his league debut on 24 August 1957 in a goalless draw with

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Br ...

. He managed 19 appearances for the club at senior level before joining second flight

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

in August 1958. A prolific striker, he helped Ipswich to win back-to-back titles, 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 ...

in 1960-61 and the First Division in 1961-62. In the latter season, he was joint leading scorer in

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First Div ...

– alongside Derek Kevan of

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

– with 33 goals. During this time, he won the first of his two

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

caps, becoming the first Ipswich Town player to be capped for England. He was sold to

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

in September 1963 where he scored 41 goals in 61 appearances (in total), before moving to rivals West Brom in January 1965, shortly before Wolves dropped out of the top flight. He failed to establish himself though at The Hawthorns and rejoined

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

in March 1965, where he played another three full seasons, lifting his tally for the club to 259 goals in all competitions. He joined Charlton in March 1969, but soon dropped into the non-league with

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

. He signed for Colchester United in June 1970 for £3,000 and in his only season with the club, scored 24 goals from 45 appearances. Most notably, he scored two goals for Colchester United in a giant-killing 3–2 victory against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

in the fifth round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

in 1971. Crawford left English football after this season, heading to Durban City in South Africa, leaving an exceptional scoring rate 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 ...

of 289 goals in 476 games. In his only season in South Africa, he won the cup and finished runner-up in the league. He became youth-team coach at

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in 1972 but left after

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engli ...

became manager the following year. He then worked as youth team Manager and assistant Manager to Jimmy Dickinson at his former side

until 1979 and later managed non-league Fareham Town and Winchester City for a short while before retiring from the game in 1984, and becoming a merchandising representative. He is now retired but still plays a big active role within the community of Portsmouth, appearing at a lot of charity events and is a popular figure at Fratton Park every home game. In 2007, he published his autobiography entitled "Curse of the Jungle Boy". The book explain how Crawford was known to all as ‘Jungle Boy’ because of his army service in Malaya. He had his own Jungle Boy chant used a lot by the fans. Crawford now works as a summariser on Express FM commentaries on

matches and occasionally on Radio Suffolk on

games. He is known for his loud cheers and shouts and became an instant hit on Express FM. The former frontman also provides a weekly column for the Yellow Advertiser online newspaper discussing the fortunes of Colchester United FC.

International

Crawford's international career was surprisingly brief, but had three caps with two different countries. He made his international debut with

Malaya national football team The Malaya national football team was the national team of the Federation of Malaya. The national team was active until 1962 and then it was replaced by Malaysia national football team, since the 1963 Merdeka Tournament. Competitive record ...

in 1956. He played at left-wing for Malaya in their 4-2 win over

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

on 1st April 1956 in the annual Sportsman's Trophy match. He was also named among the 17 players which travelled to represent Malaya in the Asian Cup qualifiers away in

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand ...

and

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

in April-May 1956, and not in the starting XI in either of the two qualifiers (Govindarajoo was the starting left-wing). After that, he played for

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Engl ...

against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

on 22 November 1961 and played in their next fixture, versus

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

on 4 April 1962, where he opened the scoring in a 3–1 win. He also played for the

representative team.

Honours

Ipswich Town * First Division/Premier LeagueFrom 1888 to 1992 the Football League First Division was the top tier of English football. It was superseded by the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

in 1992.: 1961–62 * Second Division/Championship2004 as

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

: 1960–61, 1967–68 Individual *Football League Second Division top scorer: 1960–61 * Football League First Division top scorer: 1961–62 * Ipswich Town Hall of Fame: Inducted 2007 * Colchester United Player of the Year: 1970–71 * Colchester United Hall of Fame Records * Ipswich Town F.C. all-time top scorer: 218 goals. *The first footballer to score hat-tricks in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

and

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Notes

References

External links

Heroes who shaped the history of the Cup – Guardian report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Ray 1936 births Living people Footballers from Portsmouth English footballers England international footballers Malaysia international footballers British expatriates in Malaysia Association football forwards English Football League players First Division/Premier League top scorers Portsmouth F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Kettering Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Fareham Town F.C. managers English Football League representative players English autobiographers Durban City F.C. players English football managers Dual internationalists (football)