Alexander Dewar Brown (24 March 1939 – 8 April 2014) was a Scottish footballer, best known as an Everton player where he played from 1963 until 1971.

Career

The Scottish utility man was signed from

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

for £38,000 in September 1963. Brown had represented the

Scottish League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km sout ...

earlier that month. The athletic hard man played in several positions.

Harry Catterick Harry Catterick (26 November 1919 – 9 March 1985) was an English football player and manager. As a player Catterick played for Everton and Crewe Alexandra, in a career that was interrupted by World War II, but he is most notable as a manager. ...

saw his ability to read the game and played him in front of the back four when it was needed. Against

West Ham West Ham is an area in East London, located east of Charing Cross in the west of the modern London Borough of Newham. The area, which lies immediately to the north of the River Thames and east of the River Lea, was originally an ancien ...

he was deployed to intercept through balls toward

Hurst Hurst may refer to: Places England * Hurst, Berkshire, a village * Hurst, North Yorkshire, a hamlet * Hurst, a settlement within the village of Martock, Somerset * Hurst, West Sussex, a hamlet * Hurst Spit, a shingle spit in Hampshire ** Hurs ...

and

Peters Peters may refer to: People * Peters (surname) * Peters Band, a First Nations band in British Columbia, Canada Places United States * Peters, California, a census-designated place * Peters, Florida, a town * Peters Township, Kingman County, Kan ...

. He was most effective as an overlapping full-back but also played as an emergency attacker and scored against Real Zaragoza in a European game during the 1966–67 season. In fact he played in every position during his Everton career, including

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 ...

. This came after

Gordon West Gordon West (24 April 1943 – 10 June 2012) was an English professional goalkeeper (association football), football goalkeeper. He won three international caps in a career that included a long stint at Everton F.C., Everton. Club career Bla ...

was sent off in a game against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

. He played four games on Everton's way to the 1966

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football ev ...

but didn't play 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 ...

and missed out on a winner's medal. He did achieve silverware though, picking up a League Champions medal for the 1969-70 season with Everton. Arguably his most memorable moment was an own goal scored during the

Merseyside Derby The Merseyside derby is the football matches between Everton and Liverpool, the two primary clubs in Liverpool, England. Named after the county of Merseyside, in which Liverpool is located, it is the longest running top-flight derby in England ...

in that championship-winning season. Many pundits including

Saint and Greavsie ''Saint and Greavsie'' was a British television show in which former footballers Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves discussed current football themes such as the day's matches. It ran on ITV from 1985 to 1992. Format Englishman Jimmy Greaves and S ...

celebrated the goal in later years, with

Danny Baker Danny Baker (born 22 June 1957) is an English comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter. Throughout his career he has largely presented for London's regional radio and television. Baker was born in Deptford to a working-class fam ...

referring to it is "the own goal by which all other own goals are surely measured" in his video 'Own Goals and Gaffs'. In total he played 251 games in all competitions for Everton, scoring 11 goals.''Since 1888''
Retrieved on 8 June 2008 After leaving Everton in May 71 he made a further 21 appearances for

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

. He moved again the next season to

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

and played 19 games during the 1972-73 season. He then moved to Northern Premier League Fleetwood for the 1973-74 season, playing a further 54 games. After he retired from playing football, Brown worked in a biscuit factory. He died in April 2014 following long illness.

References

External links

*
Southport FC Player Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Sandy 1939 births 2014 deaths Everton F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Association football fullbacks Partick Thistle F.C. players People from Grangemouth Scottish Football League players Scottish footballers Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Southport F.C. players Broxburn Athletic F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Footballers from Falkirk (council area) Association football utility players Outfield association footballers who played in goal