Alan Stephenson

Alan Stephenson (born 26 September 1944) is an English former professional footballer, who played as a defender. He made a total of 386 appearances in the Football league for Crystal Palace, West Ham United, Fulham and Portsmouth. At the end of his career, he played for Durban United in South Africa.

Playing career

Starting as an amateur footballer aged sixteen, Dominating in the air and solid in defence he made a major contribution towards Palace's climb up, and promotion from, the Third Division. He was appointed as captain by manager Dick Graham and from 1964, rarely missed a game playing alongside Brian Wood. Stephenson was sold to West Ham in 1968 for a club record fee of £80,000. He made his first appearance for West Ham on 16 March 1968 in a 0–0 away draw with Southampton. Joining a team which contained World Cup winning heroes Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst and Bobby Moore, he made over 100 appearances for West Ham, most of them alongside Moore. Stephenson failed to solve the defensive problems which had existed since the departure of Ken Brown in 1965 and, following a loan spell for Fulham in season 1971–72, he was transferred for £32,000 to Portsmouth for whom he made 98 appearances until 1975. In 1975, Stephenson moved to South Africa, playing for Durban United before returning in 1977 to coach at Orient. He coached their reserve team but after four years with Orient, quit football to run a pub in Colchester

International career

Stephenson made seven appearances for the England Under-23 team.