G.O.A.T. - Shrewsbury Town

Dean Spink was born on the 22nd of January 1967 in Birmingham and began his football career at non-league Halesowen Town before signing for Aston Villa for £30,000 in 1989. He never made the grade at Villa, and spent loan spells at Scarborough and Bury before moving to Shrewsbury Town where he spent the next seven years. In his first year with the club he was switched from centre-forward to centre-back by manager John Bond, and won the club's player of the year award. He played over 300 games for Shrewsbury scoring 80 goals and in doing so became a cult hero at the club during his seven seasons there before he moved across the border in 1997 to local rivals Wrexham,where he spent three seasons. At the end of the 1991-92 season, three years after relegation to the Third Division, the club was relegated to the Fourth – the first time since 1975. However, two seasons later Shrewsbury won the new (fourth tier) Division Three championship under Fred Davies in 1993-94, and remained in Division Two (third tier) for three seasons.Dean recalls those days, " The promotion year was unbelievable. I remember the Scunthorpe game is when the run started. The atmosphere game after game was amazing, the dressing room banter was out of this world. We were a strong team that took no prisoners, to pick up the Championship Cup and receive the medal was amazing. I still have that medal today and when I tell my boys the stories, they are in awe of me. My time at the club was great. So many things happened in those seven years, such as building a career in football, and making lasting friendships. I had amazing support from the fans who stuck by me through thick and thin."

Recalling this period, he added: “The promotion year was unbelievable. I remember the Scunthorpe game is when the run started. “The atmosphere game after game was amazing, the dressing room banter was out of this world. “We were a strong team that took no prisoners, to pick up the Championship cup and receive the medal was amazing. I still have that medal today, when I tell my boys the stories, they are in awe of me. “My time at the club was great. So many things happened in those seven years, such as building a very good career in football, and making lasting friendships. “I had amazing support from the fans who stuck by me through thick and thin, to this day I go and watch games. I am always made very welcome.”

Read the full article via Shropshire Live at: https://www.shropshirelive.com/sport/2019/10/08/former-shrewsbury-town-legend-dean-spink-backs-efl-trophy/

this period, he added: “The promotion year was unbelievable. I remember the Scunthorpe game is when the run started. “The atmosphere game after game was amazing, the dressing room banter was out of this world. “We were a strong team that took no prisoners, to pick up the Championship cup and receive the medal was amazing. I still have that medal today, when I tell my boys the stories, they are in awe of me. “My time at the club was great. So many things happened in those seven years, such as building a very good career in football, and making lasting friendships. “I had amazing support from the fans who stuck by me through thick and thin, to this day I go and watch games. I am always made very welcome.”

Read the full article via Shropshire Live at: https://www.shropshirelive.com/sport/2019/10/08/former-shrewsbury-town-legend-dean-spink-backs-efl-trophy/

Recalling this period, he added: “The promotion year was unbelievable. I remember the Scunthorpe game is when the run started. “The atmosphere game after game was amazing, the dressing room banter was out of this world. “We were a strong team that took no prisoners, to pick up the Championship cup and receive the medal was amazing. I still have that medal today, when I tell my boys the stories, they are in awe of me. “My time at the club was great. So many things happened in those seven years, such as building a very good career in football, and making lasting friendships. “I had amazing support from the fans who stuck by me through thick and thin, to this day I go and watch games. I am always made very welcome.”

Read the full article via Shropshire Live at: https://www.shropshirelive.com/sport/2019/10/08/former-shrewsbury-town-legend-dean-spink-backs-efl-trophy/

 

Whilst at Wrexham he returned to Shrewsbury on a month's loan, and when he left the Welsh club in 2000 he didn't travel too far to his next two clubs, Chester City and Telford United, both in the Football Conference at the time. After retiring as a player he eventually returned to Shrewsbury initially as youth-team physiotherapist before getting promoted to first-team physio. In 2004 Dean Spink was voted Shrewsbury's all-time cult hero by the BBC Football Focus viewers. He won with 68% of the vote, ahead of fellow Shrewsbury legends Steve Anthrobus and Austin Berkeley.

One Shrewsbury fan said of him, "Rod Stewart looky-likey who can play as a centre-forward or as a centre-back. Never given a chance at Aston Villa, he was soon sent to Shrewsbury. There John Bond told him he'd never make it (excellent man-management there), but then proceeded to play him at the back. That year he was voted Shrewsbury's player of the year, and would go on to make over 300 appearances for the club."