Merseyside For Sport - Alan A'Court

 

 

Alan A'Court was born on the 30th of September 1934 in Rainhill, Merseyside and attending at Prescot Grammar School he started out at Prescot Cables as an amateur before he accepted Liverpool's Don Welsh's offer of a £10 signing-on fee to become an apprentice as an 18-year-old in September 1952, spurning the advances of Everton and Bolton Wanderers, a decision that paid off as just six months after joining he made his first team debut. He remembers, "I played for my school team, I then got picked to play for the Merseyside grammar schools, and then picked for my county, Lancashire, and then I went down to Oxford for schools week, playing for England grammar schools against top pro amateur sides. I played against Pegasus and there were scouts watching those games who would say, 'look at that left winger' and it went from there. I had a choice between Liverpool, Everton, Wolverhampton and Bolton Wanderers". His debut was in a league match at Ayresome Park on the 7th of February 1953, a game that saw Liverpool take both the points from a 3–2 win and his first goal came a month later on the 14th of March, again in a league match, this time at Anfield in a 2–0 victory over Sunderland. 

During the Anfield club's first season in the second tier of English football Alan established himself as a first team regular making 33 league and cup appearances and was held in such high regard that the great Billy Liddell was moved to centre-forward to make room for him on the left flank. Strong and direct with awesome power in his boots, he impressed sufficiently for the England selectors to include him in their World Cup squad in Sweden 1958 while he was still a Second Division player. His skill had alerted the England manager Walter Winterbottom, who was looking for a player to replace an injured Tom Finney and Winterbottom handed the left winger the first of his five caps on the 6th of November 1957 in a British Championship match against Northern Ireland at Wembley. His only goal for his country and a goal for Duncan Edwards were not enough to prevent England losing the game 3–2. The highlight of his career though was representing England at the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, where he played in England's last three matches against Brazil (0-0), Austria (2-2) and the group stage play-off game against the USSR (0-1). Alan remained consistent and was a regular in the Liverpool side for seven years and a crucial part of the side that finally made its way out of the Second Division in the 1961/62 season, being the only player beside Ronnie Moran who had been relegated with the side eight years earlier. By the age of 24 years and 89 days he had played 200 league games for the Reds becoming the youngest player to do so, a record that still stands. Although the strong and talented A'Court could have left to play for teams in the First Division his loyalty to Liverpool was rewarded when, as an ever-present, he and the Reds celebrated promotion back to the First Division under the guidance of Bill Shankly and had the distinction of scoring the Reds' first competitive goal under Bill Shankly.

He was selected 23 times during Liverpool's first season back amongst football's elite teams and helped Liverpool to an eighth-place finish in the First Division. Unfortunately for Alan injuries began to take their toll and he missed the whole of the 1963-64 championship winning season, so Shankly signed Peter Thompson from Preston North End. After spending most of his career at Liverpool, playing 382 times and scoring 63 goals, Alan was allowed to leave and he joined Tranmere Rovers for a fee of £4,500 in October 1964. His final outing in a Red shirt was in a historic match: Liverpool's first ever European match at Anfield in a European preliminary round 2nd leg match on the 14th of September 1964 where the Reds  finished off the job against Icelandic side KR with a comprehensive 6–1 victory after winning the first leg 5-0. Alan has said, "I played just under 400 games for the club and I was happy at Liverpool. Arsenal were interested and offered £12,000. I didn’t want to move house, I was happy at home and I had good mates in Liverpool."

He later became player-coach at Norwich City before taking on various coaching jobs, including posts in Zambia and New Zealand. Returning to England in 1969 he became assistant manager at Stoke City to Tony Waddington in 1969 and in January 1978 when George Eastham was sacked Alan became caretaker manager. His only match in charge of Stoke came in the FA Cup at home to non-league Blyth Spartans in 1977-78 but lost 3-2. Once new manager Alan Durban was appointed Alan moved to Crewe Alexandra as an assistant manager. He then went to join the sport staff at North Staffordshire Poly and managed Nantwich Town from September 1983 to April 1984. After finally retiring from football he ran a tobacconist/newsagent shop on the borders of Birkenhead and Bebington.

Alan A'Court died of cancer on the 14th of December 2009, survived by his wife, Alma, son Steven, daughter Sara and two grandchildren.

see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2026/08/merseyside-for-sport-jimmy-harris.html