Cyril Knowles
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Cyril Barry Knowles | ||
| Date of birth | 13 July 1944 | ||
| Place of birth | Fitzwilliam, West Riding of Yorkshire, England | ||
| Date of death | 30 August 1991 (aged 47) | ||
| Place of death | Middlesbrough, England | ||
| Position(s) |
Left-back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Hemsworth F.C. | |||
| Monckton Colliery Welfare | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1963–1964 | Middlesbrough | 39 | (1) |
| 1964–1976 | Tottenham Hotspur | 402 | (15) |
| Total | 441 | (16) | |
| International career | |||
| 1967–1968 | England | 4 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1983–1987 | Darlington | ||
| 1987–1989 | Torquay United | ||
| 1989–1991 | Hartlepool United | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Cyril Barry Knowles (13 July 1944 – 30 August 1991) was a
Playing career
Early career
Knowles was born in
Middlesbrough
However,
Tottenham Hotspur
Knowles was seen as a young replacement for
Knowles would spend 11 years at White Hart Lane, where he was famed for his crossing ability, creating countless opportunities from open play as well as set pieces. He is also remembered for his excellent partnership with Irish right-back Joe Kinnear and his valuable contribution towards the acceptance of the overlapping, attacking full-back in modern football.
A stalwart of the Spurs first team, he missed only one league match between 1965 and 1969 and represented
Knowles made his final appearance as a professional footballer in a 2–2 draw with Everton in December 1975. Regular knee problems forced his premature retirement at the age of 31 but his contributions and loyalty to Tottenham Hotspur were rewarded with a testimonial match against arch-rivals Arsenal in the same season. An example of his quality was the memorable display against Leeds United in one of his final appearances for the club. With Spurs needing victory to avoid relegation against the reigning First Division champions and 1975 European Cup finalists, Knowles scored twice in a 4–2 victory to keep them in the First Division.[3]
He scored 17 goals in 507 appearances for Tottenham Hotspur, winning the
He was the inspiration for the popular record "Nice One Cyril", performed by Cockerel Chorus, which peaked at number 14 in the UK Singles Charts in March 1973, and is widely regarded as the greatest left-back in the history of Tottenham Hotspur by both supporters and critics.[4]
Managerial career
In the summer of 1981, he was appointed assistant manager of Middlesbrough, where he started his career, but resigned two years later to become manager of Fourth Division strugglers Darlington. His second season, 1984–85, was a great success as he transformed the club's playing fortunes and guided them to third place in the Fourth Division, ensuring promotion to the Third Division. Knowles guided Darlington to 13th place in the Third Division for 1985–86, and remains the only manager to have preserved their third-tier status in the modern era.
He resigned as Darlington manager in 1987 following relegation to the Fourth Division, but soon returned to management with
He resigned as manager of Torquay in October 1989 after a disappointing start to the 1989–90 season but returned to management in December, at Fourth Division basement club Hartlepool United. He revived Hartlepool and they finished 12 points clear of relegation. Their form in 1990–91 was even better, and they eventually gained promotion in third place.
He was diagnosed with a brain tumour in February 1991 and coach Alan Murray took temporary charge of the first team. At the end of the season, Murray took over on a permanent basis, with Knowles unable to continue following brain surgery.
Knowles failed to recover from the cancer and he died on 30 August 1991 at the age of 47. Three months after his death a memorial match was played at White Hart Lane and in 1995 a new stand at Hartlepool's Victoria Park stadium was renamed in his honour.
Personal life
Knowles married Betty Grundy in 1967, with whom he had a son, who died in a freak traffic accident when a stone was thrown up from the road and crashed through the window of the car he was in and hit him in the head.[5][6][7] Knowles was a Labour Party supporter.[8]
Honours
As a player
Tottenham Hotspur
- FA Cup: 1966–67[9]
- FA Charity Shield: 1967(shared)
- Anglo-Italian League Cup: 1971
As a manager
Darlington
- 1984–85
Torquay United
- Associate Members' Cup runner-up: 1988–89
Hartlepool United
- Fourth Division third-place promotion: 1990–91
Managerial statistics
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | L | D | Win % | |||
| Darlington | July 1983 | March 1987 | 190 | 67 | 71 | 52 | 35.3 |
| Torquay United | June 1987 | October 1989 | 120 | 46 | 46 | 28 | 38.3 |
| Hartlepool United | November 1989 | June 1991 | 85 | 40 | 27 | 18 | 47.1 |
References
- ^ "Sibling Rivalry, part 5: The Knowles brothers – God's footballers". boxtoboxfootball.uk. 31 December 2018. Archived from the original on 22 May 2019. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
- ^ Peter Knowles History – football-England.com
- ISBN 978-0233001845.
- ^ J. Dettmer. "Sports memories: are we all losers?". Insight on the News. Archived from the original on 17 July 2012.
- ^ "England Players – Cyril Knowles". englandfootballonline.com.
- ^ "Fenners on Cyril 5 October 2001 – News – tottenhamhotspur.com". tottenhamhotspur.com.
- ^ "Player Portraits – Cyril Knowles". mehstg.com.
- ^ Herbert, Ian (18 April 2015). "Sport and politics: how Twitter has changed the rules". The Independent.
- ISBN 0354-09018-6.
External links
- Cyril Knowles at Soccerbase
- Cyril Knowles management career statistics at Soccerbase
- Cyril Knowles at Englandstats.com
