Ron Springett

Ron Springett
Springett in 1962
Personal information
Full name Ronald Deryk George Springett
Date of birth (1935-07-22)22 July 1935
Place of birth Fulham, London, England
Date of death 12 September 2015(2015-09-12) (aged 80)
Place of death Kingston upon Thames, England
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Youth career
Victoria United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1953–1958 Queens Park Rangers 88 (0)
1958–1967 Sheffield Wednesday 345 (0)
1967–1969 Queens Park Rangers 45 (0)
Total 478 (0)
International career
1959–1966 England 33 (0)
1963 England (representative) 1 (0)
1960–1966 The Football League XI 9 (0)
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  England
FIFA World Cup
Winner 1966 England
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ronald Deryk George Springett[2] (22 July 1935 – 12 September 2015) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

He began his career with QPR in 1953 where he made 147 appearances over two spells. He had a nine-year spell with Sheffield Wednesday between 1958 and 1967 and amassed 384 appearances for them before returning to QPR to finish his career.

He earned 33 caps for England between 1959 and 1966 and was part of the squad that won the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

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Springett began his career at QPR in 1953.[3] While at QPR, he was selected to play in the Third Division South representative team in 1957. He moved to Sheffield Wednesday for £10,000 in 1958 and made 384 appearances for Wednesday before returning to QPR in May 1967. As part of that deal, his brother Peter, also a goalkeeper, moved to Wednesday from QPR.

Springett was a member of the Sheffield Wednesday team beaten 3–2 by Everton in the 1966 FA Cup Final at Wembley.[3]

International career

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Springett made 33 capped appearances and one uncapped representative appearance* for England (*uncapped match - part of Football Association's centenary celebrations),[3] all while at Sheffield Wednesday and until then the most international appearances by any Sheffield Wednesday player. He held this club record for 26 years until it was broken by Nigel Worthington. He made his England debut against Northern Ireland at Wembley in 1959 saving a Jimmy McIlroy penalty just before half-time to help secure a narrow 2–1 victory.[3] He also saved a penalty in a match against Peru in May 1962.[4] He had been the first choice goalkeeper during the 1962 World Cup in Chile.[3] His final cap was against Norway in 1966 shortly before the World Cup finals. At international level, Springett also made 9 appearances for the Football League (team drawn from players of all Football League teams irrespective of nationality).[5]

England appearances
Cap Date Home team Sc. Away team
1 18 November 1959 England 2-1 Northern Ireland
2 19 April 1960 Scotland 1-1 England
3 11 May 1960 England 3-3 Yugoslavia
4 15 May 1960 Spain 3-0 England
5 22 May 1960 Hungary 2-0 England
6 8 October 1960 Northern Ireland 2-5 England
7 19 October 1960 Luxembourg 0-9 England
8 26 October 1960 England 4-2 Spain
9 15 April 1961 England 9-3 Scotland
10 10 May 1961 England 8-0 Mexico
11 21 May 1961 Portugal 1-1 England
12 24 May 1961 Italy 2-3 England
13 27 May 1961 Austria 3-1 England
14 28 September 1961 England 4-1 Luxembourg
15 14 October 1961 Wales 1-1 England
16 25 October 1961 England 2-0 Portugal
17 22 November 1961 England 1-1 Northern Ireland
18 4 April 1962 England 3-1 Austria
19 14 April 1962 Scotland 0-2 England
20 9 May 1962 England 3-1 Switzerland
21 20 May 1962 Peru 0-4 England
22 31 May 1962 Hungary 2-1 England
23 2 June 1962 England 3-1 Argentina
24 7 June 1962 Bulgaria 0-0 England
25 10 June 1962 Brazil 3-1 England
26 3 October 1962 England 1-1 France
27 20 October 1962 Northern Ireland 1-3 England
28 21 November 1962 England 4-0 Wales
29 27 February 1963 France 5-2 England
uc 24 May 1963 England 3-3 Football League
30 5 June 1963 Switzerland 1-8 England
31 2 October 1965 Wales 0-0 England
32 20 October 1965 England 2-3 Austria
33 29 June 1966 Norway 1-6 England

He was allocated the No.12 shirt as a member of the England squad that won the 1966 World Cup by beating West Germany by 4 goals to 2.[3] However, only the 11 players on the pitch during that match received winners' medals. Following a Football Association led campaign to persuade FIFA to award medals to all the winners' squad members, it was announced by FIFA, on 26 November 2007, that all non-starting members of World Cup winning squads (1930–1974 competitions) would also receive a winners medal. This list included Ron Springett, and so, on 10 June 2009, Springett was presented with his medal by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a ceremony at 10 Downing Street.[6]

Testimonial

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Sheffield Wednesday held a testimonial for Ronald Springett on 25 September 1967 at Hillsborough Stadium. (A Sheffield United XI beat a Sheffield Wednesday XI 3–2) The game was watched by 23,070 fans.[7] Following his death, Sheffield Wednesday honoured Ron by featuring him on the cover of the matchday programme and observing a minutes applause prior to the home game against Fulham on 19 September 2015. Wednesday won the game 3–2. In a post match interview, Owls head coach Carlos Carvalhal dedicated the win to Springett.

Style of play

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Springett has been described by The Independent as a clever, consistent, "brave and agile goalkeeper", with an excellent positional sense. Despite his small stature and lack of physicality, which gave him a slight disadvantage against larger, more physical centre-forwards, he was "adept at choosing the precise moment to smother shots at the feet of attackers, accepting that such plunges would result in occasional injuries. Swift of foot, deftly assured with his hands and adept at judging when to leave his goal-line, he could be a gloriously entertaining performer, though for all his acrobatics, his lack of height occasionally made him vulnerable to sudden long shots." Regarded as one of England's greatest ever goalkeepers, he was known for his determination, athleticism, and the "thoroughness of his preparation, as he kept a notebook in which recorded the preferred spot-kick methods of all his leading opponents".[5]

Personal life

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Ron Springett had a daughter Terri Springett who also played professional football.

Death

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Springett died on 12 September 2015.[3]

Honours

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Sheffield Wednesday[8]

England

References

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  1. ^ "England Goalkeepers - Ron Springett". www.englandfootballonline.com. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
  2. ^ "England Caps and Goals".
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Ron Springett: England 1966 World Cup squad member dies". BBC Sport. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  4. ^ "Penalties against Ron Springett". englandfootballonline.com. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  5. ^ a b Ivan Pontin (15 September 2015). "Ron Springett: Brave and agile goalkeeper who shone for England and became part of the World Cup-winning squad of 1966". The Independent. Retrieved 3 November 2016.
  6. ^ World Cup 1966 winners honoured
  7. ^ Dickinson, Jason (1999). One Hundred Years at Hillsborough (1899–1999). The Hallamshire press. ISBN 1-874718-29-6.
  8. ^ a b "England Goalkeepers - Ron Springett".
  9. ^ Vernon, Leslie; Rollin, Jack (1977). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1977–78. London: Brickfield Publications Ltd. p. 491. ISBN 0354 09018 6.
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