PHIL NEAL

Born: 29th February 1951, in Irchester
Record:	Northampton Town:     182+4 League apps, 29 goals
        Liverpool:            453+2 League apps, 41 goals
        Bolton Wanderers:     58+8 League apps, 3 goals

        England:              50 apps, 5 goals

        Overall career total: 915 League and Cup games, 94 goals

Phil's League career began with Northampton Town, for whom he signed in December 1968. He made his début later that season in which the Cobblers were relegated to the Fourth Division. He was usually given a midfield rôle in his days at Northampton but was versatile enough to fill a number of other positions when needed before being signed by Liverpool manager Bob Paisley for £65,000 in October 1974.

Neal was thrown right in at the deep end, making his Liverpool début against local rivals Everton the following month as replacement for the injured left back Alec Lindsay. His second appearance was in December 1974 and from that day he completed an amazing run of 366 consecutive League games before missing a defeat at Sunderland in October 1983. The majority of these games were played as right-back, though he was always adaptable and his superb distribution made him a useful midfield player too. Most of his goals came from the penalty spot, Neal taking over from Kevin Keegan as the Reds' penalty-taker in his second season at the club. He scored from the spot in the 1977 European Cup Final in Rome against Borussia Mönchengladbach and was on the mark again against A.S. Roma. He played in four European Cup finals for Liverpool, captaining the club in two of them. When he was forced to sit out a European Cup tie against Odense, his club record of 417 consecutive appearances came to an end.

During his time with Liverpool, Neal won just about everything there was to win at club level with the exception of the F.A. Cup. The long list of honours included eight League Championships, four European Cups, four League Cups and a UEFA Cup. He is also the most capped England right back of all time, with 50 caps to his name.

Halfway through the 1985-86 season, Neal left Liverpool to join Third Division Bolton Wanderers as player-manager. He quickly led the side to Wembley where they lost 3-0 to Bristol City in the Freight Rover Trophy Final. Unfortunately he also led the team to relegation into the Fourth Division for the first time in their history but managed to achieve promotion back into the Third Division after only one season. The club were back at Wembley in 1989, this time with a 4-1 win over Torquay United in the Sherpa Van Trophy Final. Neal was at Bolton for seven years, during which time he unearthed his fair share of young talent, including Jason McAteer and Alan Stubbs. More recently he has been manager of Coventry City and Cardiff City, and was assistant to Graham Taylor during his spell as England manager. During this period Phil made his notorious appearance in the Channel 4 documentary "An Impossible Job"; it may be an impossible job to live that down.

In October 1996 Phil left Cardiff City to become Steve Coppell's assistant at Maine Road. However, the pressure of the job overwhelmed Coppell and he resigned only a month after taking the job. Phil was then installed as caretaker manager, and could well make the job a permanent one if he can get the right results.