Derek Ufton

Derek Gilbert Ufton (born 31 May 1928, in Crayford, Kent) was a professional cricketer and footballer, and later a football manager for Plymouth Argyle.

An old boy of Dartford Grammar School, Ufton played first-class cricket for Kent from 1949 to 1962 as a wicket-keeper batsman.^[1] He won his Kent cap in 1956.^[2]

He made 263 appearances as a centre half for Charlton Athletic between 1949 and 1960. He was notorious for shoulder injuries, and dislocated his at least twenty times during his football career. He gained his only England cap at football in 1953, against a team from Rest of Europe.^[3]

He was captain of Charlton Athletic in the extraordinary match against Huddersfield Town at The Valley on 21 December 1957. Charlton played most of the match with 10 men after Ufton was injured, and Huddersfield were leading 5–1 with just 27 minutes remaining. At that point, Johnny Summers began an extraordinary passage of play in which he scored five goals and assisted with two others to allow Charlton to win 7–6. Huddersfield become the first, and still the only, team to score six goals in an English Football League match – or indeed any other professional football match – and still be on the losing side.

His playing career ended in 1960. He then became a coach at Tooting & Mitcham United in 1961, where he stayed until joining Malcolm Allison as a coach at Plymouth Argyle during the 1964–65 season. He replaced Allison as manager in 1965. He was asked to leave in 1968 due to the team's poor performance that year, having won only 3 games out of the 25 played, when relegation from the Football League Second Division looked inevitable.

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