9th August 1969
A big day for Crystal Palace. League members since 1920, it was on 9th August 1969 that they played their first match in the top flight of the Football League - and that was against Manchester United at Selhurst Park. The attendance for that First Division match was 48,610 - a ground record at the time - and they paid gate receipts of £16,250. How times have changed! Palace went ahead twice with goals from Mel Blyth and Gerry Queen but the final score was 2-2. Palace won only 6 League matches in that inaugural season and only just escaped relegation. Back then all the clubs didn't play their final league fixture on the same day. With the bottom 2 relegated in those days Palace finished their League season on April 6th with a win to finish third from bottom with Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland below them in the relegation spots. But Sunderland didn't finish their season until April 15th (at home to Liverpool) with Wednesday's final match being on April 22nd (at home to Man City). If either of the home sides were to win those matches they would have gone above Palace who would have been relegated. They both lost!Plymouth Argyle signed 38-year-old goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar on a 12 month contract despite the Zimbabwe international facing Court proceedings for match fixing. Argyle’s manager Neil Warnock said ‘I realise he has got problems but what matters most is what he does on the pitch.’ He played in 36 of Plymouth’s 46 Second Division matches in 1996/97 and was later cleared of match fixing. Worth looking up if you have the inclination!! Remember "Spaghetti Legs"?
Bruce David Grobbelaar (born 6 October 1957) is a Zimbabwean former professional footballer and a goalkeeper, most prominently for English club Liverpool between 1981 and 1994, and for the Zimbabwe. Regarded as one of the best goalkeepers of his era, he is remembered for his gymnastic-like athletic ability, unflappable confidence, eccentric and flamboyant style of play, as well as his rushing ability, which has led pundits to compare him retrospectively to the "sweeper-keeper" of the modern era.
Born in South Africa, Grobbelaar grew up in neighbouring Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe), and served in the national army before he joined the Vancouver Whitecaps of the NASL in 1979. He gained Liverpool's attention during a loan spell at Crewe Alexandra during the 1979–80 season, and signed for the Merseyside club in 1981. Making 628 appearances for Liverpool over the next 13 years, including 440 in the League, he won the League championship with the club six times, as well as three FA Cups, three League Cups and the 1983-4 European Cup.
Grobbelaar left Liverpool for Southamptonin 1994, transferred to Plymouth Argyle two years later, and thereafter played for an assortment of English lower-league teams, never for more than a few games. He was appointed as goalkeeper coach for Pttawa Fury FC of the NASL in 2014. In March 2018 he was announced as goalkeeper coach for the Matabeleland Club. The Matabeleland Team, representing the nation in the western part of Zimbabwe. They are not affiliated with FIFA or ConCaf and therefore cannot compete for the FIFA World Cup or the SAfrican Nations. The team is affiliated to ConiFA, the Confederation of Independent Football Associations.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Bruce David Grobbelaar | ||
| Date of birth | 6 October 1957 | ||
| Place of birth | Durban SA. | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Position(s) | GK | ||
| Senior career | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1973–1974 | Highlanders | 2 | (0) |
| 1975 | Chibuku Shumba | 13 | (0) |
| 1976 | Highlands Park | 0 | (0) |
| 1977–1978 | Durban City | 23 | (0) |
| 1979–1981 | Vancouver Whitecaps | 24 | (0) |
| 1979–1980 | → Crewe Alexander (loan) | 24 | (1) |
| 1981–1994 | Liverpool | 440 | (0) |
| 1993 | → Stoke City (loan) | 4 | (0) |
| 1994–1996 | Southampton | 32 | (0) |
| 1996–1997 | Plymouth Argyle | 36 | (0) |
| 1997 | Oxford United | 0 | (0) |
| 1997 | Sheffield Wednesday | 0 | (0) |
| 1997–1998 | Oldham Athletic | 4 | (0) |
| 1998 | Chesham United | 4 | (0) |
| 1998 | Bury | 1 | (0) |
| 1998 | Lincoln City | 2 | (0) |
| 1999 | Northwich Victoria | 1 | (0) |
| 2002 | Hellenic | 1 | (0) |
| 2007 | Glasshoughton Welfare | 1 | (0) |
| Total | 574 | (1) | |
| International career | |||
| 1977–1998 | Zimbabwe | 33 | (0) |
| 2018 | Matabeleland | 1 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1997 | Zimbabwe | ||
| 1998 | Zimbabwe | ||
| 1999–2001 | SuperSport United | ||
| 2001–2002 | Hellenic | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
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