0% Villa - Keith Alexander (Macc'field Manager) Dies aged 53

[eastie]

Tragedy ,hope wembley shows him respect tonight.

Rest in peace Keith!

[villajk]

Tragedy ,hope wembley shows him respect tonight.

I believe the players are wearing black armbands tonight.

[SoccerHQ]

Collapsed in 2002 didn't he with a brain tumour?

Really good manager at that level so sad stuff. RIP.

[OldUser]

What happened to the other thread?

[Dave Cooper please]

What happened to the other thread?

The other posts are in the "Celebrity Deathwatch" thread Ian.

[OldUser]

What happened to the other thread?

The other posts are in the "Celebrity Deathwatch" thread Ian.

Thanks Dave.

[villajk]

What happened to the other thread?

The other posts are in the "Celebrity Deathwatch" thread Ian.

Some were transferred to http://www.heroesandvillains.info/discuss/viewforum.php?f=21[url]

[pauliewalnuts]

Nice from The Fiver

'A LARGER THAN LIFE CHARACTER ... A SUPERB HUMAN BEING'

Keith Alexander, who died last night at the age of 53, was a pioneer in British football. At Lincoln in 1993 he became the first black full-time manager in the Football League (Ed Stein having had a brief caretaker spell in charge of Barnet earlier the same year) and on more than one occasion since he has been the only black manager in England's four divisions. His appointment should have, but shamefully hasn't, opened the floodgates to black managers in English football.

Today the tributes have been as effusive as they have been numerous. "Over and above being the absolute professional in everything he did, Keith was one of the nicest guys you could ever wish to meet," said the Lincoln City chairman Steff Wright. "Keith was a splendid man, a real gentleman and an absolute privilege to work with," said Mike Rance, chairman of Macclesfield Town, where Alexander managed his final game on Tuesday evening. "He was a larger than life character - an absolutely superb human being," was his Macclesfield assistant Gary Simpson's tribute.

Alexander came late to football and early to management. The son of a miner, he didn't turn professional until the age of 28. His playing career was hardly stellar but had its moments - an Alexander goal for Grimsby at Wimbledon's Plough Lane in 1989 was memorably greeted by 5,000 blow-up haddock in the away end at the beginning of football fans' short-lived obsession with inflatables. Four years later, at the tender age of 34, he became manager of Lincoln for the first time. After nine months at Sincil Bank he was dismissed and forced to rebuild his reputation during lengthy spells in non-league football with Ilkeston Town and Northwich Victoria.

He returned to Lincoln in 2002 and led the club to four successive (though ultimately unsuccessful) play-off campaigns. Alexander's first tilt at promotion in 2002-03 was astonishing. The club had been on the verge of extinction in the spring of 2002, the then-chairman warning that their final home game of the season "could be the last game in the club's history". In the summer Alexander was appointed on the day the club went into administration, a position from which the club emerged just five days before the start of the season. Yet, with a team cobbled together from former non-leaguers and the rump of Alan Buckley's old squad, the Imps came within one game of promotion, losing to Bournemouth at the Millennium Stadium.

Despite ill-health - he spent his 45th birthday undergoing nine hours surgery after suffering a brain aneurysm - he swapped Sincil Bank for London Road for a brief spell in 2006 (signing several of the players that would help Peterborough to back-to-back promotions) and joined Macclesfield in February 2008, leaving a lasting impression wherever his boots graced the dugout. While his career, one spent battling at the sharp, insecure end of English football, deserves to be defined by more than the colour of his skin, he will be remembered as a breaker of barriers. The England team will quite rightly wear black armbands at Wembley this evening.

[The Villa Werewolf]

I posted this earlier in another thread:

He was Lincoln manager when I was at Uni there - provided me with a little happiness in a 2002-03 season which was anything but a picnic at Villa Park, culminating in a trip to Cardiff.

Shocking and terrible news. So sad.

RIP Big Keith.

EDIT: That piece from The Fiver is superb.

[cdbearsfan]

Terrible tragedy. Remember him from Lincoln, thought he was over his health problems.

RIP.

[villajk]

Lovely write up from the Fiver.

RIP

[TheTimVilla]

Very sad news.

[Lizz]

Shame. 53 is no age.