page_title: Alan Connell
section_title: Grimsby Town
hierarchical_section_title: Alan Connell / Career / Grimsby Town
caption_attribution_description: English: Alan Connell. Image cropped from original at flickr.
context_page_description: Alan John Connell is an English former professional footballer and current youth team coach at Bournemouth.
  As a player, he was a striker who played between 2001 and 2016. Connell came through the youth academy at Tottenham Hotspur but received his first professional contract from Ipswich Town, despite this he failed to make an appearance and joined Bournemouth in 2002 where despite making over 50 league appearances he was largely used as a back-up striker. This prompted him to move to Torquay United in 2005 after three years with Bournemouth. A year later he moved on again to Hereford United before re-signing for Bournemouth in 2008. In his second season back with the club he helped them to a 2nd-place finish in League Two thus securing promotion to League One. In the summer of 2010 he signed for Conference National side Grimsby Town where he scored 25 league goals in 46 appearances, this earned him the "Supporters Player of the Season" and eventually a move to Swindon Town where he again won promotion from League Two. After a year with Swindon he moved once again, signing with Bradford City. He has since had short stints with Northampton Town and former club, Grimsby Town.
context_section_description: In July 2010, he moved to Conference National side Grimsby Town. The club had suffered relegation in the previous season from League Two, whilst Connell and former club Bournemouth had earnt promotion. On 17 July 2010 Alan scored on his home debut for Town in a 2–1 friendly win over Sheffield Wednesday. He then made his league debut on 14 August 2010 in a 1–0 win against Crawley Town and scored his first league goal in the 2–1 home defeat against Hayes & Yeading. Connell went on to score 14 goals in his opening 19 appearances for The Mariners doubling the total of the previous season's top goalscorer Peter Sweeney and doing so in little over two months into the season, prompting club chairman John Fenty to state in a fans forum that the club would be aiming to keep Connell and not cash in on the forward in the January transfer window. On 1 January 2011 Connell scored two free kicks which were his 18th and 19th goals of the season during Grimsby's 7–2 victory over Mansfield Town.
  On Saturday 30 April 2011, Connell scored his 29th goal of the season in all competitions against AFC Wimbledon – Grimsby's final game of the 2010–11 season. He received several player of the year trophies at the club's annual awards night. On 24 June 2011 Grimsby joint-manager Paul Hurst revealed the club had received a number of offers for the player, one from a Football League One club, another from a Football League Two side and a third bid from a fellow Conference National side, all of which were dismissed haven been described as "derisory".
  On 7 July 2011 amongst speculation of Connell's future at Grimsby, chairman John Fenty stated that the player was not for sale and also mentioned he had received an official bid from fellow Conference National side Luton Town that he described also as "derisory", and on 13 July 2011 Fenty commented that Connell would definitely not be sold to another club in Grimsby's division, mentioning that the player is happy at Grimsby.
caption: Connell playing for Grimsby Town in 2010
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