fullname youthclubs clubs caps goals birth_place nationalteam position nationalcaps nationalyears birth_date article_title name nationalgoals
gordon astall royal marines southampton bolton wanderers -lrb- trial -rrb- royal marines southampton bolton wanderers -lrb- trial -rrb- 188 235 33 42 59 10 horwich , england england b england outside right 1 2 1952 1956 22 september 1927 gordon astall
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gordon astall

gordon astall -lrb- born 22 september 1927 -rrb- is an english former professional footballer .
he played as an outside right , and represented the football league , the england b team and played twice for the full england side .
at club level he made 456 appearances in the football league .
astall was born in horwich , near bolton , lancashire .
he was playing amateur football for southampton when he signed professional with plymouth argyle in november 1947 .
he had previously been an unsuccessful triallist at his local side bolton wanderers .
his league debut came in february 1948 at home to luton town , and he soon became a regular in the home park side , helping plymouth to the third division south title in 1952 .
that same year he was selected for the england b team .
in october 1953 he was signed by second division rivals birmingham city for a fee of # 14,000 , following his plymouth wing colleague alex govan to st andrew 's .
he had played 188 league games for plymouth , scoring 42 goals .
as a goalscoring outside right , he replaced the scot jackie stewart in the birmingham side and quickly became an important member of a side which won the second division title in 1955 and reached the 1956 fa cup final , losing 3 -- 1 at wembley to manchester city -rrb- .
full international recognition followed and he scored on his debut for england against finland on 20 may 1956 .
he played again six days later against germany , but this proved to be his final international appearance .
he also took part in birmingham 's inter-cities fairs cup campaigns , playing in the 1960 final which the club lost 4 -- 1 on aggregate to barcelona .
in july 1961 , after 271 appearances for birmingham in which he scored 67 goals , he moved to torquay united on a free transfer .
he made his gulls debut on 19 august 1961 , featuring in a 2 -- 1 defeat at home to crystal palace , and went on to score 10 goals in 27 league games in a season that saw torquay relegated back to the fourth division thanks to a 4 -- 2 final-day defeat away to barnsley , astall scoring one of torquay 's goals .
he played only six times the following season before retiring from the professional game .
he settled in the torbay area , working in insurance and coaching local club upton vale f.c. .
in may 2000 , the torquay `` herald express '' reported that he was living in retirement in the town and was a keen golfer .
