Peter Taylor (footballer, born 1953)
English footballer and manager; led England under-21s and senior team as caretaker.
Peter John Taylor (born 3 January 1953) is an English former footballer who managed numerous clubs and twice served as head coach of the England under-21 team. He also took charge of the senior England national team as caretaker manager for one match, in which he made David Beckham captain for the first time. During his playing career, he was one of the few players selected for England while not playing in the top two flights of a domestic league.
Quick Facts
- Full name
- Peter John Taylor
- Born
- 3 January 1953
- Birthplace
- Rochford, England
- Position
- Winger
Facts from the source article.
Playing career
Peter Taylor, a winger, had a strong playing career. He started in youth football at Canvey Island, tried out at Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace, then joined Southend United as a junior in 1971. When Southend moved up to the Third Division in 1972, Taylor's performances caught the eye of Crystal Palace manager Malcolm Allison, who paid £110,000 for him on 11 October 1973. Palace dropped to the third tier that season, but Taylor was voted Player of the Year, an award he won again in 1976.
The 1975–76 campaign was a standout: Palace reached the FA Cup semi-final, Taylor netted twice in a 3-2 fifth-round win at Chelsea, and he earned four England caps, scoring two goals. Palace missed promotion, and after Allison left, new boss Terry Venables let Taylor go to top-flight Tottenham on 30 September 1976 for £400,000. He scored on his Spurs debut, a 4-2 loss at West Bromwich Albion. Tottenham were relegated in 1977 but bounced back in 1978.
Taylor never played for England again. He moved to Leyton Orient in 1980 after 123 appearances and 31 goals for Spurs. At Orient he played 56 times, scoring 11 goals over three seasons, with a brief loan at Oldham Athletic. In 1983–84 he made eight appearances for Exeter City, then switched to non-league sides Maidstone United, Chelmsford City, Dartford, and Enfield.
Taylor's England debut came as a substitute against Wales, where he scored the 80th-minute winner, and he also scored against Wales in his next match. He was the last English player to score in his first two international games until Rickie Lambert matched that in 2013. After retiring as a player, Taylor became a coach and manager.
Management career
Taylor became player-manager at non-league Dartford, where over four seasons the club finished 4th, 2nd (on goal difference), 2nd, and 3rd in the Southern League Premier Division, reached two FA Trophy semi-finals, won the Southern League Cup twice and were beaten finalists once, plus two Kent Senior Cup wins. Attendances rose from 400 to around 1,000, and each season Dartford scored more than 100 goals. His first Football League managerial role was at Southend United, where he spent two years from 1993 to 1995, quitting after failing to get them beyond mid-table in Division One.
He managed Conference club Dover Athletic in 1995–96, guiding them to 20th place to avoid relegation. He signed a two-year contract in May 1996 but left two months later after England manager Glenn Hoddle asked him to manage the England under-21 side. In competitive matches his record was eleven wins, three draws, and one defeat from fifteen games. England finished ninth in the 1998 European Championship and qualified for the 2000 finals comfortably, winning every match without conceding a goal.
With three matches remaining, Taylor was controversially replaced by Howard Wilkinson, who won the next two matches; the only blemish on the team's qualifying record was a 3–1 defeat to group runners-up Poland. England under Wilkinson later lost in the group stage of the finals. Taylor returned to club management at the start of the 1999–2000 season with Gillingham, guiding them to victory over Wigan Athletic in the Division Two play-off final, securing promotion to the upper half of the English league for the first time.
That season he also led Gillingham to the FA Cup quarter-finals after wins over Premiership sides Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday, before losing 5–0 away to Chelsea.
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