Playing Career
Spink began his career at Writtle Minors moving up to the Senior side Writtle Football Club before going as an apprentice to West Ham United, but soon moved to Chelmsford City and then, at the age of just 18, to Aston Villa. It was almost five years before his big break in the first team came along, and it came on the biggest stage of all – the European Cup Final. Ten minutes into the 1982 final against Bayern Munich, Villa's first choice goalkeeper, Jimmy Rimmer, was injured and substitute keeper Spink was called into action, having only made one previous appearance in the first team. Spink performed superbly, keeping a clean sheet, and Villa won the game 1–0.
He went on to make 460 appearances for Villa before moving to neighbouring club West Bromwich Albion in 1996, almost two decades after first joining Villa. Spink became the oldest goalkeeper to appear for Albion when, at the age of 39 years and 19 days, he kept goal in a League Cup tie against Cambridge United on 27 August 1997. The record still stands as of 27 August 2007. In all he made 24 appearances for the Black Country club.
A £50,000 move in September 1997 took him down a division to Millwall in Division Two, and he continued playing at The Den for another three seasons until he finally retired in June 2000, just before his 42nd birthday.
Read more about this topic: Nigel Spink
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