Stan Clements

Stan Clements
Personal information
Full name Stanley Finlay Thomas Clements
Date of birth (1923-06-25)25 June 1923
Place of birth Portsmouth, England
Date of death 8 November 2018(2018-11-08) (aged 95)
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1]
Position(s) Centre back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1944–1955 Southampton 116 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Stanley Finlay Thomas Clements OBE (25 June 1923[1] – 8 November 2018[2]) was an English footballer who played most of his professional career for Southampton.

Playing career

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He was a mechanical engineer in Portsmouth's naval dockyards and joined Southampton from Gosport Borough in July 1944.[1]

He made his league debut on 24 May 1947 in the 2–0 home victory over Fulham. He was a strong, powerful centre-half and replaced Eric Webber for 13 games in the following season when Webber was rested. Once Webber regained his place in the team, Clements made no further first-team appearances until February 1951. For the following few seasons he alternated at centre-back with Len Wilkins and Henry Horton and had a spell as team captain in 1952–53.

He scored once in 116 league games before becoming player-coach at Basingstoke Town in February 1955.

Later career

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After leaving football, he qualified as a civil engineer and worked in Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, before briefly helping to coach the Kenyan national team. In 1981, he was appointed O.B.E. for services to engineering in Africa.[1]

He returned to the UK in the mid-1980s and latterly lived in Gosport.[3] He died in November 2018 at the age of 95.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Chalk, Gary; Holley, Duncan; Bull, David (2013). All the Saints: A Complete Players' Who's Who of Southampton FC. Southampton: Hagiology Publishing. pp. 276–277. ISBN 978-0-9926-8640-6.
  2. ^ a b "An Appreciation: Stanley Clements OBE". Southampton F.C. 13 November 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  3. ^ Holley, Duncan; Chalk, Gary (2003). In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology Publishing. p. 496. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.