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As I
was too young to witness the Albion career of the legendary Phil
Annable, I will leave the honours to the Albion book "Wellington
Street to Wembley" to recount his time with the club;
Albion
have boasted many fine defenders in their history. Arguably the best
of all was Phil Annable, a Nottinghamshire miner brought to the club
by Richie Norman in 1970.
Annable
was regarded as one of the hardest men around and it is true that
there were times when he exceeded the limits of reasonable behaviour
on the pitch.
There was
a joke that did the rounds for many years that Annable always booked
his annual holiday for the start of the season because as sure as
night follows day, he would be suspended.
His
reputation often travelled before him, unfairly disguising the fact
that he was also a very good player.
There
were times when he seemed unbeatable in the air and, despite being
decidedly short on pace, his tackling and radar like anticipation
made him an extremely difficult player to beat on the ground.
Annable,
hugely effective at set pieces, was also a regular contributor to
the goals 'for' column, once in a particularly bad season even
managing to finish as one of the Albion's leading scorers.
Player of
the year four times, Annable in 1979 became the first Albion player
to make 500 appearances.
Later in
his career than he would probably have wished, Annable's ability was
finally recognised when he was sold to Boston United for £6,000.
When he
rejoined Albion in 1982 his best days were behind him, but Annable
still managed to take his appearances tally to 547, a total that
stood for nearly a quarter of a century.
Phil left
the Brewers and managed to take his career appearance total to more
than 1000 games with spells at Grantham Town, Worksop Town and
Stapenhill.
Phil
returned to Eton Park in 2005 to make his last appearance in front
of the Burton fans as part of the farewell match ahead of the move
to the Pirelli Stadium. |
PHIL
ANNABLE