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Alan Edward Knight MBE (born 3 July 1961 in Balham, London ) is a former English Footballer . Holds record for most appearances for a single club by a goalkeeper, having played 801 games (683 in the League ) for Portsmouth F.C. between 1978 and 2000. He later worked as goalkeeping coach at Portsmouth until he quit the job in the summer of 2005. Knight spent almost all of his 25-year playing career at Portsmouth, but played briefly for local non-league side Havant & Waterlooville near the end of his career. As well as holding the above record, Knight is also the second-longest serving Pompey player of all time behind Jimmy Dickinson , and is also the only player to have appeared in all four divisions of The Football League for the club. He was capped at under-21 international level, but was never selected for the full England Squad . Known by the Fratton Park faithful as ''The Legend'', he served Pompey magnificently from 1978 to 2000, and played in numerous memorable games, pulling off world-class saves to gasps of admiration from the crowd. The 6ft 1in keeper, who will be long remembered for his reflex saves, acrobatics and bravery in packed goalmouths, overtook in the 1990s former Chelsea star Peter Bonetti 's record of the most goalkeeping appearances (600) for one club. In all competitions, Knight went on to play an incredible 801 times for Pompey before finally hanging up his gloves to become the club's goalkeeping coach. His 800th appearance, as a substitute in a cup tie at Blackburn , saw fans in all corners of Ewood Park rising in unison to applaud his appearance on the pitch. A few weeks later, he played his last match for Pompey, at Norwich in January 2000. A year later, his amazing loyalty to Pompey received Royal acclaim when he was awarded a MBE in the New Year's Honours List. Following his retirement from the game, Knight stayed at Pompey and became a member of the coaching staff, but left the club in the summer of 2005. In 2003-04, due to an injury crisis, Knight was called on to the substitutes' bench for Pompey and was listed as a squad member, but was never actually called into action. Knight was named goalkeepers coach for Major League Soccer side FC Dallas in 2006. The head coach at Dallas is Knight's former Portsmouth teammate Colin Clarke . |
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