Kevin Hitchcock

Kevin Hitchcock (born 5 October 1962) is an English former professional footballer and coach.

Kevin Hitchcock
Hitchcock at West Ham, April 2010
Personal information
Date of birth (1962-10-05) 5 October 1962
Place of birth Canning Town, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
0000–1983 Barking
1983–1984 Nottingham Forest 0 (0)
1984 → Mansfield Town (loan) 14 (0)
1984–1988 Mansfield Town 168 (0)
1988–2001 Chelsea 96 (0)
1990 → Northampton Town (loan) 17 (0)
1993 → West Ham United (loan) 0 (0)
2001–2004 Watford 0 (0)
Total 295 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

As a player, he was a goalkeeper who made nearly 300 appearances in the Football League and Premier League playing for Mansfield Town, Chelsea and Northampton Town.[1]

Playing career

Hitchcock was born in Canning Town, London, and played non-league football for Barking, having been on Chelsea Youth books for 1978/9 but playing just 2 games plus 1 substitution appearance in their Junior League team, before being released at the end of the season. He joined Nottingham Forest in 1983 for a fee of £15,000. He spent time on loan to Mansfield Town in 1984, and joined the club for a fee of £140,000 at the end of the 1983–84 season without having played for Forest's first team.[1] He stayed with Mansfield for four seasons, helping the club to promotion from the Fourth Division in 1986,[2] and played a major part in their 1987 Football League Trophy victory against Bristol City, saving two penalties in the shootout.[3][4]

Hitchcock joined Chelsea for £250,000 in March 1988, and made his debut on 26 March in a 1–0 defeat to Southampton. He remained at Chelsea until 2001 and made 96 league appearances, 4 of which were from the bench.[1] His final appearance for Chelsea came against Tottenham in May 1999.[5] Bad luck with injuries left him stuck behind numerous other goalkeepers in the pecking order which was one of the main reasons for him making so few appearances in all that time at the club.[3] He left Chelsea in 2001 to take up the post of goalkeeping coach at Watford, who had just appointed Gianluca Vialli, late of Chelsea, as their new manager.[6]

Coaching career

He left Watford in 2004 to link up with former Chelsea teammate Mark Hughes as goalkeeping coach at Blackburn Rovers, following him to Manchester City in 2008. On 19 December 2009, he left the club alongside Mark Hughes[7]

In March 2010, he was appointed goalkeeping coach at West Ham United,[8] replacing Luděk Mikloško, but as of June 2010 he left the club along with Steve Clarke. In August 2010 he was appointed Fulham's primary goalkeeping coach and he left Fulham in June 2011 with the arrival of new Fulham manager Martin Jol, who appointed Hans Segers as his new goalkeeping coach.[9] In January 2012 Hitchcock linked up, once again, with former Chelsea teammate Mark Hughes at Queens Park Rangers to take up the post of goalkeeping coach. He left the club in 2015 when a contract renewal was not offered.

In December 2016, Hitchcock was appointed goalkeeping coach at Birmingham City by new manager and former teammate Gianfranco Zola. He remained with the club under Zola's successors Harry Redknapp and Steve Cotterill, but left when Cotterill was sacked in March 2018 with the team in the relegation zone.[10]

In July 2018, he was appointed as a goalkeeping coach at Indian Super League club Chennaiyin FC, working under John Gregory.[11]

On 30 April 2019, Hitchcock moved to MLS to become the goalkeeping coach at New England Revolution.[12]

Personal life

Hitchcock's son, Tom plays as a forward for Southern League side Bedford Town.[13]

References
  1. "Kevin Hitchcock". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 9 November 2009.
  2. Shaw, Martin & Taylor, Paul (27 October 2009). "Minute's silence for Mr Jarman tomorrow". Mansfield Town F.C. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  3. Ticher, Mike (November 1999). "Kevin Hitchcock". When Saturday Comes (177). Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2009.
  4. Harding, Nicholas (25 May 1987). "Penalties the bane of Bristol". The Times. Retrieved 18 December 2017 – via Newsbank.
  5. Tongue, Steve (11 May 1999). "Goldbaek upstages Ginola – Tottenham Hotspur 2 Chelsea 2". The Independent. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  6. "Vialli installed at Watford". The Daily Telegraph. 2 May 2001. Retrieved 21 October 2010.
  7. Collins, Leon (30 June 2008). "Backroom Staff Confirmed". Manchester City F.C. Retrieved 12 November 2009.
  8. "Hitchcock comes home". West Ham United F.C. 18 March 2010. Archived from the original on 25 March 2010.
  9. "Hans Segers - Goalkeeper Coach". Fulham FC. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
  10. "Steve Cotterill – Birmingham City statement". Birmingham City F.C. 3 March 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  11. "Chennaiyin FC appoint Englishman Kevin Hitchcock as Goalkeeping Coach". United News of India. 28 July 2018. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
  12. https://www.revolutionsoccer.net/post/2019/04/30/new-england-revolution-hire-kevin-hitchcock-assistant-coach
  13. "Bedford Town sign ex-QPR man Hitchcock". Non League Daily. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
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