Aspin: Neil

1982-1989 (Player Details)

Right Back

Born: Gateshead: 12-04-1965

Debut v Ipswich Town (h): 20-02-1982

6’0” 12st 3lb (1987)

A product of Heathfield Senior High School, Gateshead, he won Durham County Schools honours and had trials for England Schoolboys. He was sixteen and expecting to play in a Northern Intermediate League game when Allan Clarke told him he would be making his League debut, as Kenny Burns was suspended and Trevor Cherry, Brian Greenhoff and Neil Firm were all on the injury list. He was popular at Elland Road for his never-say-die attitude and willingness to join in the attack. He was also very popular with the fans, who respected his one hundred per cent commitment to the cause and his fighting endeavour at all times with which he made up for his deficiencies in skill. He postponed his wedding to play for United when the date clashed with F.A. Cup Semi-Final in March 1987. After new Manager Howard Wilkinson had brought in England International Mel Sterland the writing was on the wall. He left Leeds and joined Port Vale in a £200,000 deal in July 1989. He soon became a crowd favourite, being elected the club's player of the year in his first season, and a rock at the heart of their defence and was a member of the side which beat Stockport County 2-1 in the 1993 Auto Glass Trophy Final. Hopes of a Wembley double evaporated when they were beaten 3-0 by West Bromwich Albion in the Second Division Play-Off Final a few weeks later. Promotion was achieved the following season, when he again won the club's player of the year award and was included in the PFA Second Division team, and Aspin also received a well deserved testimonial. He played four hundred and ten games for Port Vale, of which three hundred and forty-eight were League appearances, including five from the bench which produced three goals. He also made twenty-four starts in the F.A. Cup, twenty in the League Cup and eighteen in other games. He joined Darlington in July 1999, where he made a further fifty-two League appearances, five starts in the F.A. Cup, three in the League Cup and two in other games before leaving for Hartlepool United in January 2001, where he made ten League appearances including five as a substitute and one substitute appearance in another game. He joined Harrogate Town in June 2001, and, after retiring as a player in 2004, he became Manager in April 2005. He got the club to the play-offs in 2005-06 and they usually were close to the play-offs in all other seasons, but finished ninth in 2008-09 which saw his association with the club come to an end, as he decided to leave in April 2009. He soon took over the reins at Halifax Town and at the age of forty-four made a playing come-back, but it was just for one West Riding Senior Cup game, as he led Town to a record breaking season which culminate with Unibond First Division North Title with over one hundred points and one hundred and eight goals. He repeated that success as he also lead Town to a second successive promotion in 2010-11, winning the Northen Premier League Premier League with ninety-eight points and again notching one hundred and eight goals. In the first two seasons of his Managership Halifax had only lost six League games.