 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Stuart Morgan" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stuart Edward Morgan[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1949-09-23)23 September 1949 (age 75) | ||
| Place of birth | Swansea, Wales | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Youth career | |||
| – | West Ham United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1967–1969 | West Ham United | 0 | (0) |
| 1969 | →Torquay United (loan) | 14 | (0) |
| 1969–1972 | Reading | 46 | (1) |
| 1972–1975 | Colchester United | 81 | (10) |
| 1975–1978 | AFC Bournemouth | 81 | (5) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1978–1983 | Weymouth | ||
| 1985–1987 | Torquay United | ||
| 1987–1989 | Weymouth | ||
| 1993–1999 | Dorchester Town | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Stuart Edward Morgan (born 23 September 1949 inSwansea) is a Welsh former professional footballer and football manager. Acentral defender, he made 222 appearances inthe Football League playing forTorquay United,Reading,Colchester United andAFC Bournemouth.[1][2] As manager, he took charge ofTorquay United in the Football League andWeymouth (twice) andDorchester Town innon-League football.
Morgan joinedWest Ham United as a junior, turning professional in March 1967. However, he was never to make the West Ham first team. He joinedTorquay United on loan in February 1969, making his league debut on 15 February in a 2–1 win at home toWatford. He remained atPlainmoor until the end of the season, playing 14 league games.
In November 1969, Morgan moved toReading where he played 46 times before moving toColchester United in August 1972. He scored twelve times in 81 league games for Colchester, captaining them to promotion under manager Jim Smith in 1974 before moving toAFC Bournemouth in March 1975.
He was appointed manager ofWeymouth in November 1978, guiding them to second place in theAlliance Premier League in 1979–80. He left Weymouth in November 1983, returning to Bournemouth as part ofHarry Redknapp's coaching staff, where he remained until September 1985 when Morgan was appointed as manager ofTorquay United.[3] Torquay finished bottom ofDivision Four that season, the last before automatic relegation to theConference would begin. The next season Torquay struggled again and only survived on the last day of the season, atLincoln City's expense, thanks to a late equaliser againstCrewe Alexandra fromPaul Dobson in injury time added after Torquay defenderJim McNichol had been bitten by a police dog.[4]
Morgan resigned in May 1987 and the following month began his second spell as manager of Weymouth. He took 'The Terras' to second place in the league before a flooded Wessex Stadium pitch meant that they did not play for six weeks, thus losing their momentum. Morgan then joined forces with Harry Redknapp again, as Chief Scout of Bournemouth, where they enjoyed a lot of success.[vague]
In August 1993 he was appointed as manager ofDorchester Town, where he took 'The Magpies' to their highest ever Southern Premier League finish, but was sacked in September 1999 after a 3–0 defeat in theFA Cup qualifying rounds to aTaunton Town side that contained managerRussell Musker and four players,Tom Kelly,Mark Loram,Chris Myers, andDarren Cann, all of whom he had signed while manager of Torquay.
He later worked as a scout for West Ham United[citation needed] and Portsmouth and is currently a full-time scout for Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.