1st (joint) – David Felgate – Wales, 1983
David Felgate was a regular in the Wales squads of the early eighties – he’d featured in several across two seasons, but had always been kept out by the great Neville Southall. The one time he was due to play, against Northern Ireland two years earlier, the game was cancelled to Bobby Sands’s hunger strike.
It must have been a challenge going up against Southall, but in October 1983, he came on for the second half of a friendly against Romania. Wales won 5-0, and so Felgate kept a clean sheet. It was his only outing for his country, but why have I placed it first?
At the time, Wales were ranked 20th in the world, ahead of Denmark, Colombia and Austria. Back then, there were fewer international matches, so caps and call-ups were harder to come by, and this was mid-season, not an end-of-season tour, or a chance to look at players on the fringe.
Felgate was a big figure for the Imps in the early eighties, making 233 appearances across five seasons. He was ever-present for two seasons, won Player of the Season in 1983/84, and played his final City game on that tragic day in Bradford, May 1985.
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