Stanley Finlay Thomas Clements OBE (25 June 1923[1] – 8 November 2018[2]) was an English footballer who played most of his professional career for Southampton.
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Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Stanley Finlay Thomas Clements | ||
Date of birth | (1923-06-25)25 June 1923 | ||
Place of birth | Portsmouth, England | ||
Date of death | 8 November 2018(2018-11-08) (aged 95) | ||
Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[1] | ||
Position(s) | Centre back | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1944–1955 | Southampton | 116 | (1) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
He was a mechanical engineer in Portsmouth's naval dockyards and joined Southampton from Gosport Borough in July 1944.[1]
He made his league debut on 24 May 1947 in the 2–0 home victory over Fulham. He was a strong, powerful centre-half and replaced Eric Webber for 13 games in the following season when Webber was rested. Once Webber regained his place in the team, Clements made no further first-team appearances until February 1951. For the following few seasons he alternated at centre-back with Len Wilkins and Henry Horton and had a spell as team captain in 1952–53.
He scored once in 116 league games before becoming player-coach at Basingstoke Town in February 1955.
After leaving football, he qualified as a civil engineer and worked in Kenya, Uganda and Sudan, before briefly helping to coach the Kenyan national team. In 1981, he was appointed O.B.E. for services to engineering in Africa.[1]
He returned to the UK in the mid-1980s and latterly lived in Gosport.[3] He died in November 2018 at the age of 95.[2]