Chris Turner

Sheffield Wednesday

Born in Sheffield, Turner began his goalkeeping career at Sheffield Wednesday, turning professional in August 1976. He was capped at England Youth level. He enjoyed a highly successful debut season, winning the club's Player of the Year award for his performances across his 52 appearances as Len Ashurst's Owls posted an eighth-place finish in the Third Division in the 1976–77 campaign. Wednesday slipped to 14th-place in the 1977–78 season, and Turner was limited to 31 appearances as new manager Jack Charlton looked for a larger-sized goalkeeper in Bob Bolder. Wednesday again finished 14th in 1978–79. Turner played 32 games at Hillsborough, whilst also spending a five-game loan spell at bottom club Lincoln City. He was voted onto the PFA Team of the Year, alongside teammate Brian Hornsby. Despite this award, Charlton sold Turner on to Sunderland for £80,000 in July 1979.

Sunderland

Ken Knighton led the Rokerites to promotion out of the Second Division in 1979–80 – they finished runners-up, just a point behind champions Leicester City – with Turner playing 30 of the club's 42 league games as he fended off competition from Barry Siddall. He then featured 31 times as they consolidated their First Division status with a 17th-place finish. New manager Alan Durban then led Sunderland to a 19th-place finish in 1981–82, with Turner being limited to only 19 league appearances. He regained his first-team status in the 1982–83 season, playing 41…

Turner was an agile goalkeeper with good reflex shot-stopping ability and good handling, though he lacked a physical presence.

Leyton Orient

Turner started his managerial career at Leyton Orient as joint-manager with John Sitton at the start of the 1994–95 season. The campaign was unsuccessful, as Orient were relegated out of the Second Division in last place, and new chairman Barry Hearn sacked the pair on 20 April 1995. After leaving Brisbane Road, Turner was appointed as reserve team coach at Leicester City by manager Mark McGhee, and later moved with McGhee to Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he was appointed youth team coach.

Hartlepool United

Turner was appointed manager at Hartlepool United by chairman Ken Hodcroft on 24 February 1999, who were sitting bottom of the Football League following Mick Tait's departure. He proved to be an instant success at Victoria Park, keeping the Monkey Hangers two places and three points ahead of Scarborough, who were relegated into non-League football and never to return at the end of the 1998–99 season following a real upturn in form. He then led Pools to a seventh-place finish in 1999–2000, though a 3–0 aggregate defeat to Darlington in the play-off semi-finals saw them remain in the Third Division. He was named as Third Division Manager of the Month for January 2001. Hartlepool narrowly missed out on a place in the automatic promotion places in 2000–01 and ended up losing 5–1 on aggregate to Blackpool in the play-off semi-finals. More play-off heartbreak followed in 2001–02; this time, they took Cheltenham Town to penalties after two legs…

Playing statistics

Managerial statistics