Gary Sprake

Sprake represented Swansea Schoolboys and was noticed by Leeds United soon after he left school and was playing for a local works team. Sprake joined Leeds as an apprentice and made a last-minute debut in 1962 when the regular goalkeeper went down with a stomach complaint on the day of a game at Southampton. Over the next two seasons Sprake became a regular as Leeds won the Second Division in 1964 and then challenged for the Football League championship title and FA Cup double the following year. Sprake only missed one game in both competitions that season, but Leeds ended with nothing. At Leeds, he was also known to be sick before each match but managed to play regularly and keep the starting goalkeeper position. The first of Sprake's two major errors came in 1967 when Leeds played Liverpool in a League game at Anfield. Sprake was holding the ball and was set to throw it to left back Terry Cooper, only to curtail his throw when he spotted Liverpool winger Ian Callaghan running towards the area he planned to throw the ball. Unfortunately for Sprake, the ball slipped out of his hands behind him and ended up in the net. At half-time, the Liverpool tannoy-announcer played "Careless Hands", a record by Des O'Connor, apparently in reference to Sprake's mistake, and during the second half Liverpool supporters on the Kop sang the song repeatedly to Sprake. Fans of rival clubs gave Sprake the nickname "Careless Hands" as a result. In the same season Sprake kept a clean sheet as…

Sprake was the youngest-ever goalkeeper to appear for Wales when he made his international debut as an 18-year-old against Scotland on 20 November 1963. Sprake won 37 caps for Wales between 1963 and 1974.

Leeds United

Football League First Division: 1968–69 Football League Second Division: 1963–64 Football League Cup: 1967–68 FA Charity Shield: 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 1967–68, 1970–71 FA Cup runner-up: 1964–65