Raphael Meade

Meade was born in Islington, where he attended Tollington Park Secondary School. He played football for Islington Boys, and began his club career at Arsenal as a schoolboy. He turned professional in June 1980, and was prolific for the club's reserve side: with 90 goals from 130 appearances in the Football Combination, he was the leading scorer in both the 1980–81 and 1981–82 seasons. Meade made his first-team debut on 16 September 1981 in a UEFA Cup first round tie away to Panathinaikos; entering the match after 66 minutes with his team 1–0 up, he scored the second goal with a bicycle kick with what the Daily Express reported as his first touch of the ball. On his league debut, in the starting eleven against Manchester City on 17 October, he scored the only goal of the match. Of his sixteen appearances in that season's First Division (eight as substitute), most were made from mid-February 1982 onwards. He scored twice against Brighton & Hove Albion on his return from a cartilage injury in February 1983, but played only six more matches that season. In December 1983, he scored a winning hat-trick against Watford and his two goals against Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby at White Hart Lane helped Arsenal to a 4–2 win, but he failed to score in any of his other 12 appearances. The signings of Paul Mariner and Charlie Nicholas meant Meade had been pushed down the pecking order at Arsenal, and he made only eight appearances in 1984–85, taking his totals to 16 goals…