Alan Knight

Knight joined Portsmouth as an apprentice at the age of 14 and signed a professional contract with the club in 1977. He went on to make his debut for the club a year later, keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 Football League Third Division win against Rotherham United with Portsmouth's relegation to the fourth tier of English football already confirmed. Knight served as reserve goalkeeper to Peter Mellor for the next three seasons, making eight appearances during Pompey's 1979–80 promotion season, before establishing himself as the team's first choice goalkeeper during the 1981–82 season where he was named the fans' player of the season for the first time. Knight was a member of the team that won the Third Division championship in 1982–83 and was given a debut for the England U21 team in a 1984 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Greece at Portsmouth's ground Fratton Park. He made one further appearance for the England U21s against Hungary, before first choice goalkeeper Gary Bailey returned from injury. England went on to win the final tournament. Following two near misses, Portsmouth achieved promotion to the First Division in 1986–87, meaning Knight would represent the club in all four divisions of The Football League. Portsmouth were relegated from the top flight after only one season, with Knight keeping a clean sheet in a 2–0 win over south coast rivals Southampton at The Dell one of the few highlights. During the 1991–92 season, Knight was a part of the…

Knight worked as the goalkeeping coach at Portsmouth prior to his resignation in summer 2005. Following this, Knight was named goalkeepers' coach for the American Major League Soccer team FC Dallas in 2006. The head coach at FC Dallas at the time was Knight's former Portsmouth teammate Colin Clarke. Staying in the United States, he then ran football coaching clinics for B.E.S.T (British European Soccer Tuition) in the USA. The B.E.S.T patron of honour was Knight's former Portsmouth manager and World Cup winner, the late Alan Ball. On 12 December 2006, it was announced that Knight was named as the goalkeeping coach at AFC Bournemouth. He also served as goalkeeping coach at Conference South Side Dorchester Town, where he was also a registered player, for the 2006/07 season; he appeared on the bench as a substitute, but did not make an appearance on the pitch. On 8 October 2007, Knight was appointed goalkeeping coach at Havant & Waterlooville by the team's newly appointed manager Shaun Gale, a former teammate of Knight at Portsmouth. In May 2009 Knight was named joint manager of Horndean of the Wessex League Division One. From then until 10 December 2009, Knight was registered as a player, however did not make a first-team appearance in the Wessex League. During his time as joint-manager, Horndean recorded 10 wins, 1 draw and 7 losses. Knight joined Aldershot Town as a goalkeeping coach in December 2009. In July 2011 he left Aldershot for a coaching job at Havant &…

Knight was born in Balham, London on 3 July 1961. He attended Ernest Bevin School in Tooting.

Knight was awarded the honour of Freedom of the City of Portsmouth on 5 May 2025 at Fratton Park. Knight died of prostate cancer on 1 September 2026, aged 65.