Richard Wilson (footballer, born 1956)

Richard H. Wilson (born 8 May 1956) was a New Zealand association football player, who was a goalkeeper during the country's first successful campaign to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, in 1982.[1] His international career spanned from 1979 to 1984,[2] and he played in the National Soccer League in Australia until 1989. He returned to New Zealand in 1996 and was player-coach of minor-league side Avon United.

This article is about the New Zealand player. For the British player, see Richard Wilson (footballer born 1960).
For other people with the same name, see Richard Wilson.
Richard Wilson
Personal information
Full name Richard H. Wilson
Date of birth (1956-05-08) 8 May 1956
Place of birth Nelson, New Zealand
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1974–1978 Woolston WMC
1979 Nelson United 21 (0)
1980–1981 Canberra City 30 (0)
1981–1985 Preston Makedonia 67 (0)
1986–1987 Mount Maunganui
1987 Grantham Town 7 (0)
1987–1988 Lincoln City 10 (0)
1988–1989 Kettering Town 0 (0)
Woolston WMC
1999 Rangers AFC 1 (0)
Avon United
International career
1979–1984 New Zealand 26 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Despite being the only goalkeeper used during the 1982 World Cup qualifying campaign, he was replaced as starting goalkeeper for the finals tournament in Spain by Frank van Hattum. For a considerable time, Wilson held the record for most minutes without conceding a goal by a goalkeeper in any FIFA World Cup qualifying or finals tournament, having not conceded a goal in 921 minutes of football, including matches against Fiji (twice), Chinese Taipei (twice), Indonesia (twice), China (twice) and Australia (once).[3]

His record clean sheet came to a dramatic end during a World Cup home qualifying fixture against Kuwait. Kuwait were controversially awarded a penalty by the Indonesian referee. Wilson spectacularly saved the spot kick only to have a further penalty awarded against New Zealand 10 minutes later. The second penalty found the back of the net bringing to an end Wilson's record. The taking of the second penalty was delayed for some minutes after an irate fan ran onto the field to remonstrate with the referee.[4]

References
  1. "1982 World Cup - New Zealand squad". FIFA.com. Archived from the original on 5 November 2007.
  2. "A-International Appearances - Overall". The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website. Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
  3. New Zealand 1982 World Cup squad
  4. "1982 Football World Cup = The long road to Spain". New Zealand History (Ministry for Culture and Heritage). 20 December 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2019.
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