Dean Spink

Dean Peter Spink (born 22 January 1967) is an English former professional footballer who played either as a striker or a defender. After retiring as a player he became a physiotherapist for Shrewsbury Town but is now one at Solihull Moors. He is currently the reserve manager at Alvechurch FC.

Spink was born in Birmingham, and began his football career at non-league Halesowen Town before signing for First Division Aston Villa for £30,000 in 1989. He never made the grade at Villa, and spent loan spells at Scarborough and Bury before moving to Shrewsbury Town where he spent seven years. In his first year with the club he was switched from centre-forward to centre-back, and won the club's player of the year award.

He had played over 300 games for Shrewsbury before moving across the border in 1997 to local rivals Wrexham, where he spent three seasons. Whilst at Wrexham he returned to Shrewsbury on a month's loan, and when he left the Welsh club in 2000 he didn't travel too far to his next two clubs, Chester City and Telford United, who were both in the Football Conference at the time. His spell at Chester saw him have a very brief spell as joint caretaker-manager with Owen Brown and Andy Porter, between the departure of Steve Mungall in December 2001 and the arrival of Mark Wright in January 2002. He later had short spells with Kidsgrove Athletic (where he was assistant manager to Porter) and Colwyn Bay.

Since retiring Spink has ventured into nursery care and gym training, and returned to Shrewsbury initially as youth-team physiotherapist before getting promoted to first-team physio.

with Shrewsbury Town

• Football League Division Three champions: 1993–94
• Auto Windscreens Shield runners-up: 1995–96

Personal

• Voted Shrewsbury Town F.C.'s "all-time cult hero" by viewers of the BBC show Football Focus in 2004.

• "Shrewsbury's cult heroes". BBC Sport. 4 September 2004. Retrieved 3 October 2008.