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NEIL RIOCH
Born: 13 April 1951
Came from: Aston Villa Went to: Released
First game: 01 November 1975 Last game: 29 November 1975
Appearances: 5 (3/2) Goals: 0
The Paddington-born central defender was the brother of Aldershot-born midfielder Bruce Rioch, who won 24 Scotland caps and later managed Torquay, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Arsenal, amongst others. Unlike his brother however, Neil represented his country of birth, as an England youth international. His career took a similar initial path to his brother's before taking very different routes. Both began as apprentices with Luton Town in the 1960s; Bruce stepped up to the first team and made almost 150 appearances but Neil failed to make the breakthrough. Both then secured moves from Kenilworth Road to Aston Villa, and whilst making far fewer appearances than Bruce, Neil did make his League debut in claret and blue, playing 22 times and scoring 3 goals in a five-year spell, including a place in the 1971 League Cup Final and 1974-75 promotion-winning squads. Whilst at Villa Park he had three loan spells; first to Toronto Metros in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1971, and then York City and Northampton Town in the latter stages of 1971-72. He left Villa Park permanently at the end of the 1974-75 season, two years after his brother had departed for Derby County; it proved to be the last club at which both served. Transferring to Argyle in the summer of 1975, Rioch started three consecutives games in November 1975 but dropped to the bench for two more by the end of the month. Finding further chances hard to come by, he was subsequently released, and then returned briefly to the NASL with Portland Timbers for the 1976 season. After retiring he ran several sports and events management companies and became the founder and director of the Aston Villa Former Players' Association.
YOUR CONTRIBUTION
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From Jon G in Torquay on 01/01/2024 ...
Neil Rioch was the first Englishman to touch the ball in the 1966 World Cup Final!
He was a ballboy. The Germans kicked off and put the ball out for a throw-in. Rioch retrieved the ball.
APPEARANCE DETAILS [reselect competitions]
The details below reflect appearances in all first-team competitions.
I'm very grateful to many who have helped write GoS-DB's player pen-pictures, and to Dave Rowntree, the PAFC Media Team and Colin Parsons for their help with photos. Thanks also to staff at the National Football Museum, the Scottish Football Museum and ScotlandsPeople for their valuable assistance.
The following publications have been particularly valuable in the research of pen-pictures: Plymouth Argyle, A Complete Record 1903-1989 (Brian Knight, ISBN 0-907969-40-2); Plymouth Argyle, 101 Golden Greats (Andy Riddle, ISBN 1-874287-47-3); Football League Players' Records 1888-1939 (Michael Joyce, ISBN 1-899468-67-6); Football League Players' Records 1946-1988 (Barry Hugman, ISBN 1-85443-020-3) and Plymouth Argyle Football Club Handbooks.
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