Focus on……Dean Thomas

A series on players who have spent some or all of their careers as a player or manager in the Southern League.

Dean Thomas was a class act as a player and is still a class act now – both as a person and on the stage in his new guise as a `crooner`!

Bedworth born, he began his playing career with neighbouring Nuneaton Borough in the Southern League, gaining a regular spot in the team in the 1979/80 season.

It wasn`t long before he attracted attention and he eventually joined Wimbledon in the summer of 1981 in a deal which ended up being worth more than £10,000 to Borough.

He made 59 League appearances for the Dons, scoring 8 goals and also had a 35-game spell in Finland during two English close seasons with Tampereen Ilves, winning the Finnish league in his second spell.

In 1983 he moved to Germany and had spells with Aarchen and Fortuna Dusseldorf.

In 1988 he returned to England and signed for Northampton Town for £50,000, re-joining his former Nuneaton manager Graham Carr at the Cobblers.

He played 74 times for Northampton, netting 12 goals, before being transferred to Notts County for £175,000 in March 1989.

His full-time career was finally ended by injury in 1994 after making 124 appearances for the Magpies and he became player-manager of his home-town Southern League side Bedworth United in July 1995.

He was highly successful at the Oval, leading the Greenbacks to third and fifth-placed finishes in the Midland Division.

He then took over as the manager of the newly merged Hinckley United in June 1997.

He led the Knitters to the Southern Western Division championship in the 2000/01 season and the FA Cup Second Round in December 2001 and December 2004.

He eventually resigned in October 2012 after 15 years and 972 games.

He had a short spell in charge of then-Southern Division One Central side Kettering Town and his involvement with football management finished with a short stint helping out the new Hinckley AFC outfit as interim manager.

Previous Clubs:

Nuneaton Borough, Wimbledon, llves Tampere, Aachen, Fortuna Dusseldorf. Northampton Town and Notts County.

Best Game Played In:

1990?91 Second Division play-off final at Wembley with Notts County against Brighton & Hove Albion. Won 3-1.

Best 11 Played With:

Steve Cherry (Notts County)

Charlie Palmer (Notts County)

Nigel Winterburn (Wimbledon)

Craig Short (Notts County)

Dean Yates (Notts County)

Tommy Johnson (Notts County

Mark Draper (Notts County)

Paul Rideout (Notts County)

Glyn Hodges (Wimbledon)

Kevin Bartlett (Notts County)

Paul Culpin (Northampton) (above)

Best Captain:

Phil Turner

Funniest team-mate/manager:

Wally Downes and Dave `Harry` Bassett