Alan Connell

Alan John Connell (born 5 February 1983) is an English former professional footballer and current youth team coach at AFC Bournemouth.

As a player, he was a striker who played between 2001 and 2016.

Born in Enfield, Connell was a trainee at Tottenham Hotspur as a youngster but soon transferred to George Burley's Ipswich Town in 2001.

Connell then transferred to AFC Bournemouth after a successful trial period at the end of the 2001–02 season.

Connell came through the youth academy at Tottenham Hotspur but received his first professional contract from Ipswich Town, despite this he failed to make an appearance and joined AFC Bournemouth in 2002 where despite making over 50 league appearances he was largely used as a back-up striker.

Connell failed to win a call into a first team squad and was released in the summer of 2002.

Alan was handed his professional debut by Sean O'Driscoll on 13 August 2002 in the club's 0–0 home draw with Kidderminster Harriers.

He would go on to score 7 goals in 14 games before he suffered a cruciate ligament injury in October 2002 in a match against Leyton Orient which ruled him out for the remainder of his first season.

By the end of the season Bournemouth had earned promotion from Division Three via a play-off final victory over Lincoln City at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

During the 2003–04 season, Connell would only feature 7 times for The Cherries.

His final season at Bournemouth was also thwarted by a foot injury.

In all, 42 of his 61 appearances for the Cherries were from the substitutes' bench and he scored 11 goals.

This prompted him to move to Torquay United in 2005 after three years with Bournemouth.

He moved to Torquay United in the summer of 2005 for a fee of £5,000, making his debut in the 0–0 draw against Notts County on the opening day of the 2005–06 season.

However, he failed to secure a regular first-team place and Bournemouth even tried to sign him back on loan in March 2006.

By the end of the season Torquay had narrowly avoided relegation from the Football League and Connell would eventually leave the club after making 26 appearances in all competitions, scoring 7 goals.

In the summer of 2006 he signed for newly promoted Conference National play-off champions Hereford United in July 2006.

After initially being restricted to substitute appearances, Connell broke into the starting eleven and went on to become the top goalscorer at the club, despite not always playing in his favoured role as a striker.

In the second half of the season, he was usually named in the starting XI as other strikers at the club were rotated.

He was named Player of the Month for October.

He finished the season on 51 appearances in all competitions scoring 10 goals.

Connell turned down Hereford's offer of a new contract and instead signed for Brentford on 2 July 2007.

He remained at Griffin Park for only one season and departed a year later.

However, in this season he was hugely influential and made regular starting appearances.

He started well again the next season but was moved down the pecking order by new signing Charlie MacDonald.

Playing most of his 44 games in one season he was a huge hit with the fans and helped keep Brentford aloft in a tricky first season down from League 1.

A year later he moved on again to Hereford United before re-signing for Bournemouth in 2008.

In his second season back with the club he helped them to a 2nd-place finish in League Two thus securing promotion to League One.

On 29 August 2008 Bournemouth re-signed Connell for an undisclosed fee.

The club who had recently been relegated back into Football League Two were also handed a point deduction for financial irregularities.

Connell and Bournemouth secured their Football League status and prevented a second successive relegation when they beat relegation rivals Grimsby Town 2–1 at home on the penultimate day of the 2008–09 season.

Other results had meant Grimsby also avoided the drop.

During the 2009–10 season despite a transfer embargo being placed on the club, Bournemouth surged home to finish 2nd in the League and earn promotion back to Football League One with Connell scoring the goal that secured promotion, away to Burton in the last away game of the season.

Connell made 60 appearances, scoring 8 goals during his second spell with the club.

In the summer of 2010 he signed for Conference National side Grimsby Town where he scored 25 league goals in 46 appearances, this earned him the "Supporters Player of the Season" and eventually a move to Swindon Town where he again won promotion from League Two.

After a year with Swindon he moved once again, signing with Bradford City.

He has since had short stints with Northampton Town and former club, Grimsby Town.

He finished his career in Non League playing for both Havant & Waterlooville and Poole Town.

In July 2010, he moved to Conference National side Grimsby Town.

The club had suffered relegation in the previous season from League Two, whilst Connell and former club Bournemouth had earned promotion.