, Former Ipswich and Rotherham player oldest Wembley final scorer

Former Ipswich and Rotherham player oldest Wembley final scorer

When 45-year-old centre back Chris Swailes bundled home an equaliser in today’s FA Vase at Wembley he gained one distinction that might take some breaking as his Morpeth side emerged 4-1 victors.

In bundling in what was a typical centre-half goal, Swailes became the oldest player to score in a final at Wembley Stadium, the home of English football.

Swailes’ career began at Ipswich where he progressed from the Under-18 youth set-up to the Tractor Boys’ first team squad, making just a few appearances before being sold to Peterborough for the nominal fee of £10,000 according to website Transfermarkt. Website TWTD mention that Swailes was re-signed by George Burley from Doncaster Rovers for £225,000 in 1995 and went on to make 39 starts and three substitute appearances before departing Ipswich again as the makeweight in the transfer of David Johnson from Bury to Ipswich.

The bulk of his football career was with Rotherham United, his hometown club, where he featured 167 times for the Millers, scoring 14 goals and providing one assist.

Swailes officially retired in 2011, his final club at the time being Blyth Spartans but like Rocky Balboa kept on coming back to the game including his second comeback two years ago after heart problems that lead to four operations.

Talking about this to the FA.com, Swailes said: “I knew in the warm-up before a game that my breathing wasn’t right. I had been struggling to walk up the stairs without being out of breath. I went out on the pitch and I couldn’t really do the warm-up. “But I started the game and straight away I had to come off. I couldn’t breathe, it was quite scary. I was taken straight to hospital, had lots of tests and they found I had an erratic heartbeat, atrial fibrillation. But I’m right as rain now.”

Today’s 4-1 victory in the FA Vase is Swailes’ third victory in the competition following on from the first as an unused substitute for Bridlington Town aged 22 and a second victory for Dunston UTS in 2012.

Morpeth players celebrate FA Vase victory

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