gordon astall born 22 september 1927 is an english former professional footballer he played as an outside right and represented the football league the england b team and played twice for the full england side at club level he made 456 appearances in the football leagueastall was born in horwich near bolton lancashire he was playing amateur football for southampton when he signed professional with plymouth argyle in november 1947 he had previously been an unsuccessful triallist at his local side bolton wanderers his league debut came in february 1948 at home to luton town and he soon became a regular in the home park side helping plymouth to the third division south title in 1952 that same year he was selected for the england b team in october 1953 he was signed by second division rivals birmingham city for a fee of 14000 following his plymouth wing colleague alex govan to st andrews he had played 188 league games for plymouth scoring 42 goalsas a goalscoring outside right he replaced the scot jackie stewart in the birmingham side and quickly became an important member of a side which won the second division title in 1955 and reached the 1956 fa cup final losing 31 at wembley to manchester cityfull international recognition followed and he scored on his debut for england against finland on 20 may 1956 he played again six days later against germany but this proved to be his final international appearancehe also took part in birminghams intercities fairs cup campaigns playing in the 1960 final which the club lost 41 on aggregate to barcelona in july 1961 after 271 appearances for birmingham in which he scored 67 goals he moved to torquay united on a free transferhe made his gulls debut on 19 august 1961 featuring in a 21 defeat at home to crystal palace and went on to score 10 goals in 27 league games in a season that saw torquay relegated back to the fourth division thanks to a 42 finalday defeat away to barnsley astall scoring one of torquays goals he played only six times the following season before retiring from the professional gamehe settled in the torbay area working in insurance and coaching local club upton vale fc in may 2000 the torquay herald express reported that he was living in retirement in the town and was a keen golfer