Kevin Pressman

Kevin Pressman

Personal information
Full name	Kevin Paul Pressman
Date of birth	(1967-11-06) 6 November 1967
Place of birth	Fareham, England
Height
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Millwall (Goalkeeping coach)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–2004	Sheffield Wednesday	404	(0)
1992	→ Stoke City (loan)	4	(0)
2004	→ West Bromwich Albion (loan)	0	(0)
2004–2005	Leicester City	13	(0)
2005	Leeds United	0	(0)
2005	Coventry City	0	(0)
2005–2006	Mansfield Town	41	(0)
2006–2007	Portadown	43	(0)
2007–2009	Scunthorpe United	0	(0)
Total		505	(0)
International career
1988	England U21	1	(0)
1994–1998	England B	3	(0)
Managerial career
2008–2009	Belper Town (Reserve Team)
2010–2011	Scunthorpe United (Goalkeeping Coach)
2011–2012	Bradford City (Goalkeeping Coach)
2012-	Millwall (Goalkeeping Coach)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Kevin Paul Pressman (born 6 November 1967) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper from 1987 until 2009, he is currently employed as a goalkeeping coach at Millwall.

As a player Pressman made 588 appearances in English and Northern Irish league football for 5 different clubs over 3 decades, notably playing in the Premier League for Sheffield Wednesday. He also played in the Football League for Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Leicester City, Leeds United, Coventry City, Mansfield Town and Scunthorpe United. He also played in Northern Ireland for Portadown.

Playing career

Sheffield Wednesday

Pressman is best remembered as the long-time goalkeeper of Sheffield Wednesday, where he spent 19 seasons, playing 478 matches in all competitions including the UEFA Cup. Pressman signed his first professional contract for the Owls on his 18th birthday in 1985 and made his debut versus Southampton on 5 September 1987. He had supported Wednesday since childhood. Pressman's career was nearly wrecked on New Year's Day 1990 when he suffered cruciate knee-ligament damage which sidelined him for over eight months. He was unlucky not to play in the 1991 League Cup Final victory against Manchester United, as he had played in every round of the competition that year as well as a significant amount of league matches up until the quarter final stage where he was replaced by more senior goalkeeper and future Wednesday manager Chris Turner. Pressman was on the substitutes bench at three further Wembley finals, all in 1993. The League Cup Final, FA Cup Final and FA Cup Final Replay, all against Arsenal and resulting in defeats in both competitions for Wednesday.

In his prime, Pressman was considered one of the best goalkeepers in the Premiership. He had a tendency to play particularly well in Steel City Derby games. He also became known for both saving and scoring penalties, most notably the winner in a shoot-out against Watford in the FA Cup in 1998. Pressman entered the record books on 13 August 2000 when he was sent off after just 13 seconds in a match against Wolverhampton Wanderers. The dismissal, given for handling outside the area, was the fastest ever in English football history. Sheffield Wednesday went on to draw 1–1, after going a goal down from the free kick concede. It was bettered in late 2008 by David Pratt of Chippenham Town` who was sent off after a mere three seconds into the game. Pressman showed great resilience to fend off many fellow goalkeepers for the number 1 shirt at Hillsborough, outlasting Chris Turner, Chris Woods and Pavel Srníček to name just a few. His last game for the Owls came on the final day of the 2003–04 season at Hillsborough against QPR.

Latter career

In the summer of 2005, Pressman was signed by Mansfield Town, at the time managed by his former Sheffield Wednesday team-mate Carlton Palmer, and was first-choice goalkeeper for the majority of the following season. In addition to Sheffield Wednesday and Mansfield, Pressman has also played for Stoke City (on loan) and Leicester City. After being released by Leicester, he was signed by Leeds United as cover for Neil Sullivan, however he never made an appearance.

Pressman announced his retirement from the game in July 2006 after being released by Mansfield Town although there were some rumours that he would return to Wednesday in a coaching role. He is now a member of Sheffield Wednesday's Masters team and is rightly considered to be a legend at Hillsborough where he was affectionately known as 'Big Kev'. He came out top in a poll to find Sheffield Wednesday's greatest ever keeper on the website Vital Football. At the end of September 2006 Pressman signed a short-term deal with Northern-Irish side Portadown FC, who had a goalkeeping crisis. He impressed Ports fans with his displays between the sticks, despite his age of 39, and helped the club in their rise up the league table.

Despite training in Doncaster during the week and flying to Northern Ireland for matches, Pressman signed a contract extension with Portadown FC in late December 2006 that kept him at the club until the end of the 2006–07 season. At the end of that season Kevin decided to call time on his impressive career after winning Portadown's 'Player of the Season' award.

International career

Pressman was never capped at senior level even though he was called up to the senior squad on numerous occasions, but did play for England at Under-21 level as well as winning three "B" caps between 1994–1998.

Coaching career

Pressman's most high-profile role as a coach was as Assistant Manager to Ian Baraclough at Scunthorpe United, Both men, however, lost their jobs in March 2011 after a string of poor results left The Iron deep in relegation trouble in the Football League Championship. Pressman had originally joined United as Goalkeeping coach under former boss Nigel Adkins and had even featured on the substitutes bench during a goalkeeping crisis at the club.

On 20 August 2011 Bradford City announced that Pressman would be the new Goalkeeping Coach, replacing Tim Dittmer, who – with the club's blessing – left to take up a position at Premier League side Manchester City. On 21 June 2012 Pressman took up the same role at Millwall.

In May 2008 he also became joint manager of Belper Town Reserves.

Personal life

Pressman holds an FA A coaching licence. In May 2007 he was appointed as goalkeeping coach at Championship side Scunthorpe United. Pressman is a big fan of Sheffield Wednesday football club from his youth days and spent 19 years there as a professional. He is the brother of BBC Radio Sheffield presenter Howard Pressman.

Career statistics

• Sourced from The English National Football Archive

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Sheffield Wednesday	1987–88	First Division	11	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	11	0
	1988–89	First Division	9	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	10	0
	1989–90	First Division	15	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	19	0
	1990–91	Second Division	23	0	0	0	6	0	1	0	30	0
	1991–92	First Division	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	1992–93	Premier League	3	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	6	0
	1993–94	Premier League	32	0	4	0	6	0	0	0	42	0
	1994–95	Premier League	34	0	3	0	4	0	0	0	41	0
	1995–96	Premier League	30	0	1	0	4	0	0	0	35	0
	1996–97	Premier League	38	0	4	0	2	0	0	0	44	0
	1997–98	Premier League	36	0	3	0	2	0	0	0	41	0
	1998–99	Premier League	15	0	1	0	2	0	0	0	18	0
	1999–2000	Premier League	19	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	21	0
	2000–01	First Division	39	0	1	0	5	0	0	0	45	0
	2001–02	First Division	40	0	1	0	6	0	0	0	47	0
	2002–03	First Division	38	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	40	0
	2003–04	Second Division	21	0	3	0	0	0	3	0	27	0
	Total		404	0	21	0	46	0	7	0	478	0
Stoke City (loan)	1991–92	Third Division	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	6	0
Leicester City	2004–05	Championship	13	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	15	0
Mansfield Town	2005–06	League Two	41	0	3	0	2	0	0	0	46	0
Career Total			462	0	25	0	49	0	9	0	545	0

A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Full Members Cup, Football League Trophy and UEFA Cup.

External links

• Kevin Pressman career statistics at Soccerbase