| For all his domestic honours and happy habit - especially for a defender - of scoring on big-game occasions, there was next to nothing Alan Kennedy could seemingly do to become England's first choice left back. The industrious Liverpool defender, along with Derek Statham, was one of the perennial nearly-men of the No.3 shirt who watched enviously as Arsenal's Kenny Sansom kept one of the tightest-ever grips on an England position through Kennedy's own peak period as a player. Never selected by Ron Greenwood, two appearances eventually came his way during the final Home International championship in 1984 - a 1-0 win over Northern Ireland at Wembley (the photo above is during the game) and a gloomy reversal by the same score at Wrexham against Wales. Later the same month, Kennedy would score the clinching penalty in a shoot-out against Roma to win Liverpool their fourth European Cup, but even that - along with goals in two League Cup finals and another European Cup final - wouldn't be enough, along with his obvious capabilities as a full back, to sway Bobby Robson's thinking. Sansom started - astonishingly - the next 37 England games, during which period Kennedy's high-profile career was brought to an end. (Matthew Rudd) |