Full name Graham Mark Benstead 1981–1985 Queens Park Rangers Position Goalkeeper Years Team Height 1.88 m | Playing position Role Footballer Name Graham Benstead | |
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Date of birth (1963-08-20) 20 August 1963 (age 52) | ||
Place of birth Aldershot, England | ||
Q&A with Gary Roberts, Francis Joseph, Billy Manuel & Graham Benstead
Graham Mark Benstead (born 20 August 1963 in Aldershot, Hampshire) is a former professional footballer. He was a goalkeeper who played professionally for Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City, Colchester United, Sheffield United and Brentford before moving into non-league football.
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Career
Benstead began his career with Wimbledon before Terry Venables signed him for Queens Park Rangers. He made one first team appearance for QPR, away at West Bromwich Albion in the 3rd round of the F.A. Cup in January 1983. At QPR he also won an England Youth Cap before moving to Norwich City in 1985. His chance for first team action finally came at the start of the 1986–87 season, when Norwich's England goalkeeper Chris Woods moved to Rangers for £600,000. Benstead was first choice goalkeeper as the season started, but the arrival of Bryan Gunn in October 1986 relegated him to second choice again. Gunn had been due to sign at the start of the season, but an injury to Aberdeen's own regular keeper – Jim Leighton – meant that Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson delayed the transfer.
Benstead was unable to reclaim the number one jersey from Gunn, and joined Sheffield United in the summer of 1988 having had loan spells with United and Colchester during the 1987–88 season. Benstead had made 19 appearances for Norwich. He played 47 times for Sheffield Utd and then 133 times for Brentford before playing for non-league Kettering Town, Rushden and Diamonds, Kingstonian, Basingstoke Town, Chertsey Town, Farnborough Town and Stevenage Borough. He played for the England semi-professional team while at Rushden & Diamonds. He was appointed assistant manager at Stevenage Borough in May 2004, but left the post in October of the same year.