Chester
FC are sorry to hear of the death of former player Eddie
Loyden who has died at the age of 79. A tall, rangy
centre forward Eddie had two spells with the club during
the late sixties and early seventies and had an impressive
goal scoring record of 48 goals in 99 Football League
appearances.
Born in Liverpool Eddie started his
career as a junior at Blackpool and made his debut,
in 1965, in a Division One fixture against Liverpool.
After a season at Carlisle Eddie was snapped up by Peter
Hauser, on a free transfer, in July 1967 making a dream
debut with two headed goals in a 2-1 victory at Notts
County. He went on to score 22 goals in 37 games that
season, including four in a 6-0 win over Lincoln City,
and comfortably finished leading scorer for a struggling
team that had to apply for re-election. At the end of
the campaign Ken Roberts, looking to raise funds to
rebuild the team, made the pragmatic decision to sell
Eddie to Shrewsbury Town for a club record fee of £13,000.
After only six months Eddie was on
the move again when Barnsley signed him for £10,000
but he returned to Sealand Road in November 1970 in
unusual circumstances as Ken Roberts looked for a tall
goal grabber to play alongside Alan Tarbuck and Derek
Draper. Although an agreement had been reached for Eddie
to move to Chester the Yorkshire side selected him to
play against a full strength Sheffield United team in
the Yorkshire Senior Cup. Eddie promptly put the cat
among the pigeons by scoring an eight minute hat-trick
to overturn a 2-0 half time deficit and give Barnsley
second thoughts. Nevertheless Chester insisted a gentleman’s
agreement had been in place and handed over £7,000
to the reluctant Yorkshiremen.
The move proved successful as the
big man formed an effective partnership with Tarbuck
and managed 15 goals in 28 games as Chester finished
just outside the promotion places. Unfortunately a missed
penalty by Eddie, in a crucial Easter fixture against
York City, proved decisive and although the game finished
1-1 Chester missed out on a top four spot by a single
point.
The 1971/72 season saw Eddie once
again finish as leading scorer with 11 goals but, as
a whole, the team struggled to find the back of the
net and after the start of February appearances were
limited as Ken Roberts sought to find the answer to
the goalscoring dilemma. In June 1972 Eddie signed for
Tranmere Rovers for £4,000 and will be remembered
at Prenton Park for scoring the only goal in a famous
League Cup victory over Arsenal at Highbury. After two
years at Tranmere Eddie moved to South Africa to play
for Highlands Park and then on to Hong Kong before retiring
in 1978.
In later life Eddie resided
in his home town city but suffered from Alzheimer’s
disease. The club send out their condolences to his
family and friends.
Chas
Sumner [28/6/25]
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