Mel Blyth
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Melvin Bernard Blyth | ||
| Date of birth | 28 July 1944 | ||
| Place of birth | Norwich, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Playing position | Centre back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Norwich City | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1967–1968 | Scunthorpe United | 27 | (3) |
| 1968–1974 | Crystal Palace | 216 | (9) |
| 1974–1978 | Southampton | 105 | (6) |
| 1977–1978 | → Crystal Palace (loan) | 6 | (0) |
| 1978 | Cape Town City | ||
| 1978 | Margate | ||
| 1978–1981 | Millwall | 75 | (0) |
| 1980 | Houston Hurricane (summer) | ||
| 1981 | Bulova SA | ||
| 1982 | Andover | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Melvin Bernard Blyth (born 28 July 1944) is an English former footballer who played for several clubs, including Southampton with whom he won the FA Cup in 1976, and Crystal Palace.
Blyth started his football career with non-league Great Yarmouth. He then joined Norwich City, although he never made an appearance in the first team.
In October 1967, former Norwich manager, Ron Ashman, took up the reins at Scunthorpe United, then struggling at the foot of Division 3. He returned to his old club to sign several players, including Steve Deere, Geoff Barnard and Blyth to shore up the holes in the defence.
Scunthorpe were relegated at the end of the 1967–68 season and in July 1968, Blyth moved on to Crystal Palace.
Blyth joined Crystal Palace in the summer of 1968 as an old-style wing-half, but he developed into a centre-back. He immediately became a regular member of Palace's 1968–69 Division 2 promotion side, and in their first ever match in Division 1, he scored Palace's first goal in the top flight with a looping header against Manchester United. He scored another goal the following Saturday, against Everton.
As Palace struggled in Division 1, regularly finishing just above the relegation zone, Blyth became a permanent fixture in the defence alongside John McCormick. He was deposed as centre back for a while by Roger Hynd. But after playing in midfield for much of the 1969–70 season he won his place back when Hynd was temporarily switched to the forward line. The contrasting styles of Blyth and McCormick made for a good mix, and the two of them stayed together until McCormick moved to Wealdstone in 1973.
On 2 September 1972, Blyth made a tackle on Newcastle United's Tony Green which ultimately ended his career, although Green later said that he felt any contact was accidental.
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