Who remembers Alan Kimble?

There are not many twins who have played alongside each other in the same team. However two recent football stories peaked my interest in this unusual phenomenon.

Firstly Blackburn signed Marcus Olsson on deadline day and he joined his twin brother, Martin, at Ewood Park. Sir Alex already has the exciting and identical Brazilian full backs Rafael and Fabio da Silva at Old Trafford. Going back sometime I remember Ron and Paul Futcher at Luton Town and a little more recently Rod and Ray Wallace at Southampton as well as David and Dean Holdsworth at Watford. Both incidentially are now managers at Lincoln City and Aldershot respectively.

The best ever twins were Dutch. Who remembers Willy and Rene Van der Kerkhof, part of the golden 70’s Dutch team? Or Ronald and Frank de Boer who played together at both Barcelona and Glasgow Rangers.

Anyway, why am I telling you this? Well because of the photo I saw in my Mum & Dad’s local rag of a curly haired chap called Alan Kimble (photo).

Alan is the new assistant to ex-Grimsby and Southampton player Tommy Widdrington at Eastbourne Borough, who sacked long-time manager Garry Wilson before the cold weather snap. Finally Kimble and Widdrington will take Boro for the first time away at Boreham Wood tomorrow in the Conference South where they lie 5th from bottom.

Alan Kimble played just 6 games for Charlton in the mid-80’s alongside his identical brother Garry, who played a few more and also scored and I even managed to dig out an old photo of them both.

I think it’s fair to say Alan had the better career (500+ games) mostly for Cambridge United and at the pinnacle of his 20-year career he, for many seasons, was the first choice left back as part of Wimbledon’s crazy gang in the Premier League. Alan was assistant to Widdrington at Hemel Hempstead Town before moving to Sussex on the Sea.

The Kimble brothers also played together at Exeter and Cambridge moving round as a package deal in the late 80’s before they went there own way. Garry played a couple of games for Fulham and then Gillingham and Peterborough, where his claim to fame was scoring the winning goal for Posh in a 1–0 League Cup win over Liverpool in December 1991. He ended his playing career with Dagenham & Redbridge just after Redbridge Forest and Dagenham merged.

Garry Kimble is the manager of Witham Town.