' PHIL STANT LEGEND ON THE PITCH & OF THE PITCH '

In search of Phil Stant, the Cardiff City icon and Falklands War hero who'd rather not talk about it
In 1993, Eddie May's Cardiff City team won promotion to Division Two. We have set about finding the men who became icons


Thursday 23rd April 2020




Phil Stant was a revered goalscorer in the lower leagues when Eddie May plucked him from Mansfield Town in December 1992. He would prove to be the missing piece in the puzzle.

But there was no doubt Stant was a curious, eccentric character, but we can afford him latitude for his idiosyncrasies.

To understand the man of today, we must first understand the man, the bona fide war hero, of 40 years ago. The teenager who witnessed one of the most harrowing days of the entire Falklands conflict, the Bluff Cove bombings on June 8, 1982.

It was a day when Argentine jets perpetrated the single deadliest attack on British servicemen of the Falklands War. Both ships, RFA Sir Tristram and RFA Sir Galahad, were bombed and 56 servicemen lost their lives with a further 150 injured.






Earlier in the day, Stant was aboard Tristram before being ordered off to man a nearby trench in Port Pleasant.


"I was p****d off because I had to share a trench with a guy I thought was really stuck up," he told The Times in 2006.

"The next day a 1,000lb bomb struck the arse-end of Sir Tristram, which is where I'd been. Everyone was killed. I will never forget watching Galahad and Tristram under attack."

The manner in which Stant speaks about the atrocities of that day serves to put it all into context for those of us who are incredibly fortunate not to have experienced the horrors of war.

"War is a horrible, dirty, nasty business," he added.

"You're freezing cold, living in a hole in the ground, turning into a zombie. I remember one guy walking around in a daze, covered in someone else's skin. The stench. There are no winners. It's always 1-1 going into extra time."

A deeper dig into Stant's military past perhaps unearths the very stark reason as to why he seemed a little different to his Bluebirds contemporaries in 1992.

That is not to say he wasn't an integral part of that wonderful, close-knit class of 92, far from it, in fact, but everyone I have spoken to at least nods to the fact there was something a little anomalous about his demeanour.

"When you go to war you never come back the same person," Stant told The Independent in 2012.

"People talk about PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], which was identified after the Falklands but it has been there since time began."

Stant, at that time of war, was still very young and green-gilled. He readily admitted that when he was 18, still wet behind the ears but preparing for his first deployment on QEII, he thought the Falklands were a group of islands just off the Scottish coast.

Just months later, having seen the devastation unfold right before his eyes, he very much knew the real and grave danger he was in.

"When you're seeing people with limbs off and skin melting, people screaming, it's something that you never forget," he added.

"That's when it wasn't an adventure any more. That was the day I grew up."

PA file photo dated 08/06/1982 of RFA Sir Galahad survivors coming ashore in life rafts at San Carlos Bay after an air attack on the supply ship, which blazes in the background. PRESS ASSOCIATION photo. Issue date: Sunday March 25, 2007. The 25th anniversary of the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentina will take place on April 2, 2007. See PA Story WAR Falklands. Photo Credit should read: Martin Cleaver/PA Wire
RFA Sir Galahad survivors coming ashore in life rafts after the Bluff Cove air attacks in June 1982
Stant's words make the hairs on your neck stand up like a soldier standing to attention. They are stories to make the lay man wince, but to him they are not stories, they are the stark and cold realities of war.

He stayed on the Islands for another month before heading home in the July. He has admitted he was never the same man.

But football was his release and what a player he was.

He was finally bought out of the army in 1986 for £600 by Hereford, where he got his break in the Football League.

Hereford, for whom Stant had scored 38 goals in 89 games, made a small fortune by selling him on to Notts County for £175,000 in 1989.

It was there where he worked with legendary Bluebirds coach Neil Warnock, having turned down Harry Redknapp at Bournemouth, but the headstrong pair, somewhat predictably, never really saw eye to eye.

After a series of loan spells and a brief stint at Fulham, it was Stant's move to Mansfield Town which saw him blossom into a revered goalscorer in the lower divisions.

He finished Mansfield's top goalscorer in the 1991/92 season, with 26 goals, to help them achieve promotion from the Fourth Division. But, just a few months later, he dropped back down a division when he sealed a £100,000 move to Ninian Park.

Stant's primary concerns for the move initially were that his kids were settled in school in Mansfield and his wife, Carole, had secured a part-time job.

So May allowed Stant to train at home on Tuesdays, so, with Wednesdays off, he would be in Cardiff only Monday, Thursday and Friday, thus adding to his seemingly aloof mystique.

City were 10th in the league when Stant signed in December 1992, but the striker's City career went off like a train, scoring in his opening two matches, both against Hereford, one in the Freight River Trophy and the other in the league.

The first time he felt the wrath of Eddie May, however, was when City relinquished a 3-0 lead to draw a game against York.

"He went ballistic," Stant writes in his autobiography. "He would go purple, with veins sticking out of his neck and when he shouted he would spit."

They were the Cardiff City team that defined a generation. A group of players who sparked something within the Bluebirds fanbase few others have been able to replicate since.

In 1993, Eddie May's side delivered promotion for his barmy army at the end of a season those who were there will never forget.

This was the team of Dale, Stant, Blake, Searle, Pike and the rest. It was the year of that glorious, iconic kit.

Over the coming weeks, WalesOnline will be tracking down the men who became heroes 27 years ago to hear their stories of yesteryear and discover what became of them.

You can read about Carl Dale, the cult striker who became an electrician here.

Here, we tracked down Derek Brazil, the Man United kid who became a Bluebirds hero.

Chris Pike spoke about his days as a Bluebirds goalscoring machine and the moment he knew his 11-year-old nephew, Gareth Bale, was going to be special.

Luckily, for Stant, his own City career was rollicking along and he was in little danger of an Eddie May dressing down, apart from perhaps on one occasion.

Derek Brazil giggles when he recalls one infamous Stant-May coming together.

"We played at home and Stanty could substituted with 15 minutes to go at 1-1. Stanty thought he could score the winner, but he got substituted," Brazil says.

"He took his shirt off and threw it at Harry Parsons, the kit man! Eddie snarled but continued to concentrate on the game.

"We won the game, scoring late on, all the boys are buzzing.

"Eddie comes in and tells us all how great it was, 'Amazing boys, you kept going until the end, absolutely brilliant!'

"He went around and shook everyone's hand. Harry Parsons sticks his head around the door and says, 'Oh, by the way, Stanty, here's your shirt!'

"Eddie realised and went absolutely ballistic on Stanty! He'd forgotten in the whole euphoria.

"But alarm bells went ringing and Eddie and Stanty went toe to toe... I wouldn't have fancied Stanty's chances if I'm honest!

But the fans had taken to him like one of their sons and the soldier-turned-striker has written about the time his famous 'Stantona' nickname was born.

"After scoring the winning goal away at Northampton, the Cardiff fans swamped the pitch as usual," he wrote.

"I noticed the Northampton goalkeeper, Barry Richardson, being slapped in the face by a Cardiff fan. I just burst out laughing. I loved being part of this.

"When they went back behind the goal, they started chanting: 'Who needs Cantona when we've got Stantona. Who needs Cantona when we've got Stantona.'

"I looked at Blakey and we just p****d ourselves laughing. The name stuck. I was called Stantona by the Cardiff faithful from that moment on."

'Stantona', along with Kevin Ratcliffe who also signed that winter, was the chief catalyst behind much of City's unstoppable late-season form, during which time they won 15 of their last 19 games.

Despite arriving at Christmas in 1992, Stant went on to become City's top scorer in all competitions that season with 18 goals.

"If you're going to get promotion you needed a goalscorer and he loved scoring goals," Ratcliffe said of Stant. "He celebrated in training just as much as he would on a match day!"

Stant's insatiable appetite for goals helped to cement his place in Cardiff City history.

He remembers the penultimate game of that 92/93 season, the match at Ninian Park against Shrewsbury, and the bedlam which ensued following the match.

The players battled their way through the swathes of elated City fans, who were buoyed in the knowledge that the 2-1 win over the Shrews had sealed promotion, and Stant recalls the fallout from that game in the dressing room afterwards.

"'Oh f***', I said as I saw the ref standing near the tunnel and putting the whistle to his mouth," he wrote in his book.

"At that moment, the crowd started to run on to the pitch. I was relieved when I actually made it back into the dressing room.

"Harry Parsons, our kit man, said: 'Stanty, where's your shirt and shorts?'

"'Sorry H, I don't know,' I replied.

"'Well go and f*****g get them back.'

"'You f*****g go and get them,' I retorted.

"'F*** that,' he said and we both burst out laughing."

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It is perhaps a week later, ahead of the Welsh Cup final against Rhyl, which gives the greatest insight into the very ugly nature of fallout between the players and chairman Rick Wright.

Wright had promised hefty bonuses to players if they won the league and while Stant was entitled to only £2,000, as he had joined halfway through the season, most of the players were promised far more.

But, as Stant says, £2,000 was a lot of money at that time and he had no qualms about challenging the chairman, who appeared to be reneging on the deal. Ahead of the Welsh Cup final, Stant was faced with a cruel ultimatum.

"As we had the pre-match meal in the hotel before the game, Eddie came over to have a private word with me," he wrote. "He pulled me to one side and said: 'Phil, the chairman has said to me that I can't play you unless you drop your claim for your bonus.'

"'You're f*****g kidding, gaffer,' I replied, astonished. 'How f*****g low can this get?,' I thought.

"'But I want to play, Eddie,' I argued back. After all, I came to the club when they were 10th in the league and my goals, nearly 20 of them, had helped them to win the league and reach the Cup final.

"Once again I felt sorry for Eddie. It must have been an awful situation for him to tell his top scorer that he couldn't play in the Cup final.

"Eddie went on: 'The chairman says that if you do play then you have accepted his ultimatum.'

"'This is f*****g bollocks,' I said. I was being blackmailed. Perhaps life in the army and professional football weren't that different after all. As we made our way to the stadium, I still hadn't given Eddie my answer."

Stant walked off the bus, through the changing rooms and out to the centre circle as fans began to filter into the National Stadium.

May approached him once again and asked him for his decision. Stant's reply: "The only reason I won't play today is if you don't pick me."

He played, of course, and, as every City fan knows, he hammered a hat-trick in that 5-0 drubbing of Rhyl to secure the double for Cardiff.


By the time he left the club in 1995, Stant averaged a goal every other game, having netted 34 times in 79 matches for the Bluebirds.

Lethal with his headers and deadly in the one-on-ones, his goals were often celebrated with a Shearer-esque arm raise as the Grange End erupted with hysteria.

But it was bitter in the end. "How I hated Rick Wright at that time," he writes in his memoirs.

He left for Bury in 1995, he later went into management with short stints at Lincoln City, Gainsborough Trinity and Ilkestown Town, but the verve with which he writes about his time at Ninian Park has me desperate to track him down and hear it all first hand.

But, to all intents and purposes, he appeared to have slipped off the grid entirely. It was like he didn't want to be found at all.

"Good luck with that," Carl Dale chuckled when I asked him if he had any contact information for his former strike partner.

"Stanty kept himself to himself.

"He stayed down in Cardiff in a caravan for a while! A bit of a different character."

It was a blow in my search for him, given how iconic the Dale-Stant partnership became in that Eddie May team of the 1990s.

Perhaps Jason Perry, the skipper of that Division Three-winning side, would have a lead?

"Stanty is impossible," Perry says.

A less-than-encouraging start.

"Last time I was with Stanty was at Lincoln (in 1998). He was player-manager and I signed for Lincoln.

"He's cut himself away from Wales. Loads of people have tried."

I track down a contact number for the club at which he last managed in 2005, Ilkeston Town, but there is no reply.

I have it confirmed he is working as an FA youth development monitor, still in the game which gave him so much after his time in the military.

Then a breakthrough. A colleague manages to track down someone who had been touch with him a couple of years ago and has a phone number. The once-superstar striker who had fallen off the grid was now suddenly obtainable.


I send Stant a message to tell him I'm tracking down the members of this iconic squad for a series of interviews which will re-tell the stories of that time and allow Bluebirds fans to re-live their memories through them.

I tell him how much they would like to hear from a player who made so many fall in love with the club and whose iconic "Ooh-Aah, Stantona" chant is still occasionally heard in the zooped up, new stands of Cardiff City Stadium 25 years on.

But one day passes and there is no reply. Two, three go by. Further attempts prove fruitless.

But then my phone lights up to tell me he has responded. Unfortunately, it's not good news.

"Hi Glen, I hope you are well," it starts. "Sorry, but I've been very busy.

"I stopped doing interviews a long time ago. So, sorry, not for me, thanks.

"However, I wish you well with your series. Regards, Phil."

Every player I'd spoken to so far had been so happy to re-tell those stories, to drag up the past and regale us with the happier times and even the less fortunate times.

But, although the response is disappointing, it is also decent and classy.

After all this time, after all these years and the wonderful memories he brought so many screaming Bluebirds supporters throughout those iconic '90s days, this war hero, the man who witnessed things no one should, is entitled to his peace and quiet.

We will have to just let those memories of Phil Stant hammering home another goal for Cardiff City speak for themselves.

For those who loved the player and this iconic team, they undoubtedly always will.

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“Who needs Cantona when we’ve got Stantona?!” Very happy memories of that era