Ken Todd

Kenneth Todd was an English footballer whose brief Football League career took him from Wolverhampton Wanderers to Port Vale and Portsmouth, before a long second act in Southern League football and local coaching on the Hampshire coast.

Born in Butterknowle, County Durham, on 24 August 1957, Todd was spotted as a schoolboy by Wolves scout Joe Mycock and joined the club as an apprentice on his 15th birthday in 1972, turning down interest from Middlesbrough and Birmingham City. He was part of the Wolves side beaten by West Bromwich Albion in the 1976 FA Youth Cup final, and broke into Sammy Chung's first team later that year.

His senior debut came on 6 November 1976 in a 3-1 win over Millwall at Molineux. Across five league appearances he scored once, against Hereford United, as Wolves won the Second Division title in 1976-77. He also came on as a substitute and scored in the club's centenary match against Manchester City in May 1977, the only Wolves player to find the net that night. One further First Division outing followed in 1977-78 before Port Vale paid a then club-record £37,000 for him in August 1978.

At Vale Park he scored eight league goals in 1978-79 but never fully settled under the weight of the fee, and supporters sometimes singled him out. Sold to Portsmouth for £20,000 in October 1979, he scored once in three Fourth Division games under Frank Burrows, then moved into the Southern League with Fareham Town, where he made over a hundred appearances, and later Waterlooville, where he enjoyed a prolific spell including a 50-goal season. He finished his playing days as player-manager at Havant and later returned to Portsmouth as youth-team manager, a role that still surprised him years later given an earlier falling-out with Burrows.

Todd married Suzanne and had a daughter. In later life he spoke warmly about Hampshire coaching years and about returning to the North East with his family. He died on 7 September 2026, aged 69. Wolverhampton Wanderers, Havant & Waterlooville and former Portsmouth players paid tribute to a midfielder remembered for hard work, a strong youth-team pedigree, and that rare centenary-match goal in gold and black.