Peter Kitchen
born Mexborough, February 16, 1952.
Peter Kitchen was a good, all round forward whose abilities were respected and feared throughout the lower divisions for over a decade, a player who many spectators would have felt had it in him to succeed in the first division. Kitchen remained one of those never offered the chance.
He began his career at lowly Doncaster and it did not take the youngster long to give notice of what he was about. Making his debut as an eighteen year old away at Shrewsbury Town in the third division Kitchen scored inside two minutes to set Rovers on the way to a 3-0 win.
Not to disappoint the home supporters he then repeated the feat in his next game against Swansea City although this game would end in a 2-1 defeat.
Doncaster were struggling against relegation and the exciting Kitchen was quickly sent back to the reserves but he returned later on in the season and again showed his goalscoring ability with another four goals as Rovers briefly rallied, grabbing both goals in a 2-0 win over Bury and one in a fine 2-1 victory over Aston Villa.
Four successive defeats at the end of the season confirmed Doncaster’s relegation to Division Four but it did not take long for the youngster to establish himself as a regular in the struggling side and it was evident from the beginning that Kitchen had something about him.
His ability was sound, good control and awareness among his chief strengths as was his eye for goal, although Kitchen was always more than an out and out goalscorer. Peter Kitchen also possessed genuine flair and a bit of attitude. It seemed likely, from an early age, that he would thrive on the bigger occasions. At Doncaster, however, there were precious few chances to put this theory to the test.
Although Rovers continually struggled in the fourth division, Kitchen was not the only nugget the club unearthed at this time and his partnerships with Mike Elwiss and Brendan O’Callaghan gave the Belle Vue regulars a few seasons of hope and some excitement before each in turn were inevitably sold.
Kitchen’s partnership with Elwiss was particularly exciting. Both men had a maverick touch and when they hit form together they were playing football worthy of a much grander setting than the fourth division.
His partnership with O’Callaghan, a strapping targetman, was far more conventional but perhaps more consistently effective.In 1974 Doncaster made it through to the FA Cup 3rd round and landed a plumb draw away at Liverpool.
On a day when Peter Kitchen and Elwiss both played to the best of their ability Rovers gave the Anfield giants an almighty scare, eventually earning a merited 2-2 draw with Kitchen among the scorers. Although the replay was lost 2-0 there was no disgrace in going out to the eventual winners of the competition.
These performances attracted a lot of attention and it seemed likely that Doncaster’s eye catching forwards would be the subject of interest from the higher divisions.
Elwiss did indeed leave the club shortly afterwards though only for Preston North End, on the verge of relegation from the second division, while Kitchen was left to carry on plying his trade in the fourth division.
The players themselves probably expected more.
Playing alongside O’Callaghan, Peter Kitchen netted 21 league goals the following season and helped Doncaster to the quarter finals of the League Cup the year after that. This provided the club with another high profile fixture after being drawn away at Tottenham.
Doncaster crashed to a 7-2 defeat although the game was in the balance well into the second half with Kitchen actually bringing the scores level at 2-2 after pouncing on a rare error by Pat Jennings.
Interest again surfaced in Peter Kitchen and he was taken to Ipswich Town by Bobby Robson on a four day trial but he could not do enough to convince the future England manager to make a permanent move. It is a shame that Kitchen was not given his chance at this time, especially as Ipswich was the kind of place he would probably have had the best chance of succeeding.
At this smaller, homely club among a talented squad and a team with a constructive, attacking style Kitchen might well have flourished, especially under the guidance of Robson. The best guess as to why neither Ipswich or anyone else in the first division took a chance on Kitchen has to be a crucial lack of pace.
Peter Kitchen was not slow, in and around the box he was extremly sharp, but he was never quick by first division standards. As a footballing centre forward it is difficult to see what else he was missing.
In 1976 Kitchen’s frustration at his lack of progress at Belle Vue led to him handing in a transfer request but still no takers came in for him. His uncertain situation did not affect Kitchen’s performances, however, and he finished the season with 23 league goals, a return which finally saw Orient come in with a £45,000 offer which, given the circumstances, Doncaster felt prepared to accept.
This was hardly a dream move for Peter Kitchen but Orient were a handy Division Two side at the time and his first season with the club turned out to be memorable for them and a personal triumph for him.
Kitchen was ever present in the league and scored 21 goals as Orient finished 14th but it was the FA Cup which provided both player and club with the most satisfaction. Orient made it to the semi finals of the competition, knocking out first division sides Chelsea and Middlesbrough along the way, both after replays.
Of the nine goals the side scored in this run Peter Kitchen provided seven, including both in the 2-1 replay win at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, when Orient returned to the Bridge for their semi final with Arsenal the game was almost embarrassingly one sided and Kitchen had little opportunity to shine in a 3-0 defeat.
The following season, somewhat surprisingly, Kitchen was sold to Fulham for £150,000, a bargain fee at a time when prices were going through the roof.
The move did not work out, however, and Kitchen was plagued by injuries in his second season at Craven Cottage when Fulham suffered relegation to the third division. His unhappy spell at Fulham ended with a £100,000 move to Cardiff City.
Peter Kitchen regained fitness and form at Ninian Park but he had only swapped one struggling second division side for another and after avoiding relegation by the skin of their teeth in his first season with them Cardiff went down at the end of his second.
Leaving the Bluebirds, Kitchen had a short spell in Hong Kong with Happy Valley, a football club not a restaurant, before returning to Orient, now in the third division, in December 1982. Kitchen instantly recaptured his rapport with the fans at Brisbane Road and provided goals and class to a side generally going backwards.
In a stronger side Peter Kitchen might have had a longer shelf life but he left Orient again at the end of the 1984 season and played for Dagenham before making a few final league appearances for Chester.
It was not easy to see why Kitchen’s career fizzled out in this manner though. In one of his last games for Orient he equalled the club record by scoring four goals against Millwall in a 5-3 victory. Frank Clark must have been a difficult man to impress.
Looking back, especially on paper, Peter Kitchen’s career passed fairly uneventfully but his talent was not lost on those who saw him play and many will still no doubt wonder why he was never given the chance to prove himself at the highest level.
Peter Kitchen Career Statistics
CLUB GAMES GOALS
Doncaster Rovers 228 89
Orient 65 28
Fulham 24 6
Cardiff City 67 21
Orient 49 21
Chester City 5 1
TOTAL 438 166