Dean Brill

Dean Brill (born December 2 1985 in Luton, Bedfordshire) is an England professional Association football currently playing as a Goalkeeper (association football) for Luton Town F.C..

Career

Luton Town

Brill joined his hometown club at the age of nine and has progressed through the Centre of Excellence, representing Luton Schools and Bedfordshire County Schools at a variety of age groups. He kept a clean sheet on his Under-19 debut as a 15-year-old in April 2001 and his impressive displays alerted the attention of several bigger clubs, including Liverpool F.C., but Luton fought off the competition to secure his signature.

Although he did not make an appearance in the first-team during the 2002–03 season, Brill did find himself on the substitutes bench on a number of occasions, although Rob Beckwith pipped him at the end of the campaign for the goalkeeping spot. However, with Brill, Beckwith, Dino Seremet and Zac Barrett as young goalkeepers at the club at the time, the future looked very bright for the club on the goalkeeping front.

Beginning the 2003–04 season as understudy to Beckwith, Brill made his League debut when coming on as a substitute in a 0–3 loss at Oldham Athletic A.F.C. in September 2003 after Beckwith had been sent off.

His full League debut came some three weeks later in a 3–1 home win over eventually-relegated Wycombe Wanderers F.C. and he retained his place for the following two matches, a 1–0 win at Stevenage Borough F.C. in the LDV Vans Trophy and a 2–4 loss in the League at Brentford F.C..

Brill continued his development during the 2004–05 season as he found himself in strong competition for a goalkeeping berth. He failed to make a first-team appearance during the course of the campaign, but he did enjoy a number of appearances for the reserve side during the season.

With regular goalkeeper Marlon Beresford unavailable, Brill started the 2005–06 season as the number one goalkeeper and gave an excellent account of himself for such a young goalkeeper as Luton Town stunned former Premier League outfit Crystal Palace F.C. with a 2–1 victory at Selhurst Park on the opening day of the season.

Highly-rated by manager Mike Newell and goalkeeping coaches Dmitri Kharine and Marlon Beresford, Brill gave Beresford strong competition to be the number one goalkeeper during the 2006–07 season. His first starting appearance of the campaign came in a 2–3 home loss to Queens Park Rangers F.C. in November 2006 where he deputised for the suspended Beresford. However, following the loan signing of Portsmouth F.C.'s Dean Kiely, Brill was pushed down to third-choice goalkeeper and in December 2006, he was loaned to League One side Gillingham F.C., where he made 8 appearances during his month's stay at Priestfield Stadium.

Brill had a very good season for Luton during the 2007–08 campaign, a season that promised so much at the start but quickly faded and ended in relegation. Starting the season between the sticks and appearing in the opening three matches, Brill seemed to be one of the players inherited by manager Kevin Blackwell that the Hatters boss was not sure of and this was reiterated when Blackwell decided to sign two goalkeepers on loan during the first three months of the season, signing Cardiff City F.C.'s David Forde and then Tottenham Hotspur F.C.'s Ben Alnwick on loan. This pushed Brill into the reserves.

With Luton going into administration in November 2007, Blackwell was unable to sign a new goalkeeper on loan anyway, so Brill was thrown straight back in at the deep end, and from that point onwards, he never looked back. He went on to make 47 appearances in all competitions for Luton during the season, a campaign that culminated in the Hatters finishing bottom of the League One table.