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Random footballer thread



Chris Marples, who for two seasons was a full-timer in both cricket and football in the mid 1980s. Won the old fourth division with Chesterfield whilst also keeping wicket for Derbyshire seconds, and was a regular keeper for the county in 1985/6.

Football won out though as he lost his place in Derbyshire’s team, left Chesterfield in 1987 and went on to have a long spell at York City, also playing for Stockport County and Scunthorpe, briefly, before spells at Emley and Ilkeston in non league. Was always asteady, unflashy keeper.

Now coaching cricket and still lives in Chesterfield. The last player to play both sports professionally, full time. Wouldn’t be possible today.

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Matt Spring was a decent midfielder. Used to buy him on FM pretty often.

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Luke Wilkshire also came on to my radar yesterday. He described playing for third tier Bristol City in midfield as the worst time of his career which is probably fair as he went on to play in Europe with FC Twente, Dynamo Moscow and Feyenoord. He couldn't get into our team in midfield but got picked for Australia and eventually switched to right back. Always enjoyed watching him play and felt he good vision.

He scored a 40 yard screamed Vs Tranmere in the early 2000's when we had some cracking games against them with McAteer in the middle. The ref that day? An infamous Trevor Kettle who if you know him then you know.
 
Quintan forutne man United player

Quinton Fortune popped up today. Despite Man United winning 3 titles during his time there he never played enough games to get a winners medal, but he did eventually get one through a special agreement after he made 9 starts.
 
Jean-Pierre Simb, cult hero at Plainmoor, formerly of cult left-leaning French club Red Star 93 of Paris.

No one seems to know how he ended up in Torquay. I genuinely think that after France won the World Cup in 1998 lots of British clubs were signing any French player that appeared in front of them. He came out of nowhere and off the bench to make his debut as a sub, immediately going on one of the mazy, step-over filled runs that he became famous for. It was love at first sight for the fans. After a few more of these bizarre appearances his step-overs finally paid off and he scored at the end of one, bringing the house down and running along the touchline to high five the fans. Entertaining and engaging as he was, he was a bit of a luxury in League 2 and was released as results started to go against us, returning to France and essentially disappearing again until a few years ago when the globe-shrinking powers of the internet confirmed that he was still living in Paris and working as a football coach.

That Neville Southall wasn't bad either.

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BristolEcho said:
Vaguely remember him. Went to Torquay a few times as I have family down there. Like the club and hope they can get back up to league level.
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Cheers. I fear our league days are over, though, and there's the additional worry for the long-term future of the club given we're owned by a property developer with no interest in football and a history of leaving sports clubs homeless after promising a new stadium which never comes. Hope I'm being unduly pessimistic.
 
[62] said:
Cheers. I fear our league days are over, though, and there's the additional worry for the long-term future of the club given we're owned by a property developer with no interest in football and a history of leaving sports clubs homeless after promising a new stadium which never comes. Hope I'm being unduly pessimistic.
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Yeah had heard about the owners being dodgy. Wasn't sure if it was still them in charge.

What's the thoughts on Johnson there at the moment?
 
BristolEcho said:
What's the thoughts on Johnson there at the moment?
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I think most want him out, myself included. I do appreciate what he's done previously and he hasn't become a terrible manager overnight, but we're really paying the price for some poor summer signings and the preparation was not much better - players injured in the first games, looking overweight etc.

The ownership issue comes into play here, as I'm sure at any comparable club in our division he would have been sacked by now. I think the club don't want to spend money on sacking him and bringing in a new manager and new players. The owner has been subsidising the club to the tune of £5 million so far with no sign of a return on his land investment (which is what it is) as the council refuse to hand over the ground. No idea what his game is. He's in Bristol and never speaks or visits. My theory is that having tried winning people over with promotion (we were two terrible refereeing decisions away from a return to the league), he's now going to slowly run the club into the ground to force the issue instead. Just a theory. Nobody really has a fucking clue what's going on.
 
Yeah that's really shit! A shame for Gary as probably his last job in management so I sort of hope he turns it around again.

Really shit about the owners I had assumed that when you returned from the CS that there were new people in charge. Hopefully they will cut their losses and sell up at some point. Must be hard watching Exeter and Plymouth flying.
 
BristolEcho said:
Must be hard watching Exeter and Plymouth flying.
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Probably for many Gulls fans, but not me.

I've lived in Exeter most of my life. My daughter supports them and I've got a lot of admiration for their whole set-up, which would sadly never happen in apathetic-bordering-on-reactionary Torquay (hence why I left 37 years ago).

Argyle were an old Division 2 club when I was growing up and we never played them. I have some objections regarding their 'big club' fickle fans (I know loads who jump on and off the bandwagon depending on how well they're doing) and the right-wing meathead element, but otherwise don't give them much thought.

I've tried giving up and not caring about United - loads of my mates and family seem to have managed it - but I just can't. It's one constant in my life and I just can't walk away.
 
One of a very select band of footballers who knows who Tortoise are. Mixed feelings about this fella, as he put three past us in the days when we still played Argyle, but in a programme for another game against the Gulls he listed Godspeed You! Black Emperor as his favourite current band, and for that I could forgive anything. Argyle at that time had a little clique of indie/alternative music types, including Martin Gritton (who later joined us) and John Beswetherick. McGregor went on to be involved in various bands after football.

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imposs1904 said:
Gerry Gow is only 27 or 28 in this pic. That fact haunts me.


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He must have been 30 when he went to Man City. His debut was thing of joy. Only lasted 45 minutes but that was entirely spent running after Bryan Robson and causing as much bodily harm as possible. Achieved cult status is les than an hour of being at the club :)
Two other debutants that day - Bobby McDonald (great left back) and Tommy Hutchison!
 
steeplejack said:
Norris was absolutely lethal that season, so much so that he even had this feature on his exploits on Saint & Greavsie. Now "runs a ceiling cleaning business in Chesterfield" :confused:
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The last time I saw Jeff Johnson he was living just outside Chesterfield in Dronfield (?) While playing for wednesday
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