Andrew Gerald Dibble (born 8 May 1965) is a Welsh

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former professional player. As a player, he was as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

from 1982 to 2006. During his career he played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

and in the

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Th ...

for

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

. He also played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

, Luton Town, Huddersfield Town,

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

, Sheffield United,

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

, Stockport County and

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

. He also played in the Welsh Premier League for

Barry Town Barry Town United Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl Droed Tref Y Barri) is a semi-professional association football team based in Barry, Wales. They are known for representing Wales in Europe as winners of the Cymru Premier and Welsh Cup during ...

, and in non-league football with

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

and Accrington Stanley. A journeyman, Dibble won three caps for the

Wales national football team ) , Association = Football Association of Wales (FAW) , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , Coach = Rob Page , Captain = Gareth Bale , Most caps = Gareth Bale (111) , Top scorer = Gareth ...

. After retiring, Dibble moved into coaching and has previously worked on the coaching staff at Accrington Stanley,

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

, Peterborough United, Rotherham United and

Club career

Early career

Dibble began his career at

, joining as an apprentice in June 1981 and turning professional in August 1982. He made his first team debut on his 17th birthday in a 1–0 defeat to Crystal Palace. The following season, he established himself as the club's first choice goalkeeper helping the side to promotion and the next year he missed just one league match. His performances at the club alerted a number of clubs and he moved to Luton Town for £125,000 in July 1984. During his time there he twice went out on loan, firstly to

in 1986 and then to Huddersfield Town in 1987. Arguably the finest moment of his career was saving a

Nigel Winterburn Nigel Winterburn (born 11 December 1963) is an English former professional footballer, coach and current television personality for BT Sport. He played primarily as a left back from 1981 to 2003. He is best known for his role alongside the like ...

penalty in the 1988 League Cup Final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, as Luton beat

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

3–2 to win their first major trophy. Luton were 2–1 down with only ten minutes of the game left when Dibble, standing in for the injured

Les Sealey Leslie Jesse Sealey (29 September 1957 – 19 August 2001) was an English professional footballer and coach. He played as a goalkeeper, most notably in the top flight for Coventry City, Manchester United, Aston Villa, and West Ham United. ...

, made the save, as well as a string of other saves to keep Luton in the game, allowing them to score two late goals and win the match 3-2.

Manchester City

He moved on to

in July 1988 for a £240,000 fee (''2009: £''). His time at City was interrupted by injuries, and despite being virtually ever-present during his first two seasons, subsequently found himself second choice behind Tony Coton and arguably even third choice when youngster

Martyn Margetson Martyn Walter Margetson (born 8 September 1971) is a Welsh football coach and former professional footballer who is a goalkeeping coach for the England national team and Swansea City. A youth player at Manchester City, where he went on to appea ...

broke through onto the senior scene. Dibble was loaned out to several teams (namely

and Sheffield United), and only very rarely played first team football for the Manchester team after his first two seasons. In his time at Manchester City, Dibble was on the receiving end in a notorious incident in a game against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

in March 1990 when Gary Crosby headed the ball out of Dibble's hand before putting it into the City goal. The goal stood and Forest won the game 1-0.

Later career

He moved to Rangers F.C. on a free transfer in March 1997. He had a baptism of fire in a tempestuous and crucial old firm derby, standing in for the injured

Andy Goram Andrew Lewis Goram (13 April 1964 – 2 July 2022) was a Scottish footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Bury, Lancashire, England, he started his career with Oldham Athletic and Hibernian, but he is best remembered for playing for Ra ...

. He kept a clean sheet in the 1–0 victory which helped seal Rangers’ ninth consecutive title. After a trial at Middlesbrough in July 1997 he moved back to former club Luton Town on a free transfer, before re-joining Middlesbrough in January 1998, again for no fee, however it was a disastrous move for Dibble as he let in nine goals in just two games, four in a 4–0 defeat to

and another five in a 5–0 loss to QPR. In July 1998 Dibble signed for

, before a brief spell at

League of Wales The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 200 ...

side

. In December 1998, whilst playing for Barry against

Carmarthen Town Carmarthen Town Association Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Tref Caerfyrddin) is a Welsh semi-professional football club based in Carmarthen. The team play their home games at Richmond Park. The club colours, reflected in their crest and kit ...

, he was hospitalised after suffering chemical burns as a result of diving on the Richmond Park pitch markings. Scarred for life, he received £20,000 in damages. In March 1999 he signed for

, who loaned him to

in October of the same year. He joined Stockport County in August 2000, enjoying a successful spell there and being named man of the match in many of the games he played. Dibble signed for

in May 2002, and despite suffering injury problems in his time in North Wales, he was a major part in Wrexham gaining promotion back to Division Two at the first time of asking in 2002–03. In March 2004 he broke his arm in a 6–1 defeat at Peterborough and missed the remainder of the season, while in September of the following season he was out for three months after severing tendons in his finger. He suffered a further injury later in the season when a torn thigh muscle ruled him out for the rest of the campaign. Dibble was released by Wrexham in May 2005.

Coaching career

He finished his career at Accrington Stanley (whom he joined in 2005) and became their goalkeeping coach. In November 2006 he moved to

to take up the same role. However, he lasted only three months in this position at Coventry, he left the club, along with Adrian Heath, prior to the announcement that Iain Dowie would be the club's new manager following the dismissal of Micky Adams. On 9 March 2007 he was appointed as goalkeeping coach at League One side Peterborough United. In October 2009 he left Peterborough by mutual consent to take up the goalkeeping coach position at Rotherham United. After a two-year stint at Peterborough, Dibble joined

Ronnie Moore Ronald David Moore (born 29 January 1953) is an English football manager and former player. He has taken charge of several clubs including Rotherham United, Tranmere Rovers and Hartlepool United. He played for many different clubs in a care ...

's coaching staff at Rotherham United. In October 2016, Dibble was appointed joint caretaker manager at Rotherham. On 12 January 2017, he left Rotherham United and joined

as goalkeeping coach.
Dibble left Cardiff in May 2022.

Personal life

Dibble is the father of professional footballer Christian Dibble, also a goalkeeper who plays for

Honours

Luton Town *

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

: 1987–88 Rangers *

: 1996–97 Wrexham * FAW Premier Cup: 2002–03, 2003–04 Individual * Football League Cup Final Man of the Match:

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dibble, Andy 1965 births Living people Welsh footballers Wales international footballers Association football goalkeepers English Football League players Premier League players Cardiff City F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Aberdeen F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Barry Town United F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Footballers from Cwmbran Accrington Stanley F.C. non-playing staff Coventry City F.C. non-playing staff Peterborough United F.C. non-playing staff Rotherham United F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Football League players Cardiff City F.C. non-playing staff Association football goalkeeping coaches