David Cross (born 8 December 1950) is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a striker. He scored 223 goals in 599 appearances 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 ...

and the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

. Cross was born in Heywood, Lancashire.

Football career

Cross played for Third Division club

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

, where he scored against top-flight

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 ...

in a third-round

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

game in 1971. He moved to

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

, with whom he won the Second Division championship in 1972. He joined

for £150,000, then a club record. In 1976–77, Cross scored

hat-tricks A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

on the opening and closing days the season, the only Coventry City player to do so in a league campaign. He joined

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 ...

for £150,000 in November 1976, and made his Albion debut against

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 ...

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

also broke their club record for Cross when they paid for £180,000 for his services on 9 December 1977. He made his debut a week later, against West Brom. Cross scored 9 goals in 21 league games during his initial season at the club, but this wasn't enough to prevent

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. His first full season brought 18 goals, with 12 the following season. Cross was asked to play as the lone striker during the

1980 FA Cup Final The 1980 FA Cup Final was contested by West Ham United and Arsenal at Wembley. West Ham won by a single goal, scored by Trevor Brooking. To date, it is the last time a team from outside the top flight has won the FA Cup. It was West Ham's third ...

win against

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 ...

. He scored 22 goals with the side that won the Second Division in 1980–81, winning the division's Golden Boot and ensuring the club's promotion back to the First Division. On 1 October 1980, Cross scored West Ham United's first, and to date only, hat-trick in European competition in a 5–1 win against Castilla. Following promotion, Cross again became the club's top scorer for the 1981–82 season, with 16 goals. He scored four goals in a game on two occasions, against

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in ...

on 11 April 1981, and against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

on 2 September 1981. Cross was the last player to score four goals in a single league match for West Ham for almost 40 years until

Michail Antonio Michail Gregory Antonio (born 28 March 1990) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for club West Ham United. Born in England, he represents the Jamaica national team. Antonio began his career at non-League club Tooting & Mitch ...

also achieved this in a match against Norwich City on 11 July 2020. Cross played his last game for the east London club on 15 May 1982, scoring against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

at Molineux. He went on to play for Manchester City and

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

, and spent the summers of 1983 and 1984 with

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

(where he totalled 46 appearances and 29 goals), before rejoining West Brom for the 1984–85 season. He signed for

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 ...

in 1985–86, but a fractured skull helped to end his professional career in England and he ended the season with a loan spell at

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. He then had a brief spell with

Aris Limassol Aris Limassol (Greek: ''Άρης Λεμεσού'') is a Cypriot football club based in Limassol and one of the founder members of Cyprus Football Association. The club's colours are green, black and white, and their home is the Tsirion Stadium. ...

of Cyprus, and finished his career at

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

. After retirement, Cross spent nine years in the insurance industry, and scouted for

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

. He joined the coaching staff at Oldham Athletic in 1997. He coached the reserves and youth-team before moving up to assistant manager to

Iain Dowie Iain Dowie (born 9 January 1965) is a football manager, former professional footballer and sports television pundit. He played as a striker from 1983 until 2001, notably in the Premier League for Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Ham Unit ...

in 2002. In February 2003, he was released from his contract with the club in serious financial difficulties. He later became a

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

for West Ham. Cross also worked on opposition analysis for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

, leaving the post in 2016.

Honours

Club

Norwich City * Second Division champions:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

West Ham United * FA Cup winner:

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

* Second Division champions:

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

Individual

*Second Division Golden Boot: 1980–81 ''(34 goals)'' *NASL All-Star:

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

''(honorable mention)''

Personal life

Cross has three children who have achieved some success in sport. Robert played Second XI cricket for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

for many years, and acted as twelfth man for Lancashire First XI on several occasions. He is captain of Heywood Cricket Club of the Central Lancashire League and is the club's highest ever run scorer having amassed over 14000 runs to date, including 18 centuries. Jennifer played

Netball Superleague The Netball Super League is a top level netball league featuring teams from the United Kingdom. The league is organised by England Netball but features teams based in England, Wales and Scotland. The league was commenced playing at the 2005–06 ...

for Northern Thunder and Leeds Met Carnegie, and has appeared in the Lancashire Women's Cricket set-up.

Kathryn Kathryn is a feminine given name and comes from the Greek meaning for 'pure'. It is a variant of Katherine. It may refer to: In television and film: * Kathryn Beaumont (born 1938), English voice actress and school teacher best known for her Disn ...

, the youngest, played cricket for Lancashire Women's First XI at the age of 13; at 15 she was the first girl to be named in the Lancashire County Boys Academy, and progressed to the England Women's Academy and Development Squad. Having impressed for England women's academy in 2010, Kathryn was called up to England women's tour of Australia in January 2011 following injuries to Claire Taylor and Beth Morgan.

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, David 1950 births Living people People from Heywood, Greater Manchester Sportspeople from Lancashire English footballers Association football forwards Rochdale A.F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Vancouver Whitecaps (1974–1984) players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Bury F.C. players Aris Limassol FC players Blackpool F.C. players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Cypriot First Division players English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate soccer players in Canada Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Watford F.C. non-playing staff Oldham Athletic A.F.C. non-playing staff West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff Blackburn Rovers F.C. non-playing staff FA Cup Final players