Geoffrey Alan Vowden (born 27 April 1941) is an English former professional

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

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

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 ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

and

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

, and in 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 ...

for the New York Cosmos.

Career

Vowden was born in

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, Yorkshire and raised in

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

. When he was 18, he went to England to join

, where he signed professional forms at Christmas 1959. After scoring 40 goals in 90 League games for Forest, he was sold to

for £25,000 in October 1964. He spent nearly seven seasons at Birmingham, scoring at a rate of one goal every three matches, and finished as their leading goalscorer three seasons running, from 1964–65 to 1966–67. On 7 September 1968, playing for Birmingham against Huddersfield Town in 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 ...

, he became the first substitute to score a

hat-trick 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 ...

in a

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 ...

fixture. In March 1971, Vowden joined

for a fee of £12,500. In his first full season at Aston Villa, he scored 11 goals which contributed to the club winning the

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

championship. In the summer of 1974, he played for the New York Cosmos in the

. On his return, he joined Southern League club

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

as player/manager, succeeding Ron Atkinson, in December 1974. He later coached domestically and in Hong Kong winning honours with both Bulova SA and South China, and Saudi Arabia. Geoff ended his working career supporting adults with physical and sensory impairments in Corby.

Honours

Aston Villa *

: 1971–72

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vowden, Geoff 1941 births Living people Footballers from Barnsley Jersey men's footballers English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Nottingham Forest F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players New York Cosmos (1970–1985) players Kettering Town F.C. players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Southern Football League players English football managers Kettering Town F.C. managers Southern Football League managers English expatriates in Saudi Arabia English expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Expatriate men's footballers in Hong Kong English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States