Gordon Brown (4 February 1932 – 30 December 1999) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 made over 200 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 ...

for Newport County and Gillingham between 1955 and 1961.

Career

Brown was born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Accord ...

and, upon leaving school, worked at

Blairhall Blairhall is a village in West Fife, Scotland. It is situated 1.1 miles (1.77 km) west of Comrie, and 6.7 miles (10.783 km) west of Dunfermline. The village was originally a small hamlet but was expanded in 1911 to house the miners from ...

Colliery, where he also played football for the colliery's team. In April 1951 he came to the attention of English

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

club Blackburn Rovers and signed a contract with the

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 ...

-based club. He spent four years at

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the Football League and Premier League, who have played there since 1890. It is an all seater multi-sports facili ...

and was a regular in the club's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

, but proved unable to dislodge more established players from the Rovers'

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

. In four seasons with the club Brown was never selected to play a first team match. In 1955 Brown was allowed to leave Rovers, and signed for Newport County of the

Third Division South The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

. He soon became a favourite with the

Somerton Park Somerton Park was a football, greyhound racing and speedway stadium in Newport, South Wales. Football In April 1912 Newport County had been accepted to play in the Southern League for the 1912–13 season. Shortly afterwards, the site ...

crowd, and was a regular in the team for four seasons, making over 140 appearances in total and scoring 15 goals. In the 1957–58 season he helped the club to its best finishing position for six seasons. In 1959 he left the club to join

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

club Gillingham. In his first season with the

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

-based club he played regularly as a winger and scored 12 goals to finish the season as the team's second-highest goalscorer behind

Pat Terry Patrick Alfred Terry (2 October 1933 – 23 February 2007) was an English professional football centre forward who made nearly 500 appearances for 9 Football League clubs, most notably Gillingham, Reading and Millwall Millwall is a dis ...

. He only scored one goal the following season, however, and departed

Priestfield Stadium Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium in Gillingham, Kent. It has ...

in the summer of 1961. He later played

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for

Ashford Town (Kent) Ashford United F.C. are an English football club based in Ashford, Kent. The 'new' United was formed in 2011, resurrecting the name used by the town's football club between 1891 and 1907. Following the demise of the original Ashford United cl ...

and

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

. No details of his life after his playing career ended are known, although it is known that he died in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gordon 1932 births Footballers from Dunfermline 1999 deaths Scottish footballers English Football League players Association football wingers Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Sittingbourne F.C. players Ashford United F.C. players Blairhall Colliery F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players