James Anthony John Clarke (born 17 November 1989) is an English

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 plays as

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for club Newport County.

Career

Clarke began his career at

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

making his debut by playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–0

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

win at

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

on 24 November 2007. He made 18 league appearances in his first season, and was sent off for two bookings in a 0–3 home defeat to

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

on 8 March 2008. He played 14 league matches in the ensuing campaign, but received a straight red card in the opening game, a 3–0 defeat at Barrow on 8 August 2008. On 27 February 2009, with his contract terminated by mutual consent, he joined

Southern Football League The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English fo ...

Premier Division team

Oxford City Oxford City Football Club is a semi-professional English association football club based in Marston, Oxford. They currently compete in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football, and play their home matches at Marsh Lane. ...

for the rest of their 2009 campaign, and from 2012 to 2014 he signed for

Salisbury City Salisbury City Football Club was an English football club based in Salisbury, Wiltshire. They were formed in 1947 and played at The Raymond McEnhill Stadium. Salisbury had gained back-to-back promotions in recent years, first to the Conference S ...

after an unsuccessful trial at

League one The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

. With Salisbury in financial distress, Clarke left for Woking, also of the Conference, on an undisclosed contract. He made his debut on 9 August as they opened the season with a 3–1 win at

Alfreton Town Alfreton Town Football Club is a football club based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, England. The club are currently members of and play at North Street. History The club was formed in 1959 following the merger of Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alfr ...

, and made 30 appearances across the campaign.

Bristol Rovers

On 11 June 2015, with his contract expired, he signed for

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

, newly promoted back into

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 ...

. He made his debut for the club on 8 August, as they began the

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

with a 0–1 home defeat to

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

. Clarke ended the season with several first team appearances as he provided a helpful role in Rovers' 3rd-place finish to receive promotion into the

Football League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

. In the same summer, Clarke signed a contract extension along with several other teammates. Clarke scored his first professional goal in a 2–1 victory over

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

at the start of the 2018–19 season before he scored his second goal with a 95-minute winner in a 2–1 victory over

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

Walsall

Clarke was offered a new contract at Bristol Rovers at the end of the 2018–19 season and despite being offered an improved two-year contract, he opted to follow former boss

Darrell Clarke Darrell James Clarke (born 16 December 1977) is an English professional football manager and former player who played in the English Football League. He is the manager of club Port Vale. A box-to-box midfielder, Clarke began his career with ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

having worked under him at Salisbury and Rovers on a deal worth £104,000 per year. Clarke made his debut on the opening day of the season, scoring the only goal as Darrell Clarke got off to a winning start against

. His impressive start with the club continued and after scoring two goals in the month, he was awarded the

League Two Player of the Month The EFL League Two Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in EFL League Two, the English football league system, fourth tier of English football. Originally na ...

award for September 2019. One of these goals was a 30-yard screamer against

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

that won him the league's Goal of the Month award. At the end of the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, Clarke was one of eight players to not be offered a new contract and would therefore depart the club at the expiration of their contract.

Newport County

In June 2021 he joined Newport County on a one-year deal. He made his debut for Newport on 7 August 2021 as a first half substitute in the 1–0 League Two win against Oldham Athletic. On 18 September 2021, Clarke scored his first goal for the club with an 87th minute winner against former club Walsall, assisted by another former Walsall teammate

Cameron Norman Cameron Pearce Norman (born 12 October 1995) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Milton Keynes Dons. Club career Norwich City Born in Norwich, Norman joined Norwich City at the age of 10 and was promoted to ...

. In May 2022 Clarke's contract at Newport was extended until the end of the 2022–23 season. He signed a new two-year contract in May 2023.

Career statistics

Honours

;Individual *

EFL League Two Player of the Month The EFL League Two Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football. Originally named the Football League Two Pl ...

: September 2019

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, James 1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Aylesbury English footballers Men's association football defenders Oxford United F.C. players Oxford City F.C. players Salisbury City F.C. players Woking F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players National League (English football) players Southern Football League players English Football League players Footballers from Buckinghamshire