Johnny Goodchild (2 January 1939 – 25 August 2011) was a 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 scored 71 goals from 238 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 ...

playing as an inside forward for

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 ...

, Brighton & Hove Albion, York City and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

Career

Goodchild was born in

Sherburn Hill Sherburn Hill is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated to the east of Sherburn. From 1835 to 1965, the Sherburn Hill Colliery operated near the village. In 1851, the Ebenezer Primitive Methodist The Primitive Methodist Chur ...

, County Durham. He worked as a miner and played for Ludworth Juniors before signing for

. He scored on his first-team debut, on 4 September 1957 in a 3–2 home defeat of Leicester City in the First Division, and produced 16 goals the following season. He then fell out of favour, and, despite scoring 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 ...

away at Leeds United in February 1961, his first game of the 1960–61 season, never appeared for the club again. Goodchild remembers "thinking to myself that if I couldn't get into the team after scoring a hat-trick away from home, I'd be on the transfer list at the end of the season. That's exactly what happened." He joined

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 ...

club Brighton & Hove Albion, and in his first season with the club, was their joint-top scorer (alongside

Bobby Laverick Robert Laverick (born 11 June 1938) is an English former professional footballer who scored 26 goals from 96 appearances in the Football League playing on the left wing for Chelsea, Everton, Brighton & Hove Albion and Coventry City. Laverick ...

and

Tony Nicholas Anthony Wallace Long Nicholas (16 April 1938 – 25 September 2005) was an English professional footballer who scored 42 goals from 133 appearances in the Football League playing as an inside forward for Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion and L ...

) with 10 goals in all competitions. Two years later, by which time the club had been twice relegated and were now playing in

Division Four The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...

, he was top scorer on his own, with 15 goals in all competitions. In 1964–65, Goodchild was one of six goalscorers to reach double figures as Albion won the Fourth Division title. He returned to the north of England in 1966, spending a season with York City and a brief spell with

. Goodchild was a keen

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. He first played for his village side, in Littletown, at 14, and appeared for Durham Second XI in 1959. He played cricket for many years in the Durham County League for Ushaw Moor CC.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodchild, Johnny 1939 births 2011 deaths Footballers from County Durham English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Sunderland A.F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players York City F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Goole Town F.C. players English Football League players