John Matthew McGrath (born 27 March 1980) is an Irish

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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and is player-manager of Northern Premier League side

Mickleover Mickleover is a large suburban village of Derby, in Derbyshire, England. It is west of Derby city centre, northeast of Burton-upon-Trent, west of Nottingham city centre, southeast of Ashbourne and northeast of Uttoxeter. History The earli ...

Club career

Born in

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

County Limerick "Remember Limerick" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Limerick.svg , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Republic of Ireland, Ireland , subdivision_type1 = Provinces of Ireland, Province , subd ...

, McGrath played local schoolboy football with Templeglantine and Corbally, before joining

Belvedere Belvedere (from Italian, meaning "beautiful sight") may refer to: Places Australia *Belvedere, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region Africa * Belvedere (Casablanca), a neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco *Belvedere, Harare, Zi ...

in 1996. He was part of the team that won an unprecedented

FAI Youth Cup The FAI Youth Cup, also known as the FAI Umbro Youth Challenge Cup, is a cup competition organised by the FAI for youth association football clubs and teams in the Republic of Ireland. The inaugural winners were Greenmount Rangers. The competi ...

, Leinster Youths Cup and DDSL U-18 Premier League treble. He joined English

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club Aston Villa on 3 September 1999 following a two-week trial. After making only two appearances he went out on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

side Dagenham & Redbridge in November 2002. McGrath was then signed by

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

on 10 July 2003 in time for the start of their first campaign back in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

after being promoted from the Football Conference. He made 14 appearances for Doncaster as they won the Third Division title. He spent two months on loan at

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

, before signing for Kidderminster Harriers in January 2005. In May 2005, McGrath was released by Kidderminster, having been sent off in his last game, away 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 ...

on 7 May. After trials with

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

, Darlington,

and Scunthorpe United, McGrath joined hometown club Limerick, playing in the

League of Ireland First Division The League of Ireland First Division ( ga, Céad Roinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League First Division, is the second level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland football league system. Th ...

, for the remainder of the 2005 season in August 2005, scoring his only goal against

Athlone Town Athlone Town Association Football Club () is an Irish football club from Athlone who are playing in the League of Ireland. The club is the oldest in the League as it was founded in 1887. First elected to the League of Ireland in 1922, they pl ...

on 7 October. He left the club to return to England with Conference South side Weymouth for the rest of the 2005–06 season in January 2006. He made 13 appearances and scored 3 goals for Weymouth as they won the Conference South championship. McGrath was only at Weymouth for a short period before joining Conference National side Tamworth in July 2006. On 10 May 2007, McGrath and Tamworth teammate Jake Edwards joined local rivals

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 grou ...

following Tamworth's relegation to the

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...

. His first season at Burton saw the club make the play-off semi-finals after he had played in 60 games and scored 9 goals, being named the club's Player of the Year. He signed a new one-year contract with the club in May 2008, despite having talks with York City

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Colin Walker. McGrath made 48 appearances and scored 6 goals for Burton during the 2008–09 season, as the team won the

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-professi ...

title and so gained promotion to

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 ...

. He signed a new contract with Burton in May 2009. McGrath signed for League Two rivals York City on an initial one-month loan on 12 February 2013, making his debut later that day in a 0–0 draw at home to Gillingham. Having made five appearances for York, the loan was extended until the end of the 2012–13 season on 7 March 2013. He was sent back to Burton on 4 April 2013 having been deemed surplus to requirements by new manager

Nigel Worthington Nigel Worthington (born 4 November 1961) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who was most recently the manager of York City. He played a defender and a midfielder, playing his club football for Ballymena United, Notts County, ...

. He had made 9 appearances for York. He played for Burton in both legs of their 5–4 aggregate play-off semi-final defeat to

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

, and finished the season with 11 appearances for the club, before being released on 6 May 2013. After spending much of pre-season on trial with

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 ...

, McGrath signed a one-year contract with the Conference Premier club on 3 August 2013. His season was ended by a knee injury sustained during a 3–2 win away to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

on 26 December 2013. He had made 26 appearances and scored one goal for Alfreton in the 2013–14 season. In 2015 McGrath joined Northern Premier League side Mickleover Sports, on 28 April 2016 he was named the new player-manager

International career

McGrath made his debut for the Republic of Ireland national under-21 team as a half-time substitute for Peter Murphy in a 2–1 home defeat to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

on 25 April 2000. He made his first and only start for the under-21s in a 2–0 defeat away to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

on 1 September 2000. He finished his under-21 career with five

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

, all of which were amassed during 2000.

Career statistics

Honours

Doncaster Rovers *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...

: 2003–04 Weymouth * Conference South: 2005–06 Burton Albion *

: 2008–09 Individual *

Player of the Year: 2007–08

References

External links

John McGrath profile
at Alfreton Town F.C. * {{DEFAULTSORT:McGrath, John 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Limerick (city) Association footballers from County Limerick Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Belvedere F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Limerick F.C. players Weymouth F.C. players Tamworth F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. players York City F.C. players Alfreton Town F.C. players Mickleover Sports F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players National League (English football) players League of Ireland players Republic of Ireland football managers Mickleover Sports F.C. managers