John Brown Clark (born 22 September 1964) is a Scottish former

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 ...

. He is best known for his achievements in a lengthy playing career with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

. He top scored for them in the run to the

1987 UEFA Cup Final The 1987 UEFA Cup Final was a football tie played on 6 and 20 May 1987 between IFK Göteborg of Sweden and Dundee United of Scotland. Göteborg won 2–1 on aggregate, their second UEFA Cup triumph, following victory in 1982. It was Dundee Uni ...

in which he scored in the defeat in the final. Among his four goals in that run was one against

F.C. Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded i ...

at Camp Nou in the quarter-final. He also played for Stoke City, Falkirk,

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

, Ross County,

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...

and

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing fr ...

Career

Dundee United

Clark was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and joined

in 1976 and began to play for the reserves as a forward where he scored over 100 goals. He made his debut in the 1982–83. His best season was 1986–87 where he featured prominently at

centre half 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 ...

. He was their top scorer on the way to the

with a goal against each of Universitatea Craiova, Hajduk Split and

at the Camp Nou. He also scored in the second leg of the final at

Tannadice Park Tannadice Park ( gd, Pàirc Thanachais), usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Dundee Hibernian in 1 ...

as United lost 2–1 to

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...

. That same season United also lost the 1987 Scottish Cup Final to St Mirren as they also did the season after to Celtic. Clark remained a regular in the Tannadice defence for the late 1980s and early 1990s making 330 appearances scoring 37 goals.

Stoke City

He moved to English club Stoke City in January 1994. Clark started his Stoke against Barnsley in a 3–0 defeat. He ended the 1993–94 season with 12 appearances. In 1994–95 Clark played in six matches and scored his only goal for Stoke which came in a 2–0 victory over

Cesena Cesena (; rgn, Cisêna) is a city and ''comune'' in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, served by Autostrada A14 (Italy), Autostrada A14, and located near the Apennine Mountains, about from the Adriatic Sea. The total population is 97,137. ...

in the Anglo-Italian Cup. When

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Ken ...

replaced

Joe Jordan Joseph Jordan (born 15 December 1951) is a Scottish football player, coach and manager. He is currently a first-team coach at AFC Bournemouth. A former striker, he played for Leeds United, Manchester United, and Milan, among others at club ...

as manager in September 1994 Clark returned to Scotland.

Later career

Clark next joined Falkirk before transferring part way through his second season to Dunfermline. He had short spells also playing for

, Ross County and

. He became Assistant Manager at Berwick. Clark then dropped out of senior football with

Gala Fairydean Gala Fairydean Rovers Football Club are a Scottish association football club based in the town of Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. The club competes in the , after joining from the East of Scotland Football League in 2013. At the same tim ...

where he became player-manager. He became manager of Whitehill Welfare in 2004.

Career statistics

*Sourced from :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Anglo-Italian Cup and

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

Honours

; Dundee United *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1986–87, 1987–88,

1990–91 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

runner-up: 1986–87

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, John 1964 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish men's footballers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Dundee United F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Ross County F.C. players Berwick Rangers F.C. players Gala Fairydean Rovers F.C. players Ayr United F.C. players Scottish football managers Men's association football central defenders Gala Fairydean Rovers F.C. managers