Keith Welch (born 3 October 1968) is an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

-born

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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

in the Football League between the 1980s and 2000s, notably with

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

. He started with Bolton Wanderers as a trainee, but moved to Rochdale in 1987 and made his Football League debut with them, going on to play 205 League games for the club. He transferred to Bristol City in 1991 for £200,000 and went on to play 321 times for them before moving on in 1999. He spent the next three seasons at

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 ...

making 127 appearances before leaving in 2002. As of January 2010 he had the third-longest spell for consecutive minutes keeping a clean sheet at Northampton, having managed 467 minutes in 2000. He signed for

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

in Summer 2002, primarily to act as cover for John Achterberg, but he suffered a groin injury on his opening-day debut against

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

. He made his second Tranmere appearance on 21 September 2002 against

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

, but he dislocated his shoulder in the game, and was substituted for Tranmere's goalkeeping coach

Eric Nixon Eric Walter Nixon (born 4 October 1962) is an English former professional footballer who played as goalkeeper. His career spanned 22 years, thirteen of which were spent at Tranmere Rovers. He played for thirteen different clubs and made over 500 ...

. This was to be his final appearance for Tranmere although he went on to have further short spells that season with

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

and

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

. He made his final Football League appearance on 29 March 2003, for Mansfield against

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

, and he was subsequently released by Mansfield that summer.

Honours

Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1990–91 Fourth Division

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, Keith 1968 births People from Bolton Association football goalkeepers English Football League players Rochdale A.F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Living people Northampton Town F.C. players English footballers