Mark Goodwin (born 23 February 1960) is an English former 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 played 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 ...

Career

He was a professional midfielder with

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

and

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 ...

. He was given his Foxes début as a 17-year-old by

Frank McLintock Francis McLintock MBE (born 28 December 1939) is a former Scotland international footballer, football manager and businessman. He also worked as a sports agent and football pundit in his later life. He began his career in Scottish Junior footba ...

in a 1–0 defeat at

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

on 17 December 1977. Goodwin scored his first goal for Leicester City on 27 December 1977, away at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

in a 3–1 defeat to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

He became a regular when

Jock Wallace John Martin Bokas Wallace (6 September 1935 – 24 July 1996) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Wallace played as a goalkeeper, and has the unique distinction of being the only player ever to play in the English, Welsh and Sco ...

was the Leicester manager often playing at full-back. During the 1979-1980 season he was part of Leicester City side that won the

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 ...

title. He left Leicester City to join Notts County £60,000 from towards the climax of the 1980-1981 as County were promoted to the First Division. He made 237 appearances for the Magpies scoring 23 goals. In 1988 he was promoted with a third club, as Walsall defeated

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 ...

4–0 at

Fellows Park Fellows Park was a football stadium in Walsall, England. It was the home ground of Walsall F.C. from 1896 until 1990, when the team moved to the Bescot Stadium. Fellows Park was situated about a quarter of a mile away from the club's present ...

to earn promotion to the second tier, with Goodwin's corner being headed home by

Phil Hawker Philip Nigel Hawker (born 7 December 1962) is an English former footballer who played as a defender. He scored 11 goals in 213 appearances in the Football League playing for Birmingham City, Walsall and West Bromwich Albion. Hawker was born in ...

to make it 3–0. He was released by Walsall in 1990. He then joined

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

in the

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 ...

. He joined

Eastwood Town Eastwood Town Football Club was an English football club based in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. The club last participated in the Northern Premier League Division One South, the eighth tier of English football. A new club, Eastwood C.F.C., was f ...

where he was appointed temporary manager in November 1991. His next club was Arnold Town where he was a player-coach. He made his début on 29 February 1992 in a 1-0 Central Midland League defeat at

Lincoln United Lincoln United Football Club is a football club based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Ashby Avenue. Nicknamed the Whites after their home kit colours, they have played at Ashby Avenue since th ...

. His first goal followed on 21 March 1992 in a 3–2 defeat at Harworth Colliery Institute. He left Arnold to join

Hucknall Town Hucknall Town Football Club are a football club based in the town of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England. The club are members of the and play at Watnall Road. History Hucknall Town were renamed from Hucknall Colliery Welfare in 1987 and for ...

during the 1994-1995 close season.

References

1960 births Living people English men's footballers Notts County F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Kettering Town F.C. players Eastwood Town F.C. players Arnold Town F.C. players Hucknall Town F.C. players Footballers from Sheffield English Football League players Men's association football midfielders Men's association football defenders National League (English football) players Northern Counties East Football League players {{England-footy-defender-1960s-stub