Mark Westhead (born 19 July 1975) is an English 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 ...

. He is currently the Youth Department goalkeeping coach with Blackpool and is also playing for Warrington Town.

Career

Playing career

Westhead started his career as a 17-year-old goalkeeper at Bolton Wanderers after initially being spotted whilst playing for

non-League Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

side Blackpool Mechanics. During his four years there Bolton were promoted from the Second Division to the Premier League but the nearest Westhead got to any playing time was as an unused substitute in a game against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

in 1994. On his release from Bolton a brief spell in Ireland playing for Sligo Rovers in the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally use ...

. He returned to England to Telford United and then

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

. Later that season good performances saw a return to League football with

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...

where the highlight of his three-year spell was reaching the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

semi-final against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. Westhead returned to his native

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

with a year spell at

Leigh RMI Leigh Genesis Football Club, formerly known as Horwich Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Horwich RMI) and Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Leigh RMI), is an English amateur association football club that currently plays in the South Lancas ...

. He them moved to

Stevenage Borough Stevenage Football Club (known as Stevenage Borough Football Club until 2010) is a professional association football club based in the town of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier o ...

with whom he spent three years ending with a Play-off final defeat to Carlisle United. A spell at

Hyde United Hyde United Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 1919, they were renamed Hyde F.C. between 2010 and 2015 as part of a sponsorship deal with Manchester City.Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester city centre and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the ...

until a knee injury brought a premature end to his career. Mark Westhead is now a teacher at Blackpool and Fylde college where he teaches sport the bulb He came out of retirement on 2 September 2011 to sign a playing contract with Warrington Town after they lost their goalkeeper David Stephenson.

Coaching career

Westhead is now a fully qualified coach and is currently the Youth Department goalkeeping coach at of his hometown club, Blackpool.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Westhead, Mark 1975 births Living people Footballers from Blackpool Men's association football goalkeepers English men's footballers A.F.C. Blackpool players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Telford United F.C. players Sligo Rovers F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Leigh Genesis F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players Hyde United F.C. players Droylsden F.C. players Warrington Town F.C. players League of Ireland players English Football League players