Mark Christopher Blackhall (born 17 November 1960 in

Upney Upney is a London Underground station located on Upney Lane in Barking, east London. It is on the District line between station to the west and station to the east. It is along the line from the eastern terminus at and to in central London ...

, Essex) is an English 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 ...

who played as a striker, mainly for Orient. Blackhall was a product of Orient's youth system, and made his first team debut as a substitute in the

1981–82 FA Cup The 1981–82 FA Cup was the 101st season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, The Football Association Challenge Cup, or FA Cup for short. The competition culminated with the FA Cup Final, held at Wembley Stadium, London on 22 M ...

third round victory over

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

on 2 January 1982."Leyton Orient: The Complete Record", N Kaufman & A Ravenhill, Breedon Books, 2006 pp. 448-451 After making three league appearances as a substitute, his first senior start came in the 3–0 victory over

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 ...

on 18 May 1982. He featured occasionally for Orient during the following season, and scored his only goal for the club, a diving header, in the 5–2 defeat at Brentford on 22 January 1983."The Men who Made Leyton Orient", N Kaufman & A Ravenhill, Tempus, 2002 pp. 46-47 He also appeared in the 1–0 defeat at Newport County in the second round of the

1982–83 FA Cup The 1982–83 FA Cup was the 102nd season of the world's oldest football knockout competition, The Football Association Challenge Cup, or FA Cup for short. The competition was won by Manchester United, who drew the first final 2–2, but won the ...

, both legs of the 3–2 aggregate defeat to Gillingham in the first round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

that season, and all three of Orient's matches in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

."Leyton Orient: The Complete Record", N Kaufman & A Ravenhill, Breedon Books, 2006 p. 506 Although Blackhall was never a first team regular, Orient manager

Ken Knighton Kenneth Knighton (born 20 February 1944) is an English former footballer, coach and manager. He is most well known for his spell as manager at Sunderland during which time the club was promoted to the First Division, and he also managed Footb ...

praised him for his attitude in training. Later that year, he moved into non-league football with

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members of ...

, and later owned a nightclub in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

Statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackhall, Mark 1960 births English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Leyton Orient F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Living people Footballers from Essex