Oliver Anthony Clarke (born 29 June 1992) 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 le ...

who plays 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 ...

for

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

club

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, 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 ...

Career

Bristol Rovers

After progressing through the Bristol Rovers youth system, Clarke joined the professional ranks at ''The Pirates'' in 2009, alongside fellow youth team graduates Eliot Richards, Neikell Plummer, Dan Cayford, Mark Cooper, George Booth, Steve Kingdon and Jack McKenna. Of this group only Clarke and Richards made any senior appearances. Clarke failed to make any first team appearances in his first year as a Bristol Rovers player, so early in his second season he was sent out on loan to injury-stricken Gloucester City. He played four games for ''The Tigers'', three in the Conference North and one in the second qualifying round of 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 ...

. Shortly afterwards he was loaned to Southern League side Mangotsfield United, who he joined on Christmas Eve 2010 initially for a month. He remained there for the maximum 3-month period permitted by Southern League rules after the spell was extended and he made a total of 15 appearances, all in the league, and scored three times. He eventually made his debut for Bristol Rovers in their final game of the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season, when he came on as an 88th-minute substitute for

Harry Pell Harry David Balraj Pell (born 21 October 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for League Two club AFC Wimbledon. Pell came through the youth system at Charlton Athletic where he spent 12 years. He spent time on ...

against Colchester United at the Colchester Community Stadium. His hopes of continuing to play first team football after the 2011 summer break were dashed however when he suffered a rupture to his

anterior cruciate ligament The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is one of a pair of cruciate ligaments (the other being the posterior cruciate ligament) in the human knee. The two ligaments are also called "cruciform" ligaments, as they are arranged in a crossed formation ...

on his first day back in training, leaving him unable to play for several months while he recovered from reconstructive surgery. His first goal for Rovers came against Portsmouth on 21 December 2013, it was well taken from the edge of the box to score the first in a 2–0 win On 18 March 2014, Clarke signed a new two-year contract extension with the ''Pirates''. He played 1 season with Rovers in the Conference, whilst achieving promotion via the playoffs. He scored 4 goals in this successful season. The following season, Clarke scored two goals for Rovers including a wonder goal against Newport County His defensive and attacking efforts helped his team achieve promotion to

Football League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

after finishing in 3rd place. In the following summer, he signed a new deal with the club as he stated that he is "really looking forward to the challenges ahead this season". The 2016–17 season proved to be successful for Clarke. He was rewarded for his fine performances when on 8 March 2017 he signed a new contract. During the same month he hit a purple patch scoring 2 goals in 3 games in a vital 2–0 victory away to

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

and a 2–1 victory at home to

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

during which he scored just 30 seconds into the match. After captaining the club during the 2019-20 season, Clarke turned down a new contract with the club where he made over 250 appearances.

Mansfield Town

On 1 July 2020, Clarke signed a two-year contract with

side

. Having been given the captaincy at his previous club by manager

Graham Coughlan Graham Coughlan (born 18 November 1974) is an Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a centre back. He is currently manager of EFL League Two club Newport County. Coughlan began his career in his native Ireland wi ...

, Coughlan again gave Clarke the captaincy for the 2020–21 season. Clarke was an unused substitute as Mansfield were defeated 3–0 by

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 ...

in the 2022 League Two play-off Final. The club exercised the option to extend his contract at the end of the 2021–22 season. In September 2022, Clarke's early season form was rewarded with a new contract that would keep him at the club until June 2024.

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Bristol Rovers *

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

play-offs:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

third-place promotion: 2015–16

Individual

* Bristol Rovers Player of the Year: 2016–17, 2018–19

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Ollie 1992 births Living people Footballers from Bristol English footballers Association football midfielders Bristol Rovers F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Gloucester City A.F.C. players Mangotsfield United F.C. players Clevedon Town F.C. players Southern Football League players English Football League players National League (English football) players