Wayne Larry Brown (born 14 January 1977) 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 ...

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 ...

. He is the current goalkeeping coach at

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 t ...

Career

Born in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, former bricklayer Brown made a switch from Bashley to

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 ...

for £40,000 in December 1992. Between 1993 and 1996 he made only 24 appearances for the Robins due to a number of injuries. Although only one of these was for the first team, a 4–1 win over Peterborough on 8 May 1994, he was awarded Man of the Match. After a brief spell with

Weston-super-Mare Weston-super-Mare, also known simply as Weston, is a seaside town in North Somerset, England. It lies by the Bristol Channel south-west of Bristol between Worlebury Hill and Bleadon Hill. It includes the suburbs of Mead Vale, Milton, Oldmix ...

he joined Chester City in September 1996, initially as cover for

Ronnie Sinclair Ronald McDonald Sinclair (born 19 November 1964) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. As a player he made 275 league and cup appearances in a 16-year professional career in the English Football League with N ...

(who had an elbow injury and needed surgery) and then in direct competition with

Neil Cutler Neil Anthony Cutler (born 3 September 1976) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Cutler started playing football with West Bromwich Albion and after loan spells at Coventry City, Tamworth and Chester City he moved on to ...

. In a ten-season stint with the club he made 289 appearances, becoming first-choice keeper in the 1999–2000 season, the first of two seasons in which he did not miss a league match. While at Chester he made seven appearances for the

England National Game XI The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at non-league level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it f ...

semi-professional side. He suffered an injury in training in December 2003 that sidelined him for the remainder of the 2003–04 season, as Chester ended the season as

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 ...

champions. He enjoyed a testimonial match against former players in May 2004 and returned to the side at the start of the next season, but was deemed surplus to requirements in May 2005 and dropped back into the Conference for a season-long loan with

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

. Brown was the first-choice keeper for Hereford in Conference matches (but was not allowed by Chester to play in cup games) and was an integral part of the best defence in the Conference that season, conceding just 30 goals. He became a fans' favourite, earning the nickname 'Superman'. In the 2006 Conference play-off final with just a few minutes to go in extra time, Brown sustained a head injury in a collision. With all three substitutions made it looked for a moment as if he would be unable to continue, but after several minutes he recovered and even made a good save in the dying minutes to keep Hereford 3–2 up. Hereford went on to win the match and promotion to the Football League, and Brown signed for Hereford permanently soon afterwards. Brown was first-choice keeper at

Edgar Street Edgar Street is a football stadium in Hereford and was the home of Hereford United Football Club from the club's formation in 1924 until December 2014, when the club was wound up. It is now the home of Hereford FC, a phoenix club formed to rep ...

in Hereford's first two seasons back in the Football League, missing just 9 league matches out of a possible 92. The 2007–08 season saw him keep 17 clean sheets and concede 41 goals in the league, as Hereford gained promotion to

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 ...

. He kept a further four clean sheets in 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 ...

, most notably in the victory over

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

at Elland Road. This match was also his 100th competitive appearance for the club. Brown's highlight of the season, as recognised by

Graham Turner Graham John Turner (born 5 October 1947) is an English former footballer who became a manager. His son Mark was also a professional footballer. He is third behind only Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger in terms of most games managed. After a ...

, came in the 1–0 win at

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 ...

. In the last minute of normal time he saved

Michael Boulding Michael Thomas Boulding (born 8 February 1976) is an English former professional footballer and tennis player. As a footballer he was a forward and winger from 1998 to 2011. Prior to his football career, he was a promising young tennis player ...

's penalty in front of the travelling support who celebrated as if Hereford had scored a goal, and in the last seconds of the match he made a further save to deny

Jefferson Louis Jefferson Lee Louis (born 22 February 1979) is a footballer who plays for as a striker. A journeyman, he has played for 42 different clubs, being transferred 47 times over a 28-year career. He has played in the English Football League for Oxf ...

, rescuing Hereford again. Despite being named Player of the Year, Brown rejected a new contract and League One football at Edgar Street and instead signed for

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

on a two-year contract. On 15 August 2009 he saved a late

Dean Windass Dean Windass (born 1 April 1969) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played spells at Bradford City and contributed to his hometown team Hull City's promotion to the Premier League in 2008. Windass started ...

penalty to help his side secure a 1–0 win over Darlington. In July 2010 he signed with Supersport United. On 28 July 2011 Brown returned to England, signing a one-year deal with

following a successful trial. He signed a further two-year contract with Oxford as player/goalkeeping coach in May 2012. He also runs goalkeeping academies in Reading, Southampton and Oxfordshire.

References

External links

*
Wayne Brown Chester career article and interview
(from 2003) {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Wayne 1977 births Living people Footballers from Southampton English footballers England semi-pro international footballers Association football goalkeepers Bristol City F.C. players Weston-super-Mare A.F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players SuperSport United F.C. players Bashley F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Oxford United F.C. non-playing staff Bury F.C. players English expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in South Africa English expatriate sportspeople in South Africa