Leigh Granville Palin (born 12 September 1965) 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 in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

and Stoke City. His father, Granville, was also a professional footballer.

Career

Born in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

, he started his career with Aston Villa. He never played a league game for Aston Villa, and following a short loan spell with

, he moved to

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

, where he also failed to reach the first team. After a short stint in Hong Kong where he played for South China A.A., scoring 9 goals in 16 appearances, he moved to

, where his career took off and in three season with the "Bantams" Palin played 94 matches, scoring thirteen goals and also played in the Second Division play-off against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in the 1987–88 season. He then joined

Mick Mills Michael Dennis Mills MBE (born 4 January 1949) is an English former footballer who played for Ipswich Town, Southampton and Stoke City. He managed Stoke City, Colchester United and Birmingham City. During his career he achieved Ipswich To ...

at Stoke City in 1989–90 but Stoke were having a terrible season and were well on their way to relegation and Mills was sacked in November 1989 and in came Alan Ball. Ball made a large number of changes to the squad in an attempt to avoid the drop and in March Palin was allowed to leave for

. He spent three years at Hull and had a brief loan spell with

followed by a short spell at

, before he moved to Scottish football with Partick Thistle. He dropped into non-league football with

Tadcaster Albion Tadcaster Albion Association Football Club is an association football club in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, England. Formed in 1892, their ground is situated behind the John Smith's brewery in Tadcaster, thus the reason for their nickname "The B ...

Career statistics

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

Football League play-offs The English Football League play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the English football leagu ...

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 ...

and

Full Members Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. Th ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Palin, Leigh 1965 births Living people Sportspeople from Worcester, England English footballers Aston Villa F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Football League players Tadcaster Albion A.F.C. players Association football midfielders