Martin Richard Thomas (born 28 November 1959) is a 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 le ...

who made more than 500 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

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 ...

and represented

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

at senior international level. After retiring as a player he became a coach, and has worked for various clubs and for the English

Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

Playing career

Born in

Senghenydd Senghenydd ( cy, Senghennydd, ) is a former mining town in the community of Aber Valley in South Wales, approximately four miles northwest of the town of Caerphilly. Historically within the county of Glamorgan, it is now situated in the count ...

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

, Thomas moved to England to join

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

as a youth player. He made his début for their first team on 3 January 1977, as a substitute for Jim Eadie in the away match at

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 C ...

. Thomas turned professional in September of that year, and went on to become Rovers' first-choice goalkeeper. He faced competition for his jersey with England youth goalkeeper

Phil Kite Phil Kite (born 26 October 1962) is a former football goalkeeper, goalkeeping coach and physiotherapist. He retired in 2015 from his role as physio at Bristol Rovers, the club he supported as a boy. Playing career Born in Bristol, England, K ...

before going on loan to three clubs during 1982–83, first Cardiff City, then

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

. He left Bristol completely in 1983 to join

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

for £50,000. Thomas appeared regularly for Newcastle as they won promotion to the top-flight in 1984. He was the club's first choice goalkeeper for the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons. During the 1985–86 season he was part of the Newcastle side that lost a club record away defeat to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

8–1 a game which saw centre back

Alvin Martin Alvin Edward Martin (born 29 July 1958) is an English football manager, former professional footballer and pundit. As a player, he was a defender, playing most of his footballing career for West Ham United he appeared in 598 games for them, s ...

hit his only first class hat-trick in English professional football, against a three different goalkeepers. In September 1986, he won his first and only international

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for

, in a European Championship qualifier against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. After a spell on loan to local rivals

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 ...

, Thomas was sold to Division Two

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

for £75,000 in October 1988. The club suffered relegation in 1989, but returned in 1992. He was part of the side that won the 1991 Associate Members' Cup Final. In 1993, after loan spells to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

and

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, Thomas joined

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 de ...

club

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

. He made 80 league appearances for the club before retiring as a player in 1995.

Coaching career

Thomas earned a preliminary coaching certificate whilst playing at Newcastle, and supplemented this with further coaching badges during his time at Birmingham. He eventually earned the

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

'A' Coaching licence, taking a position within

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the ...

in the early 1990s as a Regional Development Officer in the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...

. On a part-time basis, Thomas, with other professional goalkeepers, including Steve Ogrizovic,

Paul Barron Paul George Barron (born 16 September 1953) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is the head coach for the Las Vegas Mobsters Playing career Born in Woolwich, London, Barron qualified as a PE instructor ...

, and Andy Poole, helped train players aged 12–16 from clubs across the Midlands, in a time when clubs did not have goalkeeping-specific coaches. In 1996, Thomas helped to coach England's under-16 goalkeepers, before joining the FA full-time in 1997, and has since remained part of the England youth coaching. In 1998 Thomas became part of the new

Ray Clemence Raymond Neal Clemence, (5 August 1948 – 15 November 2020) was an England international football goalkeeper and part of the Liverpool team of the 1970s. He is one of only 31 players to have made over 1,000 career appearances, and holds the r ...

-headed goalkeeping department within the FA, which developed a structure for coaching goalkeeper coaches. He was part of the

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

coaching staff which took the team to the semi-finals of the 2007 UEFA under-21 championships.

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Martin 1959 births Living people Welsh men's footballers Footballers from Caerphilly Men's association football goalkeepers Wales men's international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers English Football League players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players