Ian Clarkson
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Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Ian Stewart Clarkson[1] | ||
Date of birth | 4 December 1970 | ||
Place of birth | Solihull, England | ||
Height | Script error: No such module "person height". | ||
Position(s) | Defender | ||
Team information | |||
Current team
|
Alvechurch | ||
Youth career | |||
1987–1988 | Birmingham City | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1988–1993 | Birmingham City | 136 | (0) |
1993–1996 | Stoke City | 75 | (0) |
1996–1999 | Northampton Town | 94 | (1) |
1999–2002 | Kidderminster Harriers | 105 | (0) |
2002 | Nuneaton Borough | 12 | (0) |
2002 | Stafford Rangers | ||
2003 | Leamington | ||
2003 | Forest Green Rovers | ||
2012– | Alvechurch | ||
Total | 422 | (1) | |
Managerial career | |||
2002 | Kidderminster Harriers (player/assistant caretaker manager) |
||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Ian Stewart Clarkson (born 4 December 1970) is an English former professional footballer who made nearly 400 appearances in the Football League playing as a defender for Birmingham City, Stoke City, Northampton Town and Kidderminster Harriers.[2]
Contents
Playing career
Ian Clarkson was born in Solihull, West Midlands. He began his football career as a YTS trainee with Birmingham City,[1] the club he had supported since childhood,[3] in 1987. He made his first team debut as a 17-year-old in the League Cup against Aston Villa in September 1988, and his Football League debut a few days later.[4] He signed his first professional contract in December 1988.[1] In 1991 he played in Birmingham's winning side in the Associate Members Cup final at Wembley. The following season he captained the side to promotion from the Third Division while still only 21, an achievement which he considers to be the highlight of his career.[3]
Former Birmingham manager Lou Macari brought Clarkson to First Division side Stoke City in September 1993 for a fee of £40,000. He spent three seasons at Stoke, and played in the First Division play-offs, in which Stoke lost to Martin O'Neill's Leicester City side in the 1996 semi-final. When his contract expired he rejected Stoke's offer of renewal terms, and left for Third Division side Northampton Town.[5]
At Northampton, he linked up with former Birmingham City teammates John Gayle, Dean Peer and manager Ian Atkins, soon to be joined by John Frain. In his first season he helped them to promotion via the play-offs, and the next year played in the Second Division play-off final, but lost 1–0 to Grimsby Town. In August 1998, he suffered a badly-broken tibia in a match against Lincoln City. Though he made a couple of appearances for Northampton at the start of the 1999–2000 season, it appeared that he was no longer fit enough to compete at that level, and that his league career was over at the age of 28.
Clarkson went to train at Kidderminster Harriers, then in the Conference, and regained sufficient fitness to be able to play regularly at that level. Kidderminster made him club captain, and of his first 30 games for the club they lost only one; at the end of the season the club were promoted to the Football League as Conference champions.[5] They repaid the insurance payout that Clarkson had received on his retirement due to injury, so that he was able to play for them in the Football League.[6] When Jan Molby resigned as manager of Kidderminster in March 2002, Clarkson acted as assistant to caretaker manager Ian Britton.[7] The club released him at the end of that season for financial reasons.[8] He joined Nuneaton Borough of the Conference, and was released in December again on financial grounds.[9] He then registered for short periods with Stafford Rangers,[10] Leamington[11] and, from March 2003, Forest Green Rovers,[12] finally retiring at the end of the season.
In 2012 he returned to football to sign for Alvechurch in September 2012 at the age of 41.[13]
Life after football
Clarkson qualified as a coach and coach educator, and worked for Birmingham City's Football in the Community programme. During the later years of his playing career he was keen to get involved in media work; from 2002 he was employed as a football reporter and journalist by the Birmingham Post and Sunday Mercury newspapers and by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA)'s website.[3] In 2006 he was appointed to manage a scheme designed to involve young people in sport and physical activity, as part of a wider programme of regeneration of the deprived areas of North Solihull.[14]
Career statistics
- Sourced from Ian Clarkson profile at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
Club | Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Other[A] | Total | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
Birmingham City | 1988–89 | Second Division | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
1989–90 | Third Division | 20 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 26 | 0 | |
1990–91 | Third Division | 37 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 46 | 0 | |
1991–92 | Third Division | 42 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 52 | 0 | |
1992–93 | Division One | 28 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 36 | 0 | |
1993–94 | Division One | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
Total | 136 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 174 | 0 | ||
Stoke City | 1993–94 | Division One | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 0 |
1994–95 | Division One | 18 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 25 | 0 | |
1995–96 | Division One | 43 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 52 | 0 | |
Total | 75 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 96 | 0 | ||
Northampton Town | 1996–97 | Division Three | 45 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 56 | 0 |
1997–98 | Division Two | 42 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 53 | 2 | |
1998–99 | Division Two | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | |
1999–2000 | Division Three | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
Total | 94 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 10 | 1 | 119 | 2 | ||
Kidderminster Harriers | 1999–2000 | Conference National | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 0 |
2000–01 | Division Three | 38 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 44 | 0 | |
2001–02 | Division Three | 39 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 42 | 0 | |
Total | 105 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 114 | 0 | ||
Nuneaton Borough | 2002–03 | Conference National | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
Total | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0 | ||
Career Total | 422 | 1 | 21 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 43 | 1 | 515 | 2 |
- A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Anglo-Italian Cup, Football League Trophy and Football League play-offs.
Honours
- Birmingham City
- Football League Trophy winners: 1991
- Football League Third Division runner-up: 1991–92
- Northampton Town
- Football League Third Division play-off winner: 1997
- Kidderminster Harriers
- Conference National champions: 1999–2000
References
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External links
- Playing details at Post War English & Scottish Football League A – Z Player's Database
- Ian Clarkson career statistics at Soccerbase
- Guardian article on Clarkson's change of career
- Birmingham Post article by Clarkson on how sport can make a difference
- EngvarB from July 2013
- Use dmy dates from July 2013
- Pages using infobox football biography with height issues
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Pages containing links to subscription-only content
- 1970 births
- Living people
- People from Solihull
- English footballers
- Association football defenders
- Birmingham City F.C. players
- Stoke City F.C. players
- Northampton Town F.C. players
- Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players
- Nuneaton Town F.C. players
- Stafford Rangers F.C. players
- Leamington F.C. players
- Forest Green Rovers F.C. players
- Alvechurch F.C. players
- The Football League players
- National League (English football) players