Mark Crossley
Mark Geoffrey Crossley (born 16 June 1969) is a football coach and former professional footballer.
As a player, he was a goalkeeper from 1988 until 2011 and he has previously played for numerous clubs in England's top flight, notably for Nottingham Forest, where he became the only goalkeeper to stop a Matt Le Tissier penalty kick. He has also played for Manchester United, Millwall, Middlesbrough, Stoke City, Fulham, Sheffield Wednesday, Oldham Athletic and Chesterfield. He earned three caps for the England U21 team, but opted to switch allegiance to Wales and received eight full international caps between 1997 and 2004.
Following retirement, he moved into coaching and has worked as a goalkeeping coach at Chesterfield, Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley and Notts County. During these times he has spent two spells in caretaker charge of a club, having managed Chesterfield in 2012 and Notts County in 2018.
Contents
- 1 Club career
- 1.1 Nottingham Forest
- 1.2 Middlesbrough
- 1.3 Fulham
- 1.4 Sheffield Wednesday
- 1.5 Oldham Athletic
- 2 Coaching career
- 3 International career
- 4 Career statistics
- 4.1 Club
- 4.2 International
- 5 References
- 6 External links
Club career
Nottingham Forest
Crossley was born in Barnsley and began his career with Nottingham Forest in 1987 as a trainee. He started the 1988–89 season as fourth choice but Hans Segers and Paul Crichton were transferred in quick succession to Wimbledon F.C. and Peterborough United respectively, and when Steve Sutton fell ill, Crossley found himself thrust into the first team, playing in league wins over Liverpool and Newcastle United and a League Cup win over Coventry City before Sutton's return.
He had a loan spell at Manchester United during the 1989–90 season but was never selected for the first team, although he played three times for the reserves. He had two spells in Forest's team, firstly when Sutton was injured and later when Sutton suffered a loss of form.
In 1990-91, he was selected from the start, and was ever-present for the season, Brian Clough having refused to pick Steve Sutton while he was in dispute over a new contract. Sutton eventually signed the contract, but never played for Forest again. In the FA Cup Final, Crossley saved Gary Lineker's penalty while Forest were leading 1-0, although Tottenham recovered to win 2-1.
In 1991-92, Crossley was again first choice. He was dropped for a breach of club rules, causing him to miss two Wembley finals, the 3-2 ZDS Trophy victory over Southampton and the 1-0 Rumbelows League Cup defeat to Manchester United. Andrew Marriott wore the gloves while Crossley was absent, but Crossley was recalled for the next game after the second Final.
In 1992-93, Forest competed in the inaugural season of the FA Premier League. Forest struggled for most of the season, with Crossley being one of the players in the spotlight, although he wasn't helped by a defence that missed Des Walker and the often injured Stuart Pearce. He conceded the Premier League's first own goal, in a 4-1 defeat at Blackburn Rovers. He was eventually dropped in favour of Marriott for the last 6 games as Forest desparately, and unsuccessfully tried to avoid relegation.
In 1993-94, as Forest initially struggled with the hangover of relegation to the second tier, and Frank Clark settled into the difficult job of replacing Brian Clough, results were patchy, as again was Crossley's form. Clark eventually signed Tommy Wright to replace him. However, Wright received an injury after 12 games and Crossley returned rejuvenated as Forest's form improved m*ively as they swept to a second placed finish and an immediate return to the Premier League, aided greatly by Stan Collymore's goals.
In 1994-95, Crossley and Wright were vying to start the season as first choice. Wright picked up an injury and Crossley seized his chance. He was ever-present as Forest swept to 3rd place in the Premier League and qualification for Europe. Collymore and Brian Roy formed a lethal partnership up front, backed up by the midfield and protected by Crossley and his defence.
In 1995-96, Collymore had departed for Liverpool. Forest could only finish ninth in the Premier League, but reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. Crossley was again ever-present, with Wright limited to loan spells elsewhere when he was not suffering from his terrible luck with injuries. Crossley saved 3 penalties in an FA Cup Fifth Round replay win against Tottenham at White Hart Lane
In 1996-97, Forest's fortunes took a downturn. Crossley played most of the season, he was sent off in an FA Cup defeat to Chesterfield and Wright covered his suspension before a permanent transfer to Manchester City, where he had been on loan. Crossley played a lot of the season with an injury, eventually having to miss the end of the season. Alan Fettis replaced him for the final 4 games as Forest were relegated under Stuart Pearce (caretaker) and Dave B*ett after Frank Clark had left the club in December.
In 1997-98, Crossley did not play at all, struggling with injury. Marco Pascolo was signed, but was quickly replaced by Dave Beasant, initially on loan and then permanently. Beasant was an integral part of Forest's immediate return to the Premier League as champions of the second tier. Crossley now had a serious rival for the gloves.
In 1998-99, Crossley returned to fitness, eventually displacing Beasant. He played 12 games as Forest were once again relegated with Ron Atkinson at the helm. He did save 4 out of 5 penalties, including the only one that Matthew Le Tissier ever failed to convert.
1999-2000 was Crossley's final season at Forest. Competing with Beasant, he played 20 league games. With uncertainty over a new contract, due to Forest's financial difficulties, he left the club at the end of the season. However, he was granted a testimonial match by Nottingham Forest, which was played in front of 15,000 supporters.
Crossley was a firm favourite with the fans, despite his occasional mistakes.
Middlesbrough
Crossley joined Middlesbrough on a free transfer to provide compe*ion as well as cover for the number one spot at the club. He made seven appearances in the 2000–01 season, but was sent off against Arsenal in November 2000, and did not play again for the rest of the season. He played 18 more games in the 2001–02 season. He was loaned out to Stoke City on 29 November 2002 and played against Gillingham the next day. However, he was recalled by Boro until he re-joined Stoke towards the end of the 2002–03 season. He played in 11 matches helping the club avoid relegation from the First Division.
Fulham
Crossley during his Fulham days.Frustrated by not playing many games at Boro, Crossley joined Fulham for £500,000 in 2003 and made his debut against Wigan Athletic at the JJB Stadium on 23 September 2003. He was mainly the second-choice goalkeeper during his time at the club, although he did have more opportunities to play in the first team during the 2005–06 season due to the sale of former number 1 goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar. His finest match that season came when, deputising for the injured Finnish international Antti Niemi, he kept a clean sheet against champions Chelsea in a 1–0 victory, producing many saves as Chelsea piled pressure on late in the game. Before joining Sheffield Wednesday on loan, he was the number 3 'keeper to Niemi and Czech goalkeeper Jan Laštůvka at Fulham.
Sheffield Wednesday
Former teammate and Sheffield Wednesday manager Brian Laws made Crossley his first signing in November 2006, bringing him in on loan. Crossley impressed, with a string of fine performances and the loan deal was extended to the end of the season. On 23 December 2006, Crossley scored a dramatic late equaliser for Sheffield Wednesday in a 3–3 draw with Southampton at Hillsborough, in his 481st career match, after coming up for a late corner. However Iain Turner was brought in on loan and Crossley returned to Fulham.
Oldham Athletic
After being released by Fulham at the end of the 2006–07 season, Crossley signed for League One side Oldham Athletic. He also took a coaching role at the club. He played most of the games available, despite being injured for 6 games in March.
Crossley signed a one-year extension to his current contract, he was contracted at Latics until the end of the 2008–09 season. After the final game of the season, the club reported that he and an *istant coach had parted with the club.
Coaching career
In the summer of 2009 he joined Chesterfield as part of John Sheridan's new coaching team, as well as signing playing terms making him the club's second choice goalkeeper. In February 2011 Crossley announced he would be retiring from football at the end of the 2010–11 season.
In July 2012 Crossley was approached by Birmingham City to become the club's new goalkeeping coach for the 2012–13 season, however the move fell through when Chesterfield could not agree on a compensation fee. Following John Sheridan's dismissal from Chesterfield, Crossley was appointed caretaker manager alongside Tommy Wright. In September 2012, despite having retired from playing in 2011, Crossley was named as an unused subs*ute in Chesterfield's 2–2 draw at York City, taking the number 26 shirt. He left Chesterfield on 29 April 2013. On 13 August 2013, Crossley joined Sheffield Wednesday as the Owls' academy goalkeeper coach. Crossley joined Barnsley on 27 March 2014 as a replacement to Ian Wilcox as new goalkeeping coach.Prior to the 2015/2016 season, Crossley rejoined Chesterfield as a coach.
On 21 June 2019, Crossley left the Notts County first-team coaching set-up.
On 2 July 2019, Crossley rejoined Chesterfield as goalkeeper coach.
International career
Crossley qualified to play for Wales through a Welsh grandparent. He was a regular in the Welsh international squad, but served as understudy to Neville Southall, and then Paul Jones. He started only eight games. His full international début came against the Republic of Ireland. His most memorable moment with the national team was Wales' 4–0 win over Scotland. Prior to representing Wales, Crossley played for the England U21 team in a tournament in Toulon, France, in 1990.
Career statistics
Club
Source:
A.:^ The "Other" column cons*utes appearances and goals in the Anglo-Italian Cup, Full Members Cup, Football League Trophy and UEFA Cup.International
Source:
References
External links
- Mark Crossley at Soccerbase