Gary Poole

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Gary Poole
Personal information
Full name Gary John Poole
Date of birth September 11, 1967 (1967-09-11) (age 40)
Place of birth    London, England
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing position Right-back
Youth clubs
1983–1985 Tottenham Hotspur
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1985–1987
1987–1989
1989–1992
1992–1993
1993–1994
1994–1996
1996–1999		 Tottenham Hotspur
Cambridge United
Barnet
Plymouth Argyle
Southend United
Birmingham City
Charlton Athletic		 000 00(0)
043 00(0)
040 00(2)[1]
039 00(6)
044 00(2)
072 00(0)
016 00(1)   

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Gary John Poole (born September 11, 1967) is a former English professional footballer who played as a right-back. He made over 250 appearances in the Football League.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Poole was born in Stratford, London. He came through the juniors at Tottenham Hotspur and was given a professional contract, but made no appearances for the first team and was released after two years. He signed for Fourth Division Cambridge United, and after 18 months was sold for £3,000 to Vauxhall Conference side Barnet, managed by Barry Fry. In his first full season Barnet were promoted as champions to Division Four, and reached the play-offs in 1991–92.

He was then allowed to leave on a free transfer to Plymouth Argyle in the newly-designated Second Division, where he captained the side. While at Plymouth he was involved in an incident which ended Rotherham United winger John Buckley's Football League career.[2] Buckley was knocked unconscious in a clash of heads with Poole, requiring emergency surgery to remove a blood clot from the brain,[3] and remained in a coma on life support for four days.[4]

Poole spent just one season at Plymouth before Fry brought him to Southend United of Division One for a club record[5] fee of £350,000. Another year later he joined up with Fry again, this time at Birmingham City, newly-relegated to the third tier of English football, for a fee of £50,000. Success followed in 1994–95 with the Second Division championship and victory in the Auto Windscreens Shield at Wembley. The next season Poole took over the captaincy after Liam Daish was sold to Coventry City, captaining the side in the League Cup semi-final against Leeds United.

In the match against Manchester City at Maine Road in September 1996, referee Richard Poulain awarded a penalty late on; Poole, who had conceded the free kick which led to the penalty, lost control and pushed the referee from behind such that he needed treatment for whiplash after the game.[6] The FA imposed an instant suspension on the player; after a hearing, the length of the ban was set at four matches.[7] A month later manager Trevor Francis sold him to fellow First Division club Charlton Athletic for a fee of £250,000.

He played 16 games for Charlton that season, but a knee injury sustained in a reserve game put an end to his first team career. Still contracted to the club when they gained promotion to the Premier League the following season, he attempted a comeback in the reserves after more than a year out,[8] but never appeared in the top flight and retired in August 1999.[9]

A qualified coach, he is now a director of a company providing investment opportunities for sportspeople.[10]

[edit] Honours

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ This figure is for Football League games only - if anyone has his stats for Barnet in the Conference, please add them on.
  2. ^ Players of the 90s. ptfc.net (a Partick Thistle resource). Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
  3. ^ "Footballer hurt - John Buckley", The Sunday Times, 1993-03-14, p. 1. Retrieved on 2007-09-13. 
  4. ^ "Footballer recovers - John Buckley", The Times, 1993-03-18, p. 2. Retrieved on 2007-09-13. 
  5. ^ Gary Poole. Southend United Player Database (2005-06-28). Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
  6. ^ Hodgson, Guy. "City distract discontented" (accessed via findarticles.com), The Independent, 1996-09-23. Retrieved on 2007-09-13. 
  7. ^ Martin, Andrew. "FA bans Poole for two more matches" (accessed via findarticles.com), The Independent, 1996-10-08. Retrieved on 2007-09-13. 
  8. ^ Poole dives back into Addicks action. 4thegame.com (1998-08-19). Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
  9. ^ "Gary Poole", The Sun, 1999-08-21, p. 69. Retrieved on 2007-09-13. 
  10. ^ Meet the team. Sportspro Ltd company website. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.

[edit] References

  • Matthews, Tony (1995). Birmingham City: A Complete Record. Breedon Books. ISBN 1-85983-010-2. 

[edit] External links

Gary Poole career stats at Soccerbase


Persondata
NAME Poole, Gary John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Professional footballer
DATE OF BIRTH 1967-09-11
PLACE OF BIRTH Stratford, London, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH