Mark Atkins (footballer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mark Atkins
Personal information
Full name	Mark Nigel Atkins
Date of birth	August 14, 1968 (1968-08-14) (age 39)
Place of birth	Doncaster, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Central midfielder
Club information
Current club	Retired
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1986–1988 1988–1995 1995–1999 1999 1999–2001 2001 2001–2003 2003–2004	Scunthorpe United Blackburn Rovers Wolverhampton Wanderers York City Doncaster Rovers → Hull City (loan) Shrewsbury Town Harrogate Town	50 (2) 257 (35) 126 (8) 10 (2) 45 (4) 8 (0) 72 (3) - (-)
Teams managed
2000 2003	Doncaster Rovers (caretaker) Shrewsbury Town (caretaker)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Mark Nigel Atkins (born August 14, 1968 in Doncaster, England) is an English former footballer. He was primarily a centre midfielder but started out as a right-back and showed his versatility by playing in a number of roles. He won a Premier League medal with Blackburn Rovers in 1995.

[edit] Career

Atkins was an integral part of Blackburn's rise from the old Second Division to Premier League champions in 1995. He joined Rovers for £45,000 as a right-back from Scunthorpe United in 1988 but found his best form in centre-midfield and stayed in the team despite the big investment in new players from owner Jack Walker.

His part in Rovers' championship success is often understated, with many falsely believing that David Batty formed the strong midfield partnership with captain Tim Sherwood in that team. In fact, a foot injury kept Batty out until the final five matches and Atkins proved to be an unlikely hero for Blackburn, playing 34 matches and scoring 6 goals in their title season.

Atkins moved on from Rovers soon after their championship success, joining First Division Wolves in September 1995 for £1million. He was a first choice player throughout his time at Molineux as the club fought to reach the Premier League. He reached the play-offs with the team in 1996/97 but they lost 3-4 on aggregate to Crystal Palace, despite Atkins scoring in the return leg to give them a 2-1 win.

After four seasons with Wolves, he was released in 1999, joining York City in the fourth tier on a three-month contract. After leaving this expired, he had an unsuccessful trial at Reading, before training with Conference side Doncaster Rovers, who subseuqently offered him a deal. He remained at Doncaster for the next two seasons, and served as joint caretaker-manager (with Dave Penney) for the final five fixtures of the 1999/2000 campaign after the sacking of Ian Snodin.

He returned to a purely playing role during the next season, which ended with him being loaned out to Hull City for the run-in. He helped the club reach the Third Division play-offs, but was denied a Wembley final by Leyton Orient's 2-1 aggregate triumph.

He joined Shrewsbury Town in July 2001, enjoying a decent ninth-placed finish to his first season at Gay Meadow. The 2002-03 season was one of mixed fortunes for the Shrews, from the highs of runs to the fourth round of the FA Cup and area final of the LDV Vans Trophy to the lows of seven successive defeats, resulting in relegation to the Conference.

Shrewsbury manager Kevin Ratcliffe resigned with one game remaining, and Atkins took charge of the team as they attempted to restore some pride in a home encounter against his original club Scunthorpe United. However, the Shrews succumbed to a 2-1 defeat, and Atkins left at the end of the season. He continued his playing career for one more season, at non-league level with Harrogate Town, also serving as their coach, before finally hanging up his boots for good in 2004.

He remained assistant manager at Harrogate, but both he and manager John Reed left for Stalybridge Celtic in January 2005, from where they were later sacked in April 2007.

[edit] External links

• Mark Atkins career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Shrewsbury Town F.C. – Managers Adams (1905–12) • Weston (1912–34) • Roscamp (1934–35) • Ramsey (1935–36) • Bousted (1936–40) • Knighton (1945) • Chapman (1949–50) • Crooks (1950–54) • Rowley (1955–57) • Potts (1957–58) • Spuhler (1958) • Rowley (1958–68) • Gregg (1968–72) • Evans (1972–74) • Durban (1974–78) • Barker (1978) • Turner (1978–84) • Bates (1984–87) • Brown (1987) • McNeill (1987–90) • Hartford (1990–91) • Bond (1991–93) • Davies (1993–97) • King (1997–99) • Bates (1999) • Ratcliffe (1999–2003) • Atkins (2003) • Quinn (2003–04) • Bates (2004) • Peters (2004–08) • McMahon (2008) • Simpson (2008–)

v • d • e Doncaster Rovers F.C. – Managers Porter (1920–21) • Tufnell (1921–22) • Porter (1922–23) • Ray (1923–27) • Menzies (1928–36) • Emery (1936–40) • Marsden (1944–46) • Bestall (1946–49) • Doherty (1949–58) • Bycroft (1958) • Hodgson (1958) • Crayston (1958–59) • Bestall (1959–60) • Curtis (1960–61) • Malloy (1961–62) • Hold (1962–64) • Leivers (1964–66) • Kettleborough (1966–67) • Raynor (1967–68) • McMenemy (1968–71) • Setters (1971–74) • Anderson (1975–78) • Bremner (1978–85) • Cusack (1985–87) • Mackay (1987–89) • Bremner (1989–91) • Beaglehole (1991–93) • I. Atkins (1993–94) • Chung (1994–96) • Dixon (1996–97) • Weaver (1997) • Cowling (1997) • Bergara (1997) • Weaver (1997–98) • Snodin (1998–00) • M. Atkins (2000) • Penney (2000) • Wignall (2000–01) • Penney (2001–06) • Walker (2006) • O'Driscoll (2006–)