Mike Stowell

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Mike Stowell
Personal information
Full name	Michael Stowell
Date of birth	April 19, 1965 (1965-04-19) (age 43)
Place of birth	Portsmouth, England
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Leicester City (coach)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984–1985 1985 1985–1990 1987 1987 1988 1988 1989 1990 1990–2001 2001–2005	Leyland Motors Preston North End Everton → Chester City (loan) → York City (loan) → Manchester City (loan) → Port Vale (loan) → Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) → Preston North End (loan) Wolverhampton Wanderers Bristol City	00- 00(-) 000 00(0) 000 00(0) 014 00(0) 006 00(0) 014 00(0) 007 00(0) 007 00(0) 002 00(0) 378 00(0) 025 00(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Mike Stowell (born April 19, 1965 in Portsmouth) is an English former professional footballer, and now goalkeeping coach at Leicester City.

Contents 1 Career 2 Coaching career 3 Family 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Career

Stowell got his first experience of professional football with a trial for Preston North End, where he played in their reserves and was offered a one year contract. He turned this down though as the club were then sat bottom of the (old) Division 3 and he was entering his final year's apprenticeship with BT in Preston, where he had been raised.

While playing for non-league Leyland Motors, he was offered a trial at top flight Everton and subsequently offered a two and a half year contract at the club. He signed in December 1985 for what turned out to be a five year stay at Goodison Park. However, he was unable to force his way past Neville Southall into the first team and never made a league appearance for the team, instead playing in the Central Reserve league. His sole outing for the Toffees was in a Simod Cup tie against Millwall, in which he kept a clean sheet.

The lack of first-team opportunities at Everton saw Stowell experiencing a string of loan moves to lower league sides. In these five years, he went on loan to Chester City, York City, Manchester City, Port Vale, Wolves, and Preston North End (again). His Football League debut came for Chester in a 4-1 win over Aldershot on September 5, 1987.

His two month loan spell at Wolves in Spring 1989 was to prove the most influential in terms of his career. Impressing during his seven games as Wolves won the (old) Division 3 championship, he was signed by manager Graham Turner in July 1990 for £275,000. Stowell finally had the chance to gain regular first team games and became firmly established as Wolves' main goalkeeper throughout the 1990s, playing 448 times in total as the club tried to break back into the top flight.

Stowell was also named in the England B squad during his time at Molineux for a friendly against Algeria in December 1990, but did not compete in the match.

In the summer of 2001, Stowell was finally released by the Midlanders and joined Bristol City on a free transfer. Here, he was mostly a reserve, but managed 25 league appearances spread over his four seasons at Ashton Gate before retiring in 2005.

[edit] Coaching career

Stowell spent the early part of his coaching career as, firstly, a goalkeeping coach ^[1], and then assistant manager ^[2] at Leicester City, before being sacked alongside manager Rob Kelly on April 11, 2007 ^[3].

On July 12, 2007, he was re-appointed goalkeeping coach at Leicester City by Kelly's replacement Martin Allen ^[4].

On August 29, 2007, he took over (joint) managerial responsibility at Leicester, following Allen's resignation ^[5]. He returned to his goalkeeping coaching role alone when the club appointed Allen's successor, Gary Megson, the following month.

[edit] Family

Mike married Jo and had 3 children Charlotte, Kieran and Will. The couple divorced in 2005, with Jo and the children staying at the family home in Long Ashton, while Mike moved to Leicester with Rachel Mcarther. They have plans to marry in 2008 and have a baby together named Ella.

[edit] External links

• Mike Stowell career stats at Soccerbase

[edit] References