Joshua Anthony Isaac Gowling (born 29 November 1983) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

, former

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He is under-18 lead coach at club

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

. Gowling began his career with

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

and saw action on the continent when he moved to Danish side

Herfølge Herfølge is a suburb of the town of Køge, Denmark, located about 5 kilometers south of central Køge, and is a part of Køge Municipality. The suburb is connected to Køge and Næstved by the Lille Syd railway line. Herfølge Church Herføl ...

, where he also took in a loan spell with

Ølstykke FC Ølstykke Fodbold Club af 1918 ; also known as Ølstykke FC or ØFC) is an association football club based in the town of Ølstykke on Zealand, Denmark. The men's team competes in the Zealand Series, one of the sixth tiers of the Danish football l ...

. He returned to England in 2005 and played professionally for

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They have played their ...

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

, Gillingham, Lincoln City,

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team competes in the National League North, the sixth level of the English football league system. Formed in ...

and

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...

. In 2017 he joined

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

and had a spell on loan with

Alfreton Town Alfreton Town Football Club is a football club based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, England. The club are currently members of and play at North Street. History The club was formed in 1959 following the merger of Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alf ...

before joining

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

. He was appointed manager in January 2020 and left the role in February 2023.

Playing career

Early career

A central defender, Gowling began his career as a trainee at

aged just 14 under the guidance of Richard O'Kelly. Following his release from Albion, he signed for Danish Premier Division club

Herfølge Boldklub Herfølge Boldklub was a Danish football club founded in 1921. It is based in Herfølge, a southern suburb of Køge in the eastern part of Zealand. In 2009, the club shared its licence, and merged its professional football with Køge BK to form ...

, making 17 appearances in 2003–04 and 13 appearances in 2004–05. He soon became disillusioned with life in Denmark, and returned to England.

AFC Bournemouth

He joined

on a trial basis to begin with in the 2005 close season, and signed a one-year contract after impressing in various pre-season friendlies. He began the 2005–06 season in good form before rupturing his knee ligaments after about a minute's play in the away match to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

– this serious injury ruled him out for the rest of the season. Having gradually returned to full fitness following his injury, Gowling featured in over 30 league games during the 2006–07 season, scoring his first professional goal in the process in a game against

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

. His performance in the 2–0 home win against

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil, a town in Somerset, England, with a council named Yeovil Town * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town W.F.C., an English women's football team affiliated with Yeovil T ...

on 15 March 2008 saw him named in the League One Team of the Week. In 2007–08 he made 39 league appearances as Bournemouth were relegated to League Two.

Carlisle United

On 19 June 2008 Gowling, whose contract with Bournemouth had run out, signed for

on a free transfer. He agreed a two-year contract with the club, who had lost in the

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

play-offs the previous season, but spent most of that season on loan at

, against whom he had made his league debut for Carlisle.

Gillingham

In July 2009 Gowling joined Gillingham on loan, initially for a month, and made his debut on 8 August in a 5–0 home win over

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

. On 26 August 2009, Gowling transferred to Gillingham on a two-year contract, just two days after extending the loan deal for another month. On 28 October 2010 he agreed to join Lincoln City on a month-long loan deal with the paperwork being completed the following day. He returned to Gillingham at the end of his loan deal. In July 2011, he joined

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, England. Its first team competes in League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' ...

on trial playing seventy minutes in the club's 4–0 friendly victory at

Congleton Town Congleton Town Football Club is an association football club based in Congleton, Cheshire, England. They currently play in the and are full members of the Cheshire County Football Association. The club have played in a number of regional leagu ...

on 11 July 2011 but was not offered a contract.

Lincoln City

On 14 July 2011, he agreed a two-year contract to return to Lincoln City. On 31 August 2012 he left Lincoln City by mutual consent

Kidderminster Harriers

On the same day he agreed a deal to sign for

. Gowling became a key figure in the Harriers defence, ending the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season in the Conference team of the year alongside teammates Lee Vaughan and Anthony Malbon, a season where Harriers finished 2nd, behind

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third level of the English football league system. The club was formed in 1897 as Mans ...

. Gowling took the captain's armband for the 2014–15 season and also took a player/coach role within the club.

Grimsby Town

On 26 March 2015, Gowling joined

on loan till the end of the season. He scored on his debut for the Mariners on 6 April 2015, from a corner he fired in Jack Mackreth's cross in the 69th minute, breaking the deadlock in the 0–2 victory over

, with a right footed shot 3 yards out from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. On 28 May 2015, Gowling signed a permanent two-year deal with the club. Gowling played in Grimsby's 3–1 victory over

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Formed in October 188 ...

in the

2016 National League play-off final The 2016 National League play-off final, known as the 2016 Vanarama National League Promotion Final for sponsorship purposes, was an association football match between Forest Green Rovers and Grimsby Town on 15 May 2016 at Wembley Stadium in Lon ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

, seeing Grimsby promoted to League Two after a six-year absence from

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

. His efforts over the season earned him a place in the 2015–16

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

team of the year, alongside the league's outstanding players. After making 21 appearances for Grimsby in the 2016–17 season he was released by the club on 9 May 2017.

Torquay United

He then signed for

on 13 June 2017. Gowling made 25 appearances for The Gulls as they were relegated from the

. He was transfer-listed by Torquay at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Alfreton Town

On 13 August 2018, Gowling joined

on loan, making 10 league appearances in the

National League North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National League (English footb ...

Hereford

Gowling signed for

club

on 7 December 2018.

Managerial career

Hereford

On 21 January 2020, he was appointed as interim manager, following the departure of

Russell Slade Russell Mark Slade (born 10 October 1960) is an English former professional football manager and coach. Having had an extended career at reserve team level, Slade entered professional sports coaching with Notts County in 1993. He briefly took ...

. Hereford encountered mixed form in Gowling's first months as interim manager, with the 2019–20 National League North season eventually curtailed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In June 2020, he was given the job on a permanent basis, appointing

Steve Burr Steve Burr (born 12 January 1960) is a Scottish football manager and former player who is the assistant manager at 1874 Northwich. Playing career Steve Burr began his football career as a player with Stafford Rangers but it was with a summer ...

as his assistant. On 5 February 2023, Gowling left Hereford by mutual consent.

Darlington

Gowling was appointed manager of

club

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

on 19 September 2023, but was dismissed from the role three months later.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

Grimsby Town *

play-offs:

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

runner-up: 2015–16 Individual *

Conference Premier The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National Leagues and step 1 of the National Le ...

Team of the Year:

Team of the Year: 2015–16

As a manager

Individual *

Manager of the Month: October 2022

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gowling, Josh 1983 births Living people Footballers from Coventry English men's footballers Men's association football defenders West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Herfølge Boldklub players Ølstykke FC players AFC Bournemouth players Carlisle United F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Alfreton Town F.C. players Hereford F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Danish Superliga players Danish 1st Division players English football managers Hereford F.C. managers Darlington F.C. managers National League (English football) managers 21st-century English sportsmen