Andrew John Leaning (born 18 May 1963) is an English 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, and has since been employed as a

goalkeeping coach An athletic coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction, and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''Coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the ...

. Having started his career in the amateur game with York Railway Institute and Rowntree Mackintosh, he turned professional when he joined York City in 1985. From there, Leaning went on to have spells at

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

, Lincoln City,

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and Chesterfield, before retiring from playing in 2000. Throughout his 15-year career in professional football, he made 282 league and cup appearances. He was promoted with Bristol City after a second-place finish in the Third Division in 1989–90, and was named as Lincoln City's Player of the Year in 1995. Since 2000, he has been a goalkeeping coach at several of his former clubs, including York City, Sheffield United, and Chesterfield, as well as

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

Playing career

Leaning had trials with

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system, as of the 2024–25 seas ...

in 1979 at the age of 16 and he went on to play for York Railway Institute and Rowntree Mackintosh in the

Northern Counties East Football League The Northern Counties East Football League is a semi-professional English football league. It has two divisions – Premier Division and Division One – which stand at the ninth and tenth levels of the English football pyramid respectively. ...

as an amateur while working for

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

. He later played in York's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

and was offered the chance to turn professional with the Third Division club in July 1985. Following an injury to first-choice goalkeeper

Mike Astbury Michael John Astbury (born 22 January 1964), also known as Mick Astbury, was a professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, net ...

, Leaning made his

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

debut in a 1–1 draw at Newport County on 6 November. He played in all of York's seven

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

games in the 1985–86 season and his "finest" performance came in York's 3–1 defeat after

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

against

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

in the fifth round on 18 February 1986, being named

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

following a "heroic" performance. He was able to do a "fine job" in Astbury's absence during the 1985–86 season, which he finished with 39 appearances in all competitions. He made 47 appearances for York in all competitions in the 1986–87 season. Having made 86 appearances for York in all competitions, he was allowed to leave the club in 1987 and following a brief trial with Everton in May 1987, where he played one game in the reserves, he joined

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

team

on 28 May. He made 25 appearances in all competitions for United before signing for Third Division team

for a fee of £12,000 in November 1988, having initially joined on a month's

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

on 27 September. He made 19 league appearances during the 1989–90 season as City secured

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

out of the Third Division with a second-place finish. After making 89 appearances for City in all competitions, he joined the Third Division team Lincoln City on 24 March 1994. He made his debut in a 2–1 defeat to

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 26 March. He was named the club's Player of the Year for the 1994–95 season. While at Lincoln, supporters would chant lyrics from

George Formby George Formby, (born George Hoy Booth; 26 May 1904 – 6 March 1961), was an English actor, singer-songwriter and comedian who became known to a worldwide audience through his films of the 1930s and 1940s. On stage, screen and record he ...

's "Leaning on a Lamppost" in recognition of Leaning. After making 51 appearances in all competitions for Lincoln, he signed for

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

team

in August 1996. He returned to England after signing for Second Division team Chesterfield in October 1996, where he made 29 appearances before retiring in 2000.

Coaching career

Following his retirement from playing, Leaning moved into specialist coaching and he became

at Chesterfield, later having appointments at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

and

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

. He holds

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

'A' licences in coaching and goalkeeping coaching. He worked as a coach for the York College Football Development Centre in 2006. He became goalkeeping coach at former club Sheffield United at the beginning of the 2002–03 season, before leaving the club in May 2010. Leaning was appointed goalkeeping coach at former club York City on a part-time basis on 8 July 2010. He departed the club a little under a year later, on 16 June 2011, after the appointment of

Paul Musselwhite Paul Stephen Musselwhite (born 22 December 1968) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and is the goalkeeping coach at club Scunthorpe United. He made 692 appearances in the league and 815 appearances in all co ...

as a player-goalkeeping coach. He joined

as an academy goalkeeping coach in 2012 and later coached the club's first-team goalkeepers before leaving in July 2014. Leaning returned to York for a second spell as goalkeeping coach on 19 May 2015, working under

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 ...

Russ Wilcox Russell Wilcox (born 25 March 1964) is an English Association football, football coach and former player who is manager of Gainsborough Trinity F.C., Gainsborough Trinity. Wilcox played as a Defender (association football), defender between 198 ...

Jackie McNamara Jackie McNamara (born 24 October 1973) is a Scottish professional Association football, football Sports agent, agent, and former football player, player, Manager (association football), manager and executive. He won 33 international caps playin ...

later became manager, and Leaning left the club on 8 December 2015. Some weeks later he was briefly employed as a goalkeeping coach at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

Personal life

Born in

Howden Howden () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of York to the north of the M62 motorway, M62, on the A614 road about south-east of York and north of Goole, ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, Leaning's son

Jack Jack may refer to: Places * Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community * Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community * Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas People and fictional characters * Jack (given name), a male given name, incl ...

is a

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who has represented

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

at junior level from the age of 11. In June 2008, his unbeaten 164 for the county under-14 team against Cheshire was the highest score ever by a Yorkshire youth player.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *Lincoln City F.C. Player of the Year:

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

Bristol City *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 Football League, 1920–21 and again from 1958–59 Football League, 1958 until 1991–92 Football League, 1992. When the FA Premier League ...

second-place promotion: 1989–90

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leaning, Andy 1963 births Living people People from Howden Footballers from the East Riding of Yorkshire English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers York Railway Institute A.F.C. players Rowntrees F.C. players York City F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Northern Counties East Football League players English Football League players Association football goalkeeping coaches Sheffield United F.C. non-playing staff Chesterfield F.C. non-playing staff Scarborough F.C. non-playing staff Barnsley F.C. non-playing staff York City F.C. non-playing staff Leeds United F.C. non-playing staff Port Vale F.C. non-playing staff 20th-century English sportsmen 21st-century English sportsmen