Andrew Marriott (born 11 October 1970) is an English-born Welsh 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 ...

, who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting ...

. He is a

journeyman A journeyman, journeywoman, or journeyperson is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that f ...

player, having represented various clubs, and has also played for the Welsh national team.

Football career

Marriott was born in

Sutton-in-Ashfield Sutton-in-Ashfield is a market town in Nottinghamshire, England, with a population of 48,527 in 2019. It is the largest town in the district of Ashfield, four miles west of Mansfield, two miles from the Derbyshire border and 12 miles north ...

. He began his career as a trainee with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in April 1987, turning professional in October 1988. However, he never made the first team at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

, joining

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

in June 1989 for a fee of £50,000. He was soon sent out on loan by

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Engli ...

to gain some first team experience, joining

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional Association football, football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English foo ...

in September 1989. He made his

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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

debut with Albion in a 3–1 win at

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the Nation ...

on 9 September. Later that season he had loan spells with

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

and

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

. He was also loaned out to

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

in August 1991. Marriott played in the 1992 League Cup Final, which Forest lost 1–0 to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. After 13 first team games for Forest, he moved to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county ...

, in October 1993, for a fee of £200,000. He was a regular over the next five years at the

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground ( cy, Y Cae Ras) is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C. It is the world's oldest international football stadium that still hosts international matches, having hosted Wales' first home ...

, playing over 250 times, and winning five Welsh international

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

, before joining

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

for £200,000 in August 1998. He failed to establish himself at Sunderland however, and was set to join

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

in September 2000. A £300,000 fee had been agreed between the two clubs, but Marriott decided to stay at Sunderland after failing to agree personal terms with Cardiff. A further round of negotiations later that month failed to persuade him to move to South Wales. He joined

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 193 ...

on loan in January 2001. Another loan spell in 2000–01, this time at Barnsley, led to a permanent move on a free transfer at the end of the season. He acted as the club's PFA representative during his time at

Oakwell Oakwell is a multi-purpose sports development in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England used primarily by Barnsley Football Club for playing their home fixtures, and those of their reserves. While the name 'Oakwell' generally refers to the main ...

. In March 2003 he joined

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

for a nominal fee, as goalkeeping cover after

Nico Vaesen Nico-Jos Theodoor Vaesen (born 28 September 1969) is a Belgian former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He retired from football shortly after joining Lierse, but returned to the game in 2008 with K.F.C. Verbroedering Geel for one season w ...

suffered injured knee ligaments. He left at the end of the season after just one Premiership appearance, a 2–1 away defeat against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. Seven minutes into his Blues debut, Marriott collected a tame delivery into the box and dropped the ball at his feet to clear. However, he failed to see behind him

Robbie Keane Robert David Keane (born 8 July 1980) is an Irish professional football coach and former player who played as a striker. Keane served as captain of the Republic of Ireland from March 2006 until his international retirement in August 2016. Keane ...

, who stole the ball and rolled it into the net. The goal was named as the Goal of the Week on the

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside ...

website, which described it as "the cheekiest goal of the season" and "one of the goalkeeping clangers of the season". Birmingham manager

Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion. Born in Corbridge, Northumberland, he was a promising school ...

said that Marriott will be "haunted forever" by the mistake. In August 2004 he joined

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the ...

on a month-to-month deal, but was not kept on and in September had a trial with

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

. He moved to

on a one-month deal in October 2004, as cover for

Aidan Davison Aidan John Davison (born 11 May 1968) is a football coach and former professional footballer who is goalkeeping coach of National League side Wrexham. As a player, he played as a goalkeeper from 1987 until 2008. Having started his career with n ...

. The following month he signed an 18-month contract with Bury. In March 2005 he joined

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

, becoming the sixth keeper the club had used that season. He saved two spot-kicks in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

against

Harrogate Town Harrogate Town A.F.C. is a professional association football club in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the Sulphurites, due to the ...

, before converting the winning penalty himself. At the end of the 2005–06 he was offered a new contract at Torquay, but he turned it down, instead opting to sign for

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The club is know ...

in June. A year later, following Boston's double demotion to the

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sys ...

, he returned to

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, joining Exeter City.

Player/Admin roles

As well as being a registered player, Marriott currently holds the role of general manager at Exeter City. On 7 December 2010 it was announced that Marriott would join Premier League side

in the new year to become Assistant Sporting/Technical Director. Marriott left this post in 2011 to join the Mercedes Formula One venture. There has been widespread speculation that he is in the frame to return to the Hawthorns and succeed his former mentor, Dan Ashworth, as Sporting and Technical Director at West Bromwich Albion.

Honours

;

Full Members Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. Th ...

winners:

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

;

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the mo ...

winners 1995

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marriott, Andy 1970 births Living people Sportspeople from Sutton-in-Ashfield Wales international footballers Welsh footballers Welsh expatriate footballers English footballers England under-21 international footballers Premier League players Association football goalkeepers Arsenal F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Bury F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Boston United F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players S.C. Beira-Mar players Primeira Liga players Expatriate footballers in Portugal Welsh expatriate sportspeople in Portugal