Colin Cowperthwaite (born 16 April 1959) is an English former semi-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 ...

. He is best known as the overall top scorer and record appearance holder for Barrow, a club he played for from December 1977 till December 1992, where he scored 282 goals in 704 league and cup games.The highlight of my career
, ''North West Evening Mail'', 2010-05-06. Retrieved 2011-05-01. He has been voted Barrow's all-time greatest player. Cowperthwaite made his debut for Barrow in 1977 when the team were in the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division ...

, five years after they had been relegated 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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. During his period at the club, he won two Northern Premier League titles, playing eight seasons in that league and nine in the

Alliance Premier League The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

. The biggest success in that period came in 1990 when Barrow beat

Leek Town Leek Town Football Club is an English association football, football club based in Leek, Staffordshire, Leek, Staffordshire, currently playing in the . The team, nicknamed "The Blues", play their home games at Harrison Park. The club was found ...

3–0 in the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

final at

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 north-west Londo ...

, in which Cowperthwaite scored. When Cowperthwaite retired in 1992, his

testimonial In promotion and advertising, a testimonial or show consists of a person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product. The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, whe ...

match was held against

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The two ...

. After retiring, he continued to be active in the local amateur football scene. He played for

Cartmel Cartmel is a village in Cumbria, England, northwest of Grange-over-Sands close to the River Eea. The village takes its name from the Cartmel Peninsula, and was historically known as Kirkby in Cartmel. The village is the location of the 12t ...

in the North Lancashire and District Football League, later managing the team in two different spells. With Cartmel he played alongside a young Jason Walker, who grew up in the same village of

Flookburgh Flookburgh is an ancient village on the Cartmel peninsula in Cumbria, England, until 1974 part of Lancashire. Being close to Morecambe Bay, cockle and shrimp fishing plays a big part in village life. Flookburgh is sometimes thought to derive ...

as Cowperthwaite; like Cowperthwaite, Walker would go on to score for Barrow in an FA Trophy final at Wembley. His 1979-goal after just 3.5 seconds in a game against

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts ...

was at the time the fastest recorded in the English game, and is still the fastest in a national competition, though a faster goal has since been scored by

Marc Burrows Marc Burrows (15 October 1978 – 9 February 2009) was an English footballer, who played as a forward. He grew up in Sandown on the Isle of Wight and attended Sandham Middle School before heading to Sandown High School. Playing career After be ...

in a reserve match. He is the father of

Niall Cowperthwaite Niall Thomas Cowperthwaite (born 28 January 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays for Lancaster City as a left back. Career Born in Barrow-in-Furness, Cowperthwaite moved from the Morecambe juniors to the senior team in August 2 ...

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

with

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), ...

, and who also went on to play for Barrow.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowperthwaite, Colin English footballers Barrow A.F.C. players Living people 1959 births Footballers from Barrow-in-Furness People from Grange-over-Sands Association football forwards Footballers from Cumbria Northern Premier League players National League (English football) players