Gordon Brown (4 February 1932 – 30 December 1999) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 made over 200 appearances 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for Newport County and Gillingham between 1955 and 1961.

Career

Brown was born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

and, upon leaving school, worked at

Blairhall Blairhall is a village in West Fife, Scotland. It is situated 1.1 miles (1.77 km) west of Comrie, and 6.7 miles (10.783 km) west of Dunfermline. History The village was originally a small hamlet. Blairhall was in Culross parish as an ...

Colliery, where he also played football for the colliery's team. In April 1951 he came to the attention of English

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

club

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

and signed a contract with the

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

-based club. He spent four years at

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a Association football, football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the English Football League, Football League and Premier League, who have played there since ...

and was a regular in the club'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 ...

, but proved unable to dislodge more established players from the Rovers'

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 ...

. In four seasons with the club Brown was never selected to play a first team match. In 1955 Brown was allowed to leave Rovers, and signed for Newport County of the

Third Division South The Third Division South of the Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to on ...

. He soon became a favourite with the

Somerton Park Somerton Park was a football, greyhound racing and speedway stadium in Newport, South Wales. Football In April 1912, Newport County had been accepted to play in the Southern League for the 1912–13 season. Shortly afterwards, the site ...

crowd, and was a regular in the team for four seasons, making over 140 appearances in total and scoring 15 goals. In the 1957–58 season he helped the club to its best finishing position for six seasons. In 1959 he left Newport to join Fourth Division club Gillingham. In his first season with the

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

-based club he played regularly as a winger and scored 12 goals to finish the season as the team's second-highest goalscorer behind Pat Terry. However, he only scored one goal the following season and departed

Priestfield Stadium Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 to 2023 and again from 2024 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium i ...

in the summer of 1961. Brown then moved to

non-league football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

and joined Southern League Division One club

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in the Swale district of Kent, southeast England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons. The town stands next to th ...

for the 1961–62 season; he wasn't retained by the club at the end of the season. It is also recorded that he was attached to Ashford Town. There are no details known of Brown's life after his playing career ended, although it is known that he died in 1999.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Gordon 1932 births Footballers from Dunfermline 1999 deaths Scottish men's footballers English Football League players Men's association football wingers Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Sittingbourne F.C. players Ashford United F.C. players Blairhall Colliery F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Southern Football League players 20th-century Scottish sportsmen