Ian Helliwell (born 7 November 1962) 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 striker. He 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for

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 ...

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was formed in ...

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 ...

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in EFL League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton ...

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

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 ...

, Chester City and

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

. He played for

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

and Chesterfield as a youth, before joining

Matlock Town Matlock Town Football Club is a association football, football club based in Matlock, Derbyshire, Matlock, Derbyshire, England. Nicknamed 'the Gladiators', they are currently members of the and play at Causeway Lane. History The club was esta ...

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 ...

. After four seasons, he moved to the Football League with York City, where he was top scorer for three successive seasons. He moved on to Scunthorpe United, where he was top scorer for one season, before having spells with Rotherham United, Stockport County and Burnley. He was loaned out on three occasions while at Burnley and he finished his career with Ilkeston Town.

Career

Born in

Rotherham Rotherham ( ) is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies at the confluence of the River Rother, South Yorkshire, River Rother, from which the town gets its name, and the River Don, Yorkshire, River Don. It is the largest settlement ...

, West Riding of Yorkshire, Helliwell attended Old Hall Comprehensive School and started his

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 ...

career as a junior with

. He had trials at

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

before joining the reserve team at Chesterfield in 1982, and during his time as a youth player worked for steel producer

British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

. Helliwell moved into

in 1983 with

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

club

, where he scored 68 goals in just over four seasons before signing for Third Division club

on 23 October 1987 for a £10,000 fee, which remains the record fee paid for a Matlock player.Mike Williams & Tony Williams (2016) ''Non-League Club Directory 2017'', Tony Williams Publications, p184 He made his debut a day later in a 4–2 away defeat to

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, and scored his first goal on 7 November 1987 in a 1–1 home draw with Bury. He finished the 1987–88 season with 33 appearances and eight goals, while York were

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

into the Fourth Division. Helliwell finished 1988–89 as York's top scorer with 11 goals from 47 matches, and was voted as the Clubman of the Year by the club's supporters. His only

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

for the club came on 7 November 1989 in a 7–1 home victory over

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

in the

Associate Members' Cup The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier League ...

, and he finished 1989–90 as York's top scorer for the second successive season with 19 goals, playing in all 54 matches that season. In 1990–91, he finished as top scorer for a third successive season with 10 goals from 49 appearances. Helliwell signed for York's Fourth Division rivals

on 16 August 1991 for an £80,000 fee. He became the first player to miss a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

in a

penalty shoot-out 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 ...

, in an

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 ...

match against

on 26 November 1991. He played in the 1992 Fourth Division play-off final, which Scunthorpe lost on penalties to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. Helliwell scored 14 goals from 50 appearances for Scunthorpe in 1991–92. He finished as top scorer for 1992–93 with 17 goals from 51 matches, and before the start of the following season, signed for

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 ...

club Rotherham United on 1 August 1993 for a £50,000 fee. He played some matches 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 ...

at Rotherham, where he made 47 appearances and scored three goals in 1993–94. Having made 16 appearances and scored three goals during 1994–95, Helliwell signed for Second Division club

on 12 January 1995 as a replacement for Kevin Francis. He scored twice on his debut on 14 January 1995 in a 4–0 home win over

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

, and finished the season with 17 appearances and 4 goals for Stockport. Having scored 11 goals in 29 matches during 1995–96, Helliwell signed for Second Division club

on 9 February 1996 for a £30,000 fee. He made four appearances for Burnley before the end of 1995–96. He was loaned out to Third Division club

on 6 September 1996 for one month, and made his debut the following day in a 0–0 away draw with

. He scored his only goal in his final match, a 1–1 away draw with

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 ...

on 5 October 1996, finishing his loan at Mansfield with five appearances. Helliwell was soon loaned out to another Third Division club, joining Chester City on 11 October 1996, making his debut a day later in a 0–0 draw away to

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 ...

. His only goal came on 19 October 1996 in a 2–1 home win over

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

, and having made nine appearances returned to Burnley in December. His only appearances of 1997–98 came after joining Third Division club Doncaster on loan on 3 November 1997, debuting the following day in a 1–1 home draw with

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

. He finished the loan with nine appearances and one goal, which came on 2 December 1997 in a 2–1 home win over Chester. Helliwell returned to playing non-League football when joining Southern League club Ilkeston Town in 1998 and featured for them in FA Cup matches against

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

teams Carlisle United and

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 ...

. Having returned to semi-professional football, he worked part-time as an electrician. Helliwell took over as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

at Ilkeston after Keith Alexander resigned in October 2000, and led the team to the

first round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

of the FA Cup before John McGovern was appointed in November. In March 2001, Helliwell was appointed as one of a three-man management team at Ilkeston alongside former Burnley teammate Charlie Bishop and former York teammate Chris Marples. The trio guided the club to safety at the end of 2000–01; Marples was consequently hired as manager on a permanent basis in May 2001 and Helliwell returned to his playing role. After Marples left Ilkeston in March 2002, Bishop and Helliwell took caretaker charge before

John McGinlay John McGinlay (born 8 April 1964) is a Scottish football manager, scout and former professional player who is the club ambassador of Bolton Wanderers. As a player, he was a striker over a 26-year career that saw him notably play in the Premier ...

was appointed later that month. Helliwell retired from football following 2001–02, having spent four seasons with Ilkeston.

Style of play

Helliwell played as a striker and, at , his height made him a "useful aerial weapon".

Career statistics

Honours

Individual * York City Clubman of the Year: 1988–89

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Helliwell, Ian 1962 births Living people Footballers from Rotherham English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Matlock Town F.C. players York City F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Ilkeston Town F.C. (1945) players Northern Premier League players English Football League players Southern Football League players English football managers Ilkeston Town F.C. managers Southern Football League managers