Joshua Anthony Isaac Gowling (born 29 November 1983) is an English

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game be ...

and 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 ...

, who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He most recently managed

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington under ...

. Gowling began his career with

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 ...

and saw action on the continent when he moved to Danish side

Herfølge Herfølge is a suburb of the town of Køge, Denmark, located about 5 kilometers south of Køge, and is a part of Køge Municipality. The suburb is connected to Køge and Næstved by the Lille Syd railway line. Residential areas Holmebækh ...

, where he also took in a loan spell with

Ølstykke FC Ølstykke Fodbold Club ; also known as Ølstykke FC or ØFC) is an association football club based in the town of Ølstykke on Zealand, Denmark. The men's team competes in the Series 1, the sixth tier of the Danish football league system and the ...

. He returned to England in 2005 and played professionally for AFC Bournemouth,

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Park ...

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

, Gillingham, Lincoln City,

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed ...

and

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

. In 2017 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 ...

and had a spell on loan with

Alfreton Town Alfreton Town Football Club is a football club based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, England. The club are currently members of and play at North Street. History The club was formed in 1959 following the merger of Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alf ...

before joining

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a populatio ...

. He was appointed manager in January 2020 and left the role in February 2023.

Playing career

Early career

A central defender, Gowling began his career as a trainee at

aged just 14 under the guidance of

Richard O'Kelly Richard Florence O'Kelly (born 8 January 1957) is an English former footballer turned manager; whose most recent position was Dean Smith's assistant head coach at Premier League side Aston Villa. He began his career at Walsall in 1979, as they ...

. Following his release from Albion, he signed for Danish Premier Division club

Herfølge Boldklub Herfølge Boldklub is a Danish football club founded in 1921. It is based in Herfølge, a southern suburb of Køge in the eastern part of Zealand. In 2009, the club shared its licence, and merged its professional football with Køge BK to for ...

, making 17 appearances in 2003–04 and 13 appearances in 2004–05. He soon became disillusioned with life in Denmark, and returned to England.

AFC Bournemouth

He joined AFC Bournemouth on a trial basis to begin with in the 2005 close season, and signed a one-year contract after impressing in various pre-season friendlies. He began the 2005–06 season in good form before rupturing his knee ligaments after about a minute's play in the away match to

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings w ...

– this serious injury ruled him out for the rest of the season. Having gradually returned to full fitness following his injury, Gowling featured in over 30 league games during the 2006–07 season, scoring his first professional goal in the process in a game against

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around ...

. His performance in the 2–0 home win against Yeovil Town on 15 March 2008 saw him named in the League One Team of the Week. In 2007–08 he made 39 league appearances as Bournemouth were relegated to

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Le ...

Carlisle United

On 19 June 2008 Gowling, whose contract with Bournemouth had run out, signed for

on a free transfer. He agreed a two-year contract with the club, who had lost in the

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

play-offs the previous season, but spent most of that season on loan at

, against whom he had made his league debut for Carlisle.

Gillingham

In July 2009 Gowling joined Gillingham on loan, initially for a month, and made his debut on 8 August in a 5–0 home win over

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

. On 26 August 2009, Gowling transferred to Gillingham on a two-year contract, just two days after extending the loan deal for another month. On 28 October 2010 he agreed to join Lincoln City on a month-long loan deal with the paperwork being completed the following day. He returned to Gillingham at the end of his loan deal. In July 2011, he joined

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

on trial playing seventy minutes in the club's 4–0 friendly victory at

Congleton Town Congleton Town Football Club is an association football club based in Congleton, Cheshire, England. They currently play in the and are full members of the Cheshire County Football Association. The club have played in a number of regional league ...

on 11 July 2011 but was not offered a contract.

Lincoln City

On 14 July 2011, he agreed a two-year contract to return to Lincoln City. On 31 August 2012 he left Lincoln City by mutual consent

Kidderminster Harriers

On the same day he agreed a deal to sign for

. Gowling became a key figure in the Harriers defence, ending the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

season in the Conference team of the year alongside teammates Lee Vaughan and Anthony Malbon, a season where Harriers finished 2nd, behind

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and y ...

. Gowling took the captain's armband for the 2014–15 season and also took a player/coach role within the club.

Grimsby Town

On 26 March 2015, Gowling joined

on loan till the end of the season. He scored on his debut for the Mariners on 6 April 2015, from a corner he fired in Jack Mackreth's cross in the 69th minute, breaking the deadlock in the 0–2 victory over

, with a right footed shot 3 yards out from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. On 28 May 2015, Gowling signed a permanent two-year deal with the club. Gowling played in Grimsby's 3–1 victory over

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

in the

2016 National League play-off final The 2016 National League play-off Final, known as the 2016 Vanarama National League Promotion Final for sponsorship purposes, was an association football match between Forest Green Rovers and Grimsby Town on 15 May 2016 at Wembley Stadium in Lon ...

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 ...

, seeing Grimsby

promoted 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 ...

after a six-year absence 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 ...

. His efforts over the season earned him a place in the 2015–16

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

team of the year, alongside the league's outstanding players. After making 21 appearances for Grimsby in the 2016–17 season he was released by the club on 9 May 2017.

Torquay United

He then signed for

on 13 June 2017. Gowling made 25 appearances for The Gulls as they were relegated from the

. He was transfer-listed by Torquay at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Alfreton Town

On 13 August 2018, Gowling joined

on loan, making 10 league appearances in the

National League 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 Sy ...

Hereford

Gowling signed for

club

on 7 December 2018.

Managerial career

Hereford

On 21 January 2020, he was appointed as interim manager, following the departure of

Russell Slade Russell Mark Slade (born 10 October 1960) is an English professional football manager, who was most recently managerial consultant of League Two club Stevenage. Having had an extended career at reserve team level, Slade entered profession ...

. Hereford encountered mixed form in Gowling's first months as interim manager, with the 2019–20 National League North season eventually curtailed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. In June 2020, he was given the job on a permanent basis, appointing

Steve Burr Steve Burr (born 12 January 1960) is a Scottish former Association football, footballer who was most recently manager of Hednesford Town F.C., Hednesford Town. Playing career Steve Burr began his football career as a player with Stafford Rangers ...

as his assistant. On 5 February 2023, Gowling left Hereford by mutual consent.

Darlington

Gowling was appointed manager of

club

on 19 September 2023, but was dismissed from the role three months later.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

Grimsby Town *

play-offs: 2016 *

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 ...

runner-up: 2015–16 Individual *

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profess ...

Team of the Year:

Team of the Year: 2015–16

As a manager

Individual *

Manager of the Month: October 2022

References

External links

Josh Gowling player profile
at carlisleunited.co.uk * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gowling, Josh 1983 births Living people Footballers from Coventry English men's footballers Men's association football defenders West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Herfølge Boldklub players Ølstykke FC players AFC Bournemouth players Carlisle United F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Alfreton Town F.C. players Hereford F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Danish Superliga players Danish 1st Division players English football managers Hereford F.C. managers Darlington F.C. managers National League (English football) managers