Mick Buckley (4 November 1953 – 7 October 2013) was an English

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 for Everton,

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 ...

, Hartlepool United,

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 ...

and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Buckley was born in

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

. He started his professional footballing career with Everton in 1971 and made 135 appearances for them, with ten goals. A youth team product, who had rejected advances from

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 ...

and

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 ...

as a schoolboy, he made his debut in March 1972, with manager Harry Catterick viewing him as a long-term replacement for

Colin Harvey James Colin Harvey (born 16 November 1944 in Liverpool, England) is an English former footballer who is best known for his time as a player, coach and manager with Everton. Playing career Harvey was born in Liverpool and joined Everton as ...

.Ivan Ponting, ''Everton: Player by Player'', Guinness Publishing, 1992, p. 82 However it would not be until the arrival of

Billy Bingham William Laurence Bingham (5 August 1931 – 9 June 2022) was a Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager. As a player, his first professional club was Glentoran, whom he played for between 1948 and 1950. Making the move ...

that Buckley fully came to the fore, and was a regular first-teamer during three of Bingham's seasons in charge. He suffered a series of injuries in 1977 and during his absence both

Trevor Ross Trevor William Ross (born 16 January 1957) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Ross played for English clubs Arsenal, Everton, Portsmouth, Sheffield United and Bury. He also featured for AEK Athens of the Greek Fir ...

and Andy King forced their way into the first team picture, with Buckley sidelined when he returned to fitness. Unable to regain his first team spot, Buckley was sold to Sunderland in August 1978 for £80,000. Buckley made his debut for Sunderland on 2 September 1978 against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syst ...

in a 3–1 at

Roker Park Roker Park was a football ground in Roker, Sunderland, England, which was the home of Sunderland A.F.C. from 1898 to 1997, before the club moved to the Stadium of Light. Its final capacity was around 22,500, with only a small part being sea ...

. He went on to make a total of 121 league appearances, scoring 7 goals for the club. He then moved to fellow North East team Hartlepool United in 1983 where he scored no goals in just six appearances, he spent one season at the club. Towards the end of his career, he spent seasons at

and

. Buckley died in October 2013 at the age of 59.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckley, Mick 1953 births 2013 deaths Footballers from Manchester English footballers England men's under-23 international footballers Everton F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Men's association football midfielders