Roderick James Arnold (born 3 June 1952) is an English former

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 ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

who spent the majority of his career at

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 ...

, having started his career at

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

. With 513 first-team appearances for Mansfield (440 in the league), he is the holder of the club's all-time appearance record.

Career

Arnold began his career at his hometown club

, where he signed his first professional contract in June 1970, and was the club's reserve goalkeeper behind Phil Parkes, but never played any competitive first-team games for Wolves. In February 1971, he joined Mansfield Town on loan, keeping a clean sheet in his debut against

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

on 6 February 1971. He played 17 league games for the Stags in his first spell at the club, and subsequently returned to Wolverhampton. In 1973, Arnold rejoined Mansfield on a permanent basis, and remained the team's first-choice goalkeeper for the next decade. He was a member of the Mansfield teams that won the Fourth Division title in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

and the Third Division championship in

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

. Arnold left Mansfield, and retired from the game in 1984. He has since worked as a goalkeeping coach for Hull City. In recent years he has worked as an MC in one of Hull City's hospitality suites during home games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Rod 1952 births Living people English men's footballers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Footballers from Wolverhampton Men's association football goalkeepers English Football League players Hull City A.F.C. non-playing staff