Jimmy Goodfellow

Jimmy Goodfellow

Goodfellow playing for Cardiff City Legends in July 2009.
Personal information
Full name	James Goodfellow[1]
Date of birth	16 September 1943[1]
Place of birth	Bishop Auckland, England[1]
Playing position	Midfielder
Youth career
	Newcastle United
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	Consett
	Crook Town
	Bishop Auckland
1966–1969	Port Vale	85	(10)
1969–1973	Workington	199	(15)
1973–1978	Rotherham United	192	(8)
1978–1979	Stockport County	3	(0)
Total		479+	(33+)
Teams managed
1984	Cardiff City
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

James "Jimmy" Goodfellow (born 16 September 1943) is an English former professional footballer and manager. A midfielder, he scored 33 goals in 479 league goals in a 13-year career in the Football League.

He spent his youth with Newcastle United, but did not earn a professional contract. Instead he played amateur football with Consett, Crook Town, and Bishop Auckland; he won the FA Amateur Cup with Crook Town in 1962. He entered the Football League with Port Vale in 1966, before transferring to Workington in May 1969. He moved on to Rotherham United four years later, and helped the "Millers" to win promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1974–75. He ended his playing career after spending the 1978–79 season with Stockport County. He then took up coaching with Newport County, Cardiff City, Plymouth Argyle, and Sunderland. He served as Cardiff's manager for six months in 1984, and later spent ten years working behind the scenes at the club.

Playing career

Goodfellow signed for Newcastle United, despite being a Sunderland fan, but was released by the club at the age of 17 without making a first team appearance. He moved into non-league football, signing for Consett before moving to Northern League side Crook Town. In 1964, at the age of 20, he scored Crook Town's first goal at Wembley when he scored against Enfield in the Amateur Cup final victory. Goodfellow became unhappy with the way the team was selected at Crook Town, being chosen by a committee rather than the club's manager, and agreed to join Bishop Auckland when manager Lawrie McMenemy asked him to do so.

Goodfellow got the call to move into league football at the age of 23, when he was signed to Jackie Mudie's Port Vale.^[1] He scored his first goal in the Fourth Division on 1 October 1966, in a 2–2 draw with Barrow at Holker Street.^[1] He went on to finish the 1966–67 campaign with seven goals in 28 appearances.^[1] Stanley Matthews then took charge at Vale Park, with disastrous consequences; Goodfellow scored twice in 31 games in 1967–68, as the club slipped to 18th place.^[1] New boss Gordon Lee then revitalised the club, though after two goals in 36 games in 1968–69, Goodfellow joined Workington on a free transfer in May 1969.^[1]

The "Reds" finished just one place and one point above the re-election zone in 1969–70, before rising up to tenth place in 1970–71. New boss George Aitken then led the club to sixth and 13th-place finishes in the 1971–72 and 1972–73 campaigns. Goodfellow scored 15 goals in 199 Fourth Division appearances in his time at Borough Park.

He signed for Rotherham United in 1973. A highly consistent player, his one weakness was his lack of goals.^[2] Jimmy McGuigan's "Millers" finished 15th in 1973–74, before winning promotion with a third-place finish in 1974–75. They adjusted well to the Third Division, posting a 16th-place finish in 1975–76, before missing out on promotion due to a slightly inferior goal difference to Crystal Palace in 1976–77. Rotherham then dropped to just one position and three points above the relegation zone in 1977–78. Goodfellow scored eight goals in 192 league games during his time at Millmoor.

He ended his playing career with Stockport County at the end of the 1978–79 season. He made just three Fourth Division appearances for Mike Summerbee's "Hatters", before departing Edgeley Park.

Managerial career

Goodfellow asked by Len Ashurst to join him as his assistant manager at Newport County, but was sacked in November 1981.^[3] Ashurst himself was sacked three months later, and after being appointed as manager of Cardiff City in March 1982 he again installed Goodfellow as his assistant.^[4] He helped Ashurst to lead Cardiff to promotion into the Second Division in 1982–83. Ashurst would leave in March 1984 to take over at Sunderland, his hometown club. Goodfellow was appointed joint caretaker manager of the club, alongside senior player Jimmy Mullen. At the end of the season he was named as the club's permanent manager, with Mullen as his assistant. However, Goodfellow had a poor start to his tenure as City manager, losing eight of the first nine games of the 1984–85 season, and was sacked after just over two months in charge and replaced by Alan Durban.^[5] After his dismissal he joined Plymouth Argyle as physiotherapist, before joining up with Lawrie McMenemy again for an ill-fated spell at Sunderland.

Two years after leaving Ninian Park, he was asked to return to Cardiff as the club's physiotherapist and coach by then manager Frank Burrows. Goodfellow would go on to serve the "Bluebirds" with distinction under a series of managers, and in 1998 he was given a testimonial by the club against Manchester United, with Goodfellow himself being brought on in the final few minutes, at the age of 55.^[6][7]

Statistics

Playing statistics

• Sourced from Jimmy Goodfellow profile at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

Club	Season	Division	League		FA Cup		Other		Total
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Port Vale	1966–67	Fourth Division	26	7	1	0	1	0	28	7
	1967–68	Fourth Division	28	1	1	1	2	0	31	2
	1968–69	Fourth Division	31	3	5	0	0	0	36	3
	Total		85	10	7	1	3	0	95	11
Workington	1969–70	Fourth Division	46	4	2	1	2	0	50	5
	1970–71	Fourth Division	44	1	4	2	2	0	50	3
	1971–72	Fourth Division	46	4	2	1	1	0	49	5
	1972–73	Fourth Division	44	4	4	2	2	0	50	6
	1973–74	Fourth Division	19	2	1	0	0	0	20	2
	Total		199	15	10	4	7	0	216	19
Rotherham United	1973–74	Fourth Division	19	3	0	0	0	0	19	3
	1974–75	Fourth Division	40	1	4	0	4	0	48	1
	1975–76	Third Division	46	2	2	1	2	0	50	2
	1976–77	Third Division	42	0	5	0	2	0	49	0
	1977–78	Third Division	45	2	4	0	4	0	53	2
	Total		192	8	15	1	12	0	119	9
Stockport County	1978–79	Fourth Division	3	0	0	0	2	0	5	0
Career Total			479	33	32	6	24	0	535	39

Managerial statistics

Team	From	To	Record[8]
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Cardiff City	1 March 1984	27 September 1984	23	6	4	13	26.09
Total			23	6	4	13	26.09

Honours

with Crook Town

• FA Amateur Cup winner: 1962

with Rotherham United

• Football League Fourth Division third-place promotion: 1974–75

References

General

• Hayes, Dean (2006). The Who's Who of Cardiff City. Breedon Books. ISBN 1-85983-462-0.

Specific

1. Kent, Jeff (1996). Port Vale Personalities. Witan Books. p. 113. ISBN 0-9529152-0-0.
2. "A-Z Past Players". Rotherham United F.C. Archived from the original on 2 August 2000. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
3. Ashurst, Len (2009), Left Back In Time, Know the Score, p. 182, ISBN 978-1-84818-512-8
4. Ashurst, Len (2009), Left Back In Time, Know the Score, p. 186, ISBN 978-1-84818-512-8
5. "1974-1989 Friday Fame & Pain" Cardiffcityfc.co.uk Retrieved on 30 November 2013
6. "For he's a jolly Goodfellow" Northern Echo Retrieved on 7 September 2008
7. "Cardiff City XI 1–1 Manchester United XI" Red11.org Retrieved on 7 September 2008
8. Jimmy Goodfellow management career statistics at Soccerbase