ANDY MARRIOTT 

Last updated : 27 September 2011 By Tony Scholes

Date and Place of Birth

11th October 1970 - Sutton-in-Ashfield

 

Transfers to and from Burnley

from Nottingham Forest - 29th August 1991

returned - 2nd December 1991

 

First and Last Burnley Games

Doncaster Rovers (a) - 30th August 1991

 

Northampton Town (a) - 30th November 1991

 

Other Clubs

Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, West Bromwich Albion (loan),

Blackburn Rovers (loan), Colchester United (loan)

----------------------------------------

Wrexham, Sunderland, Wigan Athletic (loan), Barnsley,

Birmingham City, Coventry City, Colchester United, Bury,

Torquay United, Boston United, Exeter City

 

 

Burnley Career Stats

 

Season League FA Cup League Cup Others Total
                     
  apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls apps gls
1991/92 15 - - - - - 2 - 17 -
                     
Total 15 - - - - - 2 - 17 -

 

Profile by Tony Scholes

It was a playing career that started at Arsenal in the late 80s and ended only last year at Exeter City. It was a career that saw goalkeeper Andy Marriott play no less than 497 league games for a total of 13 different clubs.

He was a Claret for just three months and made 15 of those league appearances for the Clarets in our final Fourth Division season, but by the time he left at the end of his loan spell he'd become a real Burnley hero in a season of heroes.

Marriott signed for Arsenal in 1987 as an apprentice and impressed to such an extent that he was awarded is first professional contract a year later. Even so, he was never to get a first team appearance for the Gunners and in 1989 was on the move when Brian Clough paid £50,000 to take him to Nottingham Forest.

He was quickly loaned out to West Brom, where he finally made a league debut at Leicester in September 1989. Loans to Blackburn and Colchester followed and on the last day of the 1989/90 season, with Colchester already relegated to the Conference, he lined up against Burnley at Layer Road in a game Burnley won 2-1.

Little could he have known that he'd have to wait over a year for his next first team action and that it would be with Burnley. He signed for the Clarets on loan just two games into the 1991/92 season and made his debut alongside another new signing Mark Yates in a 4-1 win at Doncaster.

They were Frank Casper's last signings as Burnley manager and it led to Marriott, who had replaced Chris Pearce in goal, becoming a firm favourite with the Turf Moor crowd. He played the next 15 league games for Burnley during which the club was turned upside down.

He was in goal for three successive defeats in September, saw a change of manager, and then was involved in nine successive league wins. New manager Jimmy Mullen followed Casper in trying to make the deal a permanent one. For what seemed an eternity it was on and then off, then on again and finally off again as it appeared Clough was doing no more than playing games with us.

In  the end we had to admit defeat, and at the end of a 2-1 away win at Northampton he was mobbed by Burnley fans as he said his farewell.

He returned to the City Ground and did get a few games in the first team, including a couple of Wembley appearances, but he was finally sold to Wrexham in 1993 with Brian Flynn paying £200,000 for him.

At Wrexham he enjoyed his best ever spell. He was first choice goalkeeper and made well over 200 appearances for them. Such was his form that he won five full Welsh caps whilst with them and eventually his form attracted bigger clubs and after almost five years at the Racecourse he was on his way to Sunderland.

Three years at Sunderland brought just two league appearances plus loans at Wigan and Barnsley and he eventually moved to Barnsley on a free transfer in 2001. For a time he was first choice but in 2003 came further moves, to Birmingham, Coventry and Colchester with only one appearance for all three combined.

Finally, in 2004 he signed for Bury and for the next seven years with them, Torquay, Boston and finally Exeter, he added another 170 appearances or so to his list. At the end at Exeter he'd been replaced in the first team but acted as general manager at the club until the end of 2010 when he moved on to West Brom as assistant to their technical and sporting director.

All those clubs, a long career, Marriott will forever be remembered as a journeyman footballer who spent most of his career in the lower leagues.

He'll surely be fondly remembered at Wrexham whilst at Burnley he's still talked about today. The timing of his arrival at Turf Moor couldn't have been better. The whole place was finally about to get a lift and Marriott was very much part of it.

Here was a player we so badly wanted at the time. More than once it appeared a fee had been agreed with Clough only for him to constantly keep changing his mind. In the end we had no option but to give up and after more loans we finally signed Marlon Beresford from Sheffield Wednesday as Marriott moved elsewhere. 

 

Links

Andy Marriott is Premier League bound (08/12/10)