Mark Weatherly

Mark Weatherly
Personal information
Full name	Colin Mark Weatherly
Date of birth	18 January 1958 (age 66)
Place of birth	Ramsgate, England
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Position(s)	Striker, defender
Youth career
	Coventry City
1973–1974	Canterbury City
1974–1975	Gillingham
Senior career*
Years	Team
1975–1989	Gillingham
1978	Koparit
1989–1991	Hythe Town
1991–?	Margate
Managerial career
1991	Margate (caretaker)
1992	Margate (joint manager with Lee Smelt)
1992–1993	Margate
1993–1994	Margate (joint manager with Andy Woolford)
1995	Margate (joint caretaker with Karl Elsey)
1996	Margate (caretaker)
2001–2002	Ramsgate
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 11 June 2007

Colin Mark Weatherly (born 18 January 1958) is an English retired footballer. He spent his entire professional career with Gillingham, where he played in 457 Football League matches, a club record for an outfield player.^[1]

Career

Although born in Kent Weatherly was on the books of Coventry City as a schoolboy but was not retained. He also played for non-league Canterbury City from the age of 15. After his release from Coventry, he was signed by Gillingham as an apprentice and soon found himself making his first-team debut. At just 16 years 218 days he was at the time the youngest player ever to play for the club.^[1]

Originally a striker, he was switched to the defence in 1978 and played there or in midfield for the remainder of his career, which saw him play in over 500 matches in all competitions for the Kent club and win the club's Player of the Year award on two occasions.^[1] While at the Gills he was the subject of a children's book entitled Footballer (My Job).

In summer 1978 Weatherly moved to Finnish team called Koparit. He played there two months and became the first foreign player who had played in Kuopio. After him many English players move to Kuopio and played summers there. The teams they played were KuPS, Koparit and Kuopion Elo.

In 1989, he left Priestfield Stadium and dropped into non-league football. He joined Margate in 1991 and stayed there for ten years, including a spell as co-manager in the early 1990s during which he led the club to a Kent Senior Cup final victory at the ground of his old club Gillingham.^[3] He later had a spell managing Margate's local rivals Ramsgate.^[1]

In 2007, he returned to Margate as reserve team manager.^[4] In 2009, he became Head of Youth Development at Ramsgate.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Triggs, Roger (2001). The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club. Tempus Publishing Ltd. p. 330. ISBN 0-7524-2243-X.
^ Dunk, Peter, ed. (1987). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88. London: Queen Anne Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-356-14354-5.
^ "The History of Margate Football Club". margatefchistory.co.uk. Archived from the original on 23 July 2009. Retrieved 11 June 2007.
^ "Who's who". Margate F.C. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 31 May 2007.