Eddie McGoldrick

Club career

He started out at non-league side Kettering Town, but following a transfer to Nuneaton Borough he established himself as a utility player in the early 1980s, before moving into the Football League with Northampton Town, where he collected a Fourth Division title medal in 1987.

McGoldrick then had a successful spell at Crystal Palace where he played 147 times, scoring 11 goals; he is best remembered by Palace fans for the cross that set up Ian Wright's goal to secure promotion to the First Division in Palace's 4–3 aggregate victory over Blackburn Rovers in the 1988–89 Second Division playoff final. He also won a Zenith Data Systems Cup winners medal in 1990–91, when Palace also recorded their best-ever finish of third place in the league. He did however miss out on Palace's appearance in the 1990 FA Cup Final.

McGoldrick moved to Arsenal after Crystal Palace's relegation from the Premier League in 1993, linking up with Wright once again, and made his debut in the Charity Shield against Manchester United on 7 August 1993. However, his time there was less successful; after playing 38 games in the 1993–94 season, including a substitute appearance in Arsenal's European Cup Winners' Cup final win over Parma, he was less of a regular the following season due to the arrival of players like Glenn Helder, and in 1995–96 he played only one match. McGoldrick took Arsenal corner kicks with an unorthodox 'looping' style, by lofting the ball high into the air before it dropped in the penalty area. In all he played 57 times for Arsenal, scoring one goal.

He left Arsenal for Manchester City in the autumn of 1996. The move was initially on loan, becoming permanent in on 18 October 1996 following a £300,000 transfer. McGoldrick joined the club amid a whirlwind of managerial changes. Initially signed on loan by caretaker-manager Asa Hartford (who took over from Alan Ball), his permanent move was the only signing of Steve Coppell's 32-day reign, and he played under two more managers before the end of the season. McGoldrick spent two seasons with City, but was consigned to the reserves for much of his final season at the club, a loan spell at Stockport County providing his only first-team action for 1998.

He stayed on the payroll at Manchester City until retiring as a player in 1999.

International career

He was capped at international level for the Republic of Ireland; he was a member of Ireland's 1994 World Cup squad though he did not play in the tournament.

Management career

After retiring as a player, he had short spells as manager of Corby Town in 2000 and Bashley in 2003.

Prior to becoming player-manager at Corby Town he had a brief spell as commercial manager. In 2008, he was confirmed as the under-14s manager at Northampton Town, and the following year he stepped up to become manager of the club's youth team.

He played veterans football for Great Wakering Rovers.

However, after a spell at Northampton, McGoldrick, decided to help out his old club Crystal Palace by becoming one of their Youth Team managers in 2013, but in that year decided to establish a Football Academy at Catholic school; Thomas Becket Catholic School, based in Northampton, Northamptonshire, whereby players aged over 16 would have a chance of doing a full time football scholarship along with a triple BTEC Sport diploma. At the start of the 2016-17 season, McGoldrick decided to take the football academy to Crystal Palace and requested to turn it into a foundation academy run partly by the Premier League side. McGoldrick was successful and the club play in the Midlands/North U19 National Youth Development League; their first season has seen two teams entered by the club.

Honours