John Irving (footballer, born 1988)

John Goodison Irving (born 17 September 1988) is an English former footballer who played as a defender.[2]

John Irving
Personal information
Full name John Goodison Irving[1]
Date of birth (1988-09-17) 17 September 1988
Place of birth Portsmouth, England
Position(s) Defender
Club information
Current team
 Bala Town
Number 26
Youth career
1995–2006 Everton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006–2009 Everton 0 (0)
2009–2013 Bala Town 109 (3)
2013–2015 Auckland City 23 (1)
2015–2017 Bala Town 46 (2)
National team
2003 England U-16 1 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 6 January 2019

Career

Everton

Born in Portsmouth then moved to Liverpool aged 2, Irving began his career at hometown club Everton in 1995. On 20 December 2007, he was named in the matchday squad for a 3–2 win at AZ Alkmaar in the UEFA Cup group stage after Everton had already advanced, but never played a competitive match.[3]

Bala Town

Irving then moved to Bala Town of the Welsh Premier League, where he made 109 top-flight appearances across four seasons becoming their longest serving player, scoring 3 league goals. On 18 May 2013, in his final game for Bala, Irving scored the winner three minutes from time in the UEFA Europa League Play-off game against Port Talbot Town, which resulted in his team qualifying for their first ever European match, a year after losing the same fixture to Llanelli Town.[4]

Auckland City

In 2013, Irving moved to New Zealand and joined semi-professional side Auckland City, freshly crowned champions of Oceania. At the 2013 FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco, he played the first 86 minutes of their 1–2 defeat to Raja Casablanca in the opening game at the Stade Adrar in Agadir.[5]

Irving played all of Auckland's 7 matches as they won the 2013–14 OFC Champions League, concluding with a 3–2 aggregate win over Amicale in the final. At the year's Club World Cup, again in Morocco, he scored a penalty as Auckland defeated Moghreb Tétouan in a shootout in the opening game in Rabat. At the same stadium in the quarter-final on 13 December, he scored the winning goal against ES Sétif to get Auckland to the semi-finals in a man of the match performance, getting Auckland City to the furthest point they have ever reached in the FIFA Club World Cup.[6] In the match for third place against Cruz Azul, Irving missed in the shootout when he struck the crossbar, but Auckland nonetheless won the bronze medal.

Return to Bala Town

In 2015, Irving returned to Bala.[7] On 25 February 2017, he scored in a 3–0 win over Cymru Alliance team Guilsfield to put the club in the Welsh Cup semi-finals.[8] He also played in the final, a 2–1 win over reigning champions The New Saints on 30 April at Nantporth.[9]

Honours
Auckland City
Bala Town

References
  1. "List of Players" (PDF). FIFA. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  2. "Auckland City FC Squad 2014 FIFA Club World Cup". FIFA.com. 13 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  3. Cheese, Caroline (20 December 2007). "AZ Alkmaar 2-3 Everton". BBC Sport. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  4. "John Irving goal sends Bala into Europa League". BBC Sport. 18 May 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2015.
  5. "Raja Casablanca 2-1 Auckland City FC". FIFA. 11 December 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  6. https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/64156960/auckland-city-fcs-rival-on-another-level
  7. "Irving: We thought we were world-beaters". FIFA. 3 December 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  8. Hughes, Adam (28 February 2017). "Bala book place in semi-finals". Cambrian News. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  9. White, Barrie (30 April 2017). "The New Saints denied 'triple treble' as Bala Town strike late to win Welsh Cup". Border Counties Advertizer. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
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