Kevin Poole

Football player infobox
playername = Kevin Poole
fullname = Kevin Poole
height = 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1963|7|21
cityofbirth = Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
countryofbirth = England
currentclub = Burton Albion
clubnumber = 1
position = Goalkeeper
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1981–1987
1984
1987–1991
1991
1991–1997
1997–2001
2001–2005
2005–2006
2006–
clubs = Aston Villa
→ Northampton Town (loan)
Middlesbrough
→ Hartlepool United (loan)
Leicester City
Birmingham City
Bolton Wanderers
Derby County
Burton Albion
caps(goals) = 028 (0)
003 (0)
034 (0)
012 (0)
163 (0)
055 (0)
005 (0)
006 (0)
078 (0)
nationalyears =
nationalteam =
nationalcaps(goals) =
pcupdate = 14:10, 24 June 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate =

Kevin Poole (born July 21, 1963) is an English football goalkeeper who currently plays for Burton Albion of the Conference National. He has played over 300 matches in a 25 year senior career.

Career

Poole was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. His first club was Aston Villa, whom he initially joined as an apprentice, turning professional in 1981. He played 28 league games for Villa, intercalating a loan spell at Northampton Town from November 1984. He moved to Middlesbrough, newly promoted back to Division Two, in 1987. He left them at the end of the 1990–91 season immediately following a loan spell at Hartlepool United from March 1991.

Poole then signed for Leicester City and went on to make 163 appearances for the club between 1991 and 1997. He was part of the Leicester side that won promotion to the Premiership in 1996, but subsequently lost his position to Kasey Keller.

Poole moved to Birmingham City in August 1997, achieving a regular place thanks to a lingering injury to Ian Bennett in November 1998. However, soon enough he found himself struck by injury, and found himself unable to aid the team until he was released in May 2001. In October of that year he signed for Bolton Wanderers, where he spent four years mainly as backup to Jussi Jääskeläinen. During the 2003–04 season, he was part of the Bolton squad that reached the Carling Cup Final, and was an unused substitute in the final against his old club Middlesbrough. Whilst at Bolton, Poole often trained at West Bromwich Albion with Bolton's goalkeeping coach Fred Barber, due to it being nearer to his Midlands home.

Phil Brown signed Poole, whom he had previously worked with at Bolton, as a goalkeeping coach for Derby County in July 2005. Although he was also registered as a player, this was initially intended only for emergencies; however he was unexpectedly promoted to first choice for a spell due to poor form and injuries affecting young goalkeepers Lee Camp and Lee Grant. 42 year old Poole played seven times for the first team before returning to coaching duties. He was released May 2006 after the ex-management team departed Derby County.

After a trial with Walsall, Poole signed for Burton Albion on a match-to-match basis in August 2006, keeping a clean sheet on his debut a day later at Morecambe, and continued to play until the end of the season. At the end of the 2006–07 season Poole was named Player of the Season at Burton Albion.

The previous winner of Player of the season 2006-07, has verbally agreed to sign on for the 2008-09 Season, aged 45, despite being linked with coaching roles at various league clubs, including Scunthorpe United and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

External links

*soccerbase|id=6407|name=Kevin Poole