Craig Maskell

Craig Dell Maskell (born 10 April 1968) is an English football coach and former footballer.

Craig Maskell

Personal information
Full name	Craig Dell Maskell[1]
Date of birth	(1968-04-10) 10 April 1968 (age 56)[1]
Place of birth	Aldershot,[1] England
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[2]
Position(s)	Centre forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1986–1988	Southampton	6	(1)
1987	→ Swindon Town (loan)	0	(0)
1988–1990	Huddersfield Town	87	(43)
1990–1992	Reading	72	(26)
1992–1994	Swindon Town	47	(22)
1994–1996	Southampton	17	(1)
1995	→ Bristol City (loan)	5	(1)
1996–1997	Brighton & Hove Albion	64	(20)
1997–1998	Happy Valley
1998–1999	Leyton Orient	31	(3)
1999–2002	Hampton & Richmond Borough	141	(66)
2002–2003	Aylesbury United	42	(20)
2003–2012	Staines Town
Managerial career
2003–2012	Staines Town (joint)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

As a player, he was a centre forward who notably played in the Premier League for Southampton. He also played in the Football League for Huddersfield Town, Reading, Swindon Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and Leyton Orient, ^[3] later playing at non-league level for Happy Valley, Hampton & Richmond Borough and Aylesbury United. He would both play and manage Staines Town from 2003 until 2012.

Playing career

Craig Maskell began his professional football career at Southampton where he'd previously signed as an apprentice. After playing a handful of games for the club, he was loaned to Swindon Town before his eventual transfer to Huddersfield Town.

A prolific goalscorer for the team, Maskell was later included in The Fans' Favourites' and nominated by avid fan David Ward, a book which lists the 100 Huddersfield Town players voted by the fans as their favourite players at the time of their centennial in 2008.

A spell at Reading was followed by his move to Swindon Town, under Glenn Hoddle; he scored at Wembley in the 1993 Division One Play-off Final to promote Swindon to the Premier League.^[4]

Following a poor season with the club in 1993–94, when they were relegated from the Premier League with only five wins all season, he was sold back to Southampton for £250,000, but his return to The Dell was not a success. He managed 17 Premier League appearances in two seasons, scoring just once, and unable to break up the three-man attack of Matthew Le Tissier, Neil Shipperley and Gordon Watson. He also faced competition for a place on the bench from the likes of Ronnie Ekelund and Neil Heaney.

He then played for Bristol City, Brighton and Hong Kong teams Happy Valley AA before arriving at Leyton Orient. His role at Brighton was distinguished by a shot that curled around the keeper and hit the post for Robbie Reinelt to score the rebound goal against Hereford that kept the Albion in the Football League.

His 18 months at Orient ended when, as part of the losing team in the 1999 Division Three play-off final, he walked off the pitch at the end of the game vowing never to play for the team again. "I turned to one of my team-mates and said 'that's enough', I'd spent too much time away from my family and too little time on the pitch at Orient."^[5]

Leyton Orient released him at the start of the 1999–00 season and he became assistant coach under manager Steve Cordery at Hampton & Richmond Borough. Maskell was leading goalscorer for the team at the end of the 1999–00 season and had helped the Isthmian League Premier Division club to reach the first round of the FA Cup for the first time.^[5]

Maskell and Cordery moved to Aylesbury in Summer 2002 and he was again amongst the Premier Division's top marksmen with 26 league and cup goals for the team.

The pair took over at Staines Town in 2003, where they continued to play and manage the team until April 2012.^[3]

Personal life

Maskell became a sports teacher at Southgate College during his time in non-league. He later returned to Hampshire to teach sports at Eastleigh College.^[6]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Southampton
	1985–86[7]	First Division	2	1	0	0	0	0	—		2	1
	1986–87[7]	First Division	4	0	0	0	0	0	—		4	0
	1987–88[7]	First Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0
	Total		6	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	1
Swindon Town (loan)	1986–87[8]	Third Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0	0
Huddersfield Town
	1988–89[7]	Third Division	46	28	4	1	2	2	4[lower-alpha 1]	2	56	33
	1989–90[7]	Third Division	41	15	4	2	4	2	3[lower-alpha 1]	2	52	21
	Total		87	43	8	3	6	4	7	4	108	54
Reading
	1990–91[7]	Third Division	38	10	1	0	2	0	—		41	10
	1991–92[7]	Third Division	34	16	5	0	0	0	1[lower-alpha 1]	0	40	16
	Total		72	26	6	0	2	0	1	0	81	26
Swindon Town
	1992–93[9]	First Division	33	18	1	0	2	1	5[lower-alpha 2]	4	41	23
	1993–94[10]	Premier League	14	3	2	0	2	0	—		18	3
	Total		47	21	3	0	4	1	5	4	59	26
Southampton
	1993–94[7]	Premier League	10	1	—		—		—		10	1
	1994–95[7]	Premier League	6	0	1	0	0	0	—		7	0
	1995–96[7]	Premier League	1	0	1	0	0	0	—		2	0
	Total		17	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	19	1
Bristol City (loan)	1995–96[7]	Second Division	5	1	0	0	0	0	—		5	1
Brighton & Hove Albion
	1995–96[7]	Second Division	15	4	0	0	0	0	—		15	4
	1996–97[7]	Third Division	37	14	2	1	2	0	2[lower-alpha 3]	1	43	16
	1997–98[11]	Third Division	17	2	1	0	2	1	—		20	3
	Total		69	20	3	1	4	1	2	1	78	23
Leyton Orient
	1997–98[12]	Third Division	8	2	0	0	0	0	—		8	2
	1998–99[13]	Third Division	15	0	2	0	2	0	3[lower-alpha 4]	0	22	0
	Total		23	2	2	0	2	0	3	0	30	2
Aylesbury United	2002–03[14]	Isthmian League Premier	42	20	1	0	—		12[lower-alpha 5]	4	55	24
Career total			368	135	25	4	18	6	30	13	441	158

1. Appearances in Associate Members' Cup
2. Appearances in Anglo-Italian Cup (2 appearances, 1 goal) and 1993 play-offs (3 appearances, 3 goals)
3. Appearances in Football League Trophy
4. Appearances in Football League Trophy (1 appearance) and 1999 play-offs (2 appearances)
5. Appearances in FA Trophy (9 appearances, 2 goals), Berks & Bucks Senior Cup (2 appearances, 1 goal) and Bryco Cup (1 appearance, 1 goal)

References

1. "Craig Maskell". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
2. Dunk, Peter, ed. (1987). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88. London: Queen Anne Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-356-14354-5.
3. Chalk, Gary; Holley, Duncan; Bull, David (2013). All the Saints: A Complete Players' Who's Who of Southampton FC. Southampton: Hagiology Publishing. p. 400. ISBN 978-0-9926-8640-6.
4. "My favourite game: Swindon reach the promised land – thank Hod". The Guardian. 20 May 2020. Retrieved 21 May 2020.
5. "Craig Maskell – Interview". The Times. UK. 2000. Archived from the original on 18 October 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2007.
6. "Craig Maskeii". saintsplayers.co.uk. Retrieved 22 December 2021.
7. "Player search: Maskell, CD (Craig)". English National Football Archive. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
8. "Craig Maskell's Swindon Town career". swindon-town-fc.co.uk. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
9. "Games played by Craig Maskell in 1992/1993". swindon-town-fc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
10. "Games played by Craig Maskell in 1993/1994". swindon-town-fc.co.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
11. "Games played by Craig Maskell in 1997/1998". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 27 November 2022.
12. "Games played by Craig Maskell in 1997/1998". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
13. "Games played by Craig Maskell in 1998/1999". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
14. "Games played by Craig Maskell in 2002/2003". aylesburyunitedfc.co.uk. Retrieved 4 December 2022.

External links

• Craig Maskell at Soccerbase
• Player Profile – Swindon-Town-FC.co.uk
• Player Profile – Staines Town