John Aldridge

South Liverpool and Newport County

Aldridge took a long time to reach the top level of the English game. He began his career in the mid-1970s at non-league South Liverpool, before getting his break in the professional game when, aged 20, he signed for Newport County in the Fourth Division on 2 May 1979 for £3,500. While at Somerton Park, he played 198 times scoring 87 goals, a goal every 2+1⁄4 games, including seven goals in twelve FA Cup matches. He partnered Tommy Tynan and Dave Gwyther for four years at Somerton Park, helping Newport to promotion from the Fourth Division and Welsh Cup glory in his first season, and to reach the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup in his second. His first season with County, the 1979–80 season, saw him score fourteen goals from 38 games as his side won the Welsh Cup and gained promotion to the Third Division. A year later, he featured in the side that achieved a notable European run. In the league, he scored seven goals in 27 league games. He scored eleven goals in 36 games in the 1981–82 season, but in the 1982–83 season, he did better still with seventeen goals from 41 games as County narrowly missed out on promotion to the second tier. In the 1983–84 season, with Tynan having departed, Aldridge had scored 26 times by the end of February, and County were still in the Third Division.

Oxford United

Aldridge was sold to Oxford United on 21 March 1984, when the club was preparing for their Third Division…

Aldridge had already been recruited to play for the Republic of Ireland by the time he was approached by Liverpool at the start of 1987, qualifying through his grandmother, who was from Athlone. (When the Football Association of Ireland came looking for him they found out that Ray Houghton, who also played for Oxford at the time, was also eligible.) He made his debut, aged 27 on 26 March 1986 against Wales at Lansdowne Road in a 1–0 defeat. The match was the first under new manager Jack Charlton. That summer, Aldridge played for the Irish side which had qualified, under Charlton, for Euro 88 in West Germany, their first-ever major finals. They duly beat England 1–0, and drew 1–1 with the Soviet Union, but went out of the competition after a defeat by eventual champions the Netherlands. Aldridge was struggling at international level at this time – he was playing well as a team performer, and Charlton was never unhappy, but it took him 20 matches to score his first international goal, which came against Tunisia at Lansdowne Road on 19 October 1988. Aldridge withdrew himself from Ireland's World Cup qualifying tie with Spain at Lansdowne Road on 26 April 1989, as he felt unable to participate in the game due to his grief over the Hillsborough disaster. The game ended in a 1–0 win for Ireland. Aldridge finally scored his first goals at competitive level when he scored twice in a 2–0 win away over Malta on 15 November 1989, which sealed Ireland's qualification for the 1990 FIFA…

Aldridge is now a pundit with various media organisations – most notably with Radio City 96.7 where he summarises on the station's Liverpool commentaries home and away. He also continues to play in the Liverpool veterans' team. In 1998, he asked Hyder Jawad to ghost-write his autobiography. John Aldridge: My Story was published by Hodder & Stoughton the year after. In 2006, he gained media celebrity in Ireland by appearing in RTÉ's Charity You're A Star competition. Despite not having a natural singing voice, Aldridge won the competition and in the process raised money for his nominated charity Temple Street Children's Hospital. Aldridge was a crowd favourite everywhere he went, especially on Merseyside where being a local lad helped his cause. This was confirmed when a poll conducted by the official Liverpool F.C. website during the summer of 2006 placed him in 26th position. 110,000 Liverpool supporters worldwide took part in the poll named 100 Players Who Shook The Kop, where they were asked to name their favourite Reds of all time. In March 2008, Aldridge took part in the autobiography audio CD series 60 minutes with John Aldridge. He spoke in depth about his career with 60 minutes presenter David Knight and later took part in a major signing session, signing 2000 copies of the CD in support of the Everyman appeal charity. Aldridge was allegedly involved in the News of the World hacking scandal in the mid-2000s. "They tell me I was hacked five or six years ago. I have no…

Club

International

Scores and results list Republic of Ireland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Aldridge goal.