Geoff Horsfield

Early career

Horsfield was born in Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire. His father, Terry, was a coal miner, as was his grandfather. While still a schoolboy he started playing football for a men's team, Athersley Recreation, in the Barnsley Sunday League, and had an unsuccessful trial with home-town club Barnsley F.C. On leaving school, Horsfield took a college course in bricklaying. He continued playing football part-time, with Athersley, with Worsbrough Bridge in the Northern Counties East League, and with Football League club Scarborough, where he turned professional in July 1992. Given his league debut in March 1993 by manager Ray McHale, he was released after playing 12 league matches and returned to bricklaying and part-time football. After a nine-game spell with Halifax Town in 1994, he rejoined manager McHale at Guiseley, where his goals helped the club to reach third place in the Northern Premier League Premier Division in the 1994–95 season. During the following season he moved on to Witton Albion, where he scored 6 goals in 26 appearances in all competitions. However, he also sustained a potentially career-threatening knee injury; after making a full recovery he returned to Halifax for a fee reported as £4,000. Horsfield made his second debut for Halifax in October 1996. On the last day of the 1996–97 season, needing to beat Stevenage Borough to avoid relegation from the Conference, Horsfield scored the goal that clinched a 4–2 victory. The following…

Twelve months after he joined Port Vale as player-assistant manager in July 2009, Horsfield was offered a contract at the club as full-time assistant manager. Adams said that Horsfield would have a heavier workload over the 2010–11 season, which would include many hours of scouting to "formulate a catalogue of players [and] get to know all the leagues at all levels", and he would retain his playing registration for emergencies. In December 2010, he was made joint caretaker manager at Vale, along with Mark Grew, following the departure of Adams. Vale were beaten 5–0 by Rotherham United in his first game in charge, but rallied to beat Burton Albion 2–1, before Jim Gannon was appointed manager. Gannon retained Horsfield as his assistant. On the way to a match at Aldershot on 25 February, Gannon left the team bus after an apparent bust-up with Horsfield. The national media reported that Gannon granted Horsfield's request for a day off for family reasons but then wrote to the board complaining about his conduct. Having been shown the letter by a director, Horsfield confronted Gannon over the issue. After an internal inquiry, during which Horsfield stayed away from the club, no disciplinary action was taken against either party. Gannon was sacked on 21 March, and Grew was appointed as caretaker manager with Horsfield as his assistant.

In July 2011, Horsfield stepped down as assistant manager to concentrate on his coaching qualifications, remaining at Port Vale as a coach. Later…

As a player

As a manager

He is married to Tina and has four children: Chris, Chloe, Leah and Lexie-Brooke. In October 2008, Horsfield was diagnosed with testicular cancer, and advised that his playing career was over. As the disease was discovered in its early stages, no chemotherapy or radiotherapy was needed, surgery proved successful and less than two months later he was given the all-clear. Horsfield decided to make his illness public to help spread awareness of the disease and lent his support to a Premier League-backed project launched in 2009 to promote men's health issues. He said: "Getting cancer was something I had to get over. I got it, wanted to beat it and I did. Now I am just glad that I've got another chance in football." Shortly before he joined Port Vale, Horsfield fell victim to the swine flu pandemic. In January 2013, he received emergency treatment for blood clots on both lungs. After retiring from football, he began his own building business. He also established the Geoff Horsfield Foundation, a charity which offers accommodation to homeless people.