David Felgate (footballer)

**David Felgate** (born 4 March 1960) is a Welsh retired football goalkeeper. Due to his stature, many supporters affectionately nicknamed him "the fat goalie". Felgate had a long professional career from 1978 to 1995, making a total of 612 Football League appearances. Of the league appearances, 238 came with Bolton Wanderers and he also turned out for league sides Rochdale, Crewe Alexandra, Lincoln City, Grimsby Town, Cardiff City, Chester City, and Wigan Athletic.

He also had spells with Bury and Wolverhampton Wanderers without making any league appearances for these clubs, and Felgate later continued to play non-league football for clubs including Leigh RMI, Hyde United, and Bacup Borough until he was in his mid-40s.

Felgate is perhaps best known for his performance in net for Leigh RMI against Fulham in the 1998/99 FA Cup at Craven Cottage. Non-league Leigh achieved a 1–1 draw against the southwest London side, and thereby attention of the British media. In particular, Felgate, who was then 38 years old, received widespread plaudits for his performance in the match, which prompted then-Fulham boss Kevin Keegan to declare that Felgate's goalkeeping was "the best I've ever seen at any level."

Felgate won a solitary full Welsh international cap in 1983, having earlier played for his nation's schoolboys team. The keeper came on as a substitution for the legendary Neville Southall in a friendly against Romania. Felgate would have had an additional international cap had Wales's scheduled match against Northern Ireland two years earlier in 1981 not been cancelled to Bobby Sands's hunger strike.

After his retirement from playing, Felgate first acted as Manchester City's Academy Goalkeeping Coach and later became the assistant manager for the semi-professional Rossendale United club. He was then employed by Stockport County's as first team Goalkeeping Coach in League One.

In January 2009 he left Stockport County to rejoin Manchester City as their academy goalkeeping coach.

## Honours

### Club

Bolton Wanderers
* Associate Members' Cup: 1988–89

Leigh RMI
* Northern Premier League Premier Division (1): 1999–2000
* Peter Swales Challenge Shield (1): 1999–2000

## References

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Courtney, Barrie (20 May 2004). Wales – International Results 1980–1989 – Details. Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.
Meat pie, sausage roll, hefty Dave's great in goal!. The Bolton News (18 November 1998).
Goalkeeper Coaching in Lancashire. Just4Keepers.
Bacup feeling safe in keeper Felgate's hands. Lancashire Evening Telegraph (18 September 2004).Template:Dead link
Felgate's finest hour. The Bolton News (16 November 1998).
6. ↑ Longmore, Andrew (8 November 1998). Football: Bring on the aristocrats. *The Independent*.
Felgate takes full-time job at Stockport. Rossendale Free Press (6 March 2006).
8. ↑ Luca released. Stockport County F.C. Official Website (12 January 2009).
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## External links

* David Felgate career stats at Soccerbase
* Bolton Wanderers Interview
* Lincoln City League Legend
* Unofficial Dave Felgate Profile at The Forgotten Imp

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