Carl Richards is an English former professional footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

. He played for four Football League clubs in a six-year professional career during the 1980s and 1990s, making over 200 League appearances. He played as a forward.

Playing career

Richards signed for A.F.C. Bournemouth

A.F.C. Bournemouth

A.F.C. Bournemouth is an English football club currently playing in Football League One. The club plays at Dean Court in Kings Park, Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset and have been in existence since 1899....

 from non-League side Enfield

Enfield F.C.

Enfield F.C. is a football club, formed in June 2007 after Enfield F.C. ceased to exist....

 in 1986. He made 71 league appearances for the Cherries in two years with the club, scoring sixteen goals.

In 1988 he signed for Birmingham City

Birmingham City F.C.

Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they became Small Heath in 1888, then Birmingham in 1905, finally becoming Birmingham City in 1943.They were relegated at the end of the...

. In one season at St. Andrews, he made nineteen league appearances and scored two goals.

Peterborough United

Peterborough United F.C.

Peterborough United Football Club are a professional English football club based in Peterborough. Peterborough United formed in 1934 and played in the old Midland League, which they won six times; eventually being admitted to the Football League in 1960, replacing Gateshead. Their home ground is...

 signed Richards in 1989, and in one season with the Posh, he made twenty league appearances and scored five goals.

In 1990 he joined Jimmy Mullen's Blackpool

Blackpool F.C.

Blackpool Football Club are an English football club founded in 1887 from the Lancashire seaside town of Blackpool. They are competing in the 2011–12 season of the The Championship, the second tier of professional football in England, having been relegated from the Premier League at the end of the...

. He made his debut for the club on 3 February, in a 3–1 victory over Mansfield Town

Mansfield Town F.C.

Mansfield Town Football Club is an English football club from the former mining town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. The club was formed in 1897 as Mansfield Wesleyans and changed its name to Mansfield Wesley in 1906 before settling on Mansfield Town in 1910...

 at Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road

Bloomfield Road is an all-seater football stadium in the English town of Blackpool, Lancashire. It has been the permanent home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901 and is named after the road on which the stadium's main entrance used to stand. The stadium has been in a process of redevelopment since 2000...

. He scored the hosts' third goal. He went on to make a further fifteen league appearances in the 1989–90 campaign, scoring three more goals in the process (including the only goal of the game in a victory Leyton Orient

Leyton Orient F.C.

Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football club in East London. They currently play in Football League One and are known to their fans as the O's.Leyton Orient have spent one season in the top flight of English football, in 1962–63...

 on 20 March. At the season's end, however, Blackpool were relegated to Division Four, and Jimmy Mullen was sacked.

Mullen was replaced by Graham Carr

Graham Carr

William Graham Carr is an English former professional footballer and football club manager. He is currently Head Scout at Newcastle United.-Club career:...

 for the start of the 1990–91 season. Carr did not start in any of Carr's seventeen league games in charge, but he did appear in one League Cup

Football League Cup

The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...

 and one FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 tie under Carr.

Carr was sacked at the end of November, and his replacement, Billy Ayre

Billy Ayre

William "Billy" Ayre was an English footballer who played for three different clubs in a sixteen-year professional career, making over three hundred League appearances in the process. After retiring from the playing side of the game, he became a manager, and took the helm at five different clubs...

, eventually gave Richards a starting place alongside Dave Bamber

Dave Bamber

John David Bamber is an English former professional footballer.His nicknames included Bambs and Dipper Bamber, the latter for the way in which he lurched forward to head the ball....

. Richards made 22 league appearances in 1990–91 and scored four goals.

In 1991–92, Richards made just three league appearances as Blackpool won promotion back to the third tier of English football via the end-of-season play-offs.

Richards left Blackpool to return to Enfield, where he finished his career.