Ollie Clarke is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder

Midfielder

A midfielder is an association football position. Some midfielders play a more defensive role, while others blur the boundaries between midfielders and forwards. The number of midfielders a team uses during a match may vary, depending on the team's formation and each individual player's role...

 in The Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 for Bristol Rovers

Bristol Rovers F.C.

Bristol Rovers Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Bristol, that competes in Football League Two. The team plays its home matches at the Memorial Stadium, in the Horfield area of the city....

.

Career

After progressing through the Bristol Rovers youth system, Clarke joined the professional ranks at The Pirates in 2009, alongside fellow youth team graduates Eliot Richards, Neikell Plummer, Dan Cayford, Mark Cooper, George Booth, Steve Kingdon and Jack McKenna. Of this group only Clarke and Richards made any senior appearances.

Clarke failed to make any first team appearances in his first year as a Bristol Rovers player, so early in his second season he was sent out on loan to injury-striken Gloucester City

Gloucester City A.F.C.

Gloucester City Association Football Club is an English semi-professional association football club currently based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in South West England, via groundshare agreement....

. He played four games for The Tigers, three in the Conference North

Conference North

The Conference North also known as Blue Square Bet North for sponsorship reasons, is a division of the Football Conference in England, taking its place immediately below the Conference National. Along with Conference South it is at Step 2 of the National League System and the sixth overall tier of...

 and one in the second qualifying round of the 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...

. Shortly afterwards he was loaned to Southern League

Southern Football League

The Southern League is an English football competition featuring semi-professional and amateur clubs from the South West, South Central and Midlands of England and South Wales...

 side Mangotsfield United

Mangotsfield United F.C.

Mangotsfield United F.C. is an English football club based in Mangotsfield, in the Greater Bristol area, who currently play in the Southern League Division One South and West. The club is affiliated to the Gloucestershire County FA and Somerset County FA....

, who he joined on Christmas Eve 2010 initially for a month. He remained there for the maximum 3-month period permitted by Southern League rules after the spell was extended and he made a total of 15 appearances, all in the league, and scored three times.

He eventually made his debut for Bristol Rovers in their final game of the 2010–11

2010–11 in English football

The 2010–11 season was the 131st season of competitive football in England.The season began on 6 August 2010 for the Football Leagues, with the Premier League and Football Conference both starting eight days later on 14 August 2010. The Championship, League One, and League Two ended on 7 May...

 season, when he came on as an 88th-minute substitute for Harry Pell

Harry Pell

Harry David Pell is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Hereford United .-Career:Pell joined the youth set-up at Charlton Athletic at the age of 7, progressing through the age groups until he was sent out on loan to Hastings United in a work experience deal in January 2010...

 against Colchester United

Colchester United F.C.

Colchester United Football Club is an English football club based in Colchester. The club was formed in 1937, and briefly shared their old Layer Road home with now defunct side Colchester Town who had previously used the ground from 1910....

 at the Colchester Community Stadium. His hopes of continuing to play first team football after the 2011 summer break were dashed however when he suffered a rupture to his anterior cruciate ligament

Anterior cruciate ligament

The anterior cruciate ligament is a cruciate ligament which is one of the four major ligaments of the human knee. In the quadruped stifle , based on its anatomical position, it is referred to as the cranial cruciate ligament.The ACL originates from deep within the notch of the distal femur...

 on his first day back in training, leaving him unable to play for several months while he recovered from reconstructive surgery.

External links

• Ollie Clarke profile on the Bristol Rovers official website
• Ollie Clarke on Gasopedia, the Bristol Rovers wiki