Andy Marshall

D.O.B.

14/04/1975

Birthplace

Bury St.Edmunds

Height

1.88m

Nickname

Who?

Position

Goalkeeper apparently

Signed

August 2009

Fee

Nothing

Former Clubs

Norwich, Ipswich, Gillingham, Bournemouth, Wolves, Millwall, Coventry

International

U21-4

Pen Pic

For now, the third side of the triangle of keepers is one who since joining Aston Villa, has been in somewhat of a bemuda triangle.

Yes, it`s that missing man, Andy Marshall! Good luck trying to explain exactly why he`s at Villa Park. I know I`ve struggled but I`ve given it a go so we`ll see!

Andrew John Marshall was born in Bury St.Edmonds, home to the Greene King Brewery and not a lot else, given that the Wikipedia entry actually lists Marshall as a "notable person from Bury!" The Villa 3rd choice keeper started his career as a trainee at Norwich City and made his professional debut in December 1994, away to Nottingham Forest, replacing the legend Canary Brian "Check out me" Gunn. That injury saw the end of Gunn`s season with Marshall deputising for the majority of the remaining games.

With the big man coming back in, Andy went out, on loan, with spells at Bournemouth and Gillingham, before returning to replace Gunn, for the first time in his career due to performance, in the 1996/97 season. Marshall became a Norwich legend before leaving the club in 2001, citing the need to play Premier League football as his reasons for refusing to sign a new contract.

The problem for him and his aspirations however, was that it took him just down the road to vicious rivals Ipswich Town. It didn`t particularly work out for him there, with the Ipswich fans not really taking to him on account of his past yellow and green allegiance! After just 53 games, with spells at Millwall and Wolves on loan inbetween, Marshall signed a free contract deal with Coventry City and was finally back in action as a fans favourite. Following numerous awards from fans groups, Marshall found himself out of contract once more as Coventry looked towards a younger keeper, which made sense…

…unless you need a really old keeper to do not a lot that is!

Marshall signed on a free transfer in August 2009 and has done not a lot since. At one point his actual whereabouts were questioned on Vital Villa, but it turned out that he was on holiday, as proven by a photo of him that definitely was not edited. Despite an ankle injury that kept him out of action for 6 months of reserve team glory, Andy made an excellent return that cumulated in a number of fine penalty saves in Villa`s reserve team shootout defeat against Manchester United.

The Fear has told me that no photos are available of Andy Marshall for Vital, which I disagree with. Here is an exclusive from me!