Continuing our series of profiles of players that have featured for the Lads in our history, and usually the ones that don’t get talked about in the same breath of legends such as Quinny, Super Kev, Bally, etc. This week, we delve back to the career of a defender that made only a handful of appearances in the red and white before moving onto pastures new in the North East. The player in question, centre-half Ben Clark.
Consett born Ben Clark was a youth team player for Manchester United after leaving school. Some of his team-mates at the time included future SAFC players Wes Brown and David Healy. However, like a number of footballers, Clark got homesick and was released to join the Lads. Whilst he didn’t break into the first team immediately, the sounds were that we had a very promising player in the system who could take over from the experienced Steve Bould and Paul Butler. His initial breakthrough would come through the following season when he partnered the afore mentioned Butler at Kenilworth Road in a League Cup Second Round Second Leg (the Lads had won the opening leg 3-0 at the Stadium of Light) and it was a winning one as the Lads won 2-1 on the night.
That appearance at Luton would be his only outing that season. The following season the partnership of Darren Williams and Jody Craddock became a staple for Peter Reid as we managed to stay off relegation in a nervous finish. After playing in a 3-3 FA Cup draw with Blackburn Rovers where a last-minute Dwight Yorke strike would force a replay at Ewood, Clark would make his league debut as a substitute at the Stadium of Light against Southampton three days later when a James Beattie goal would sentence the Lads to another defeat. Ben would only make eight appearances for the Lads the following season and was clearly finding starts hard to come by. After appearing in the opening two games of the 2004-05 season, Ben would make the short trip down the A19 to join Hartlepool United on a free transfer.
Pools would miss out on promotion to the Championship in heart breaking fashion in Ben’s first season at Victoria Park where he would make 32 appearances in all competitions and following season, he would cement himself alongside Michael Nelson in the heart of the Poolie defence. That season would unfortunately see Pools suffer relegation 12 months after that promotion near miss. The partnership with Nelson would see Pools go straight back up the following season, but miss out on the title on the final day of that season. Following a less than impressive 07-08 season where he featured only 22 games in all competitions, Clark and Nelson resumed their partnership as Pools endured a battle against survival. His final full season at the Vic would yield just 11 appearances as he struggled to break a Peter Hartley-Sam Collins partnership.
After six seasons and 162 appearances at Hartlepool, Ben dropped down two divisions to the Conference Premier (or National League as it is now known) to join Gateshead. In a six season spell at the International Stadium, he would be a fixture in The Heed’s defence and play 238 times for them. His final season would see him experience football management for the first time too, in conjunction with Michael Cummins. The pair had taken interim charge following the surprise sacking of former Black Cats manager Malcolm Crosby. They remained in charge until Crosby’s permanent successor was recruited with Gateshead opting to go with former Leeds United, Port Vale and Darlington defender Neil Aspin. After leaving the Heed in 2016, he would sign for South Shields but last just four appearances before a groin injury would cause him to hang up the boots. Ben would return to Gateshead as manager in his own right in January 2019 as the successor to former Newcastle defender Steve Watson who had moved onto York City. Financial issues would see Gateshead demoted a division at the season’s end, and Ben’s contract was not renewed. He has not held any managerial roles since.
