Scott Brown (footballer, born April 1985)

Brown was born and raised in Wolverhampton; his mother was a former England squash player and his father was a professional tennis coach.[3] A Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter, he was with the club's youth academy between the ages of 12 and 18, but never played a first-team game for Wolves before manager Dave Jones allowed him to leave on a free transfer to Welsh Premier League side Welshpool Town in summer 2003.[4][5][6] Wolves had strong young goalkeeping talent on the books in the form of Carl Ikeme and Wayne Hennessey.[3] During his time in Welshpool Brown worked at Ron Flowers Sports.[3] After being recommended by former Wolves Academy goalkeeper coach Mike Stowell, he went on to have a six-month spell with Bristol City without making a first-team appearance.[7][8][4][3]

Brown joined Cheltenham Town after being signed by management team John Ward and Keith Downing, who had been on the coaching staff at Molineux.[8] He made his senior debut on 7 January 2006, when Cheltenham played out a 2–2 draw with Chester City at Whaddon Road in the Third Round of the FA Cup.[9] He made his debut in League Two three days later in a 1–1 draw at Barnet. He did not feature in the rest of the 2005–06 campaign and was an unused substitute in the play-off Final as Cheltenham secured a place in League One with a 1–0 victory over Grimsby Town at the Millennium Stadium.[10] He initially served as understudy to Shane Higgs, filling in for 11 games as Higgs picked up some injuries in the 2006–07 season, his assured performances helping the "Robins" to avoid relegation out of League One.[8] He did not feature in the 2007–08 season but still was signed to a new two-year contract.[8]

He was promoted to first choice goalkeeper by new manager Martin Allen after Higgs moved away on loan in November 2008.[11] He made 40 appearances across the 2008–09 season but could not prevent the club from suffering relegation back into League Two. He was given the number 1 shirt for the 2009–10 season following the departure of Higgs, and made 44 appearances as Cheltenham finished just one place and four points above relegation into non-league. He played all 50 games of the 2010–11 season, helping the club to improve to a 17th-place finish despite a heavy 8–1 defeat at Crewe Alexandra later in the campaign.[12][4] However he found appearances in the 2011–12 season more difficult to come by after the loan signing of future England international, Jack Butland.[13] Brown returned to the starting eleven after Butland was recalled by Birmingham on 16 April.[14] Cheltenham secured a play-off place with a sixth-place finish and Brown went on to play in the play-off Final at Wembley Stadium, where a 2–0 defeat to Crewe Alexandra saw Town remain in League Two.[15]

Brown was voted Cheltenham's Player of the Year for the 2012–13 season by the club's supporters, whilst the playing squad also voted him Players' Player of the Season.[16] He was also twice named on the League Two team of the week, for keeping clean sheets against York City and Barnet.[17][18] He was an ever-present in league and cup competitions across the 54 game campaign as Cheltenham again secured a play-off place, this time losing out 2–0 on aggregate to Northampton Town at the semi-final stage.[19] He played 49 of the club's 50 games of the 2013–14 season as Cheltenham dropped to 17th-position. In April 2014 he publicly criticising two unnamed players after a defeat against Rochdale, who admitted to manager Mark Yates in training, that they had not been trying.[20] He was offered a new contract at the end of the 2013–14 season but decided to find a new club away from the area after the death of his father.[21][22]

On 28 May 2014, Brown signed with Scottish Premiership club Aberdeen, stating that "I couldn't turn the opportunity down to be involved at a club like Aberdeen and to work with [manager] Derek McInnes and [goalkeeping coach] Jim Leighton on a full-time basis".[23] He made his debut for the "Dons" in a 4–0 win over Livingston at Pittodrie Stadium in a Scottish League Cup tie on 23 September.[24] He also kept a clean sheet on his first league appearance on 24 October, as the "Reds" recorded a 1–0 victory over Motherwell.[25] His instatement as first choice goalkeeper coincided with an excellent run of form for Aberdeen; his eight clean-sheets in a row was part of a winning run that took them to the top of the table in January.[26][27] However, lapses in important defeats in the League Cup semi-final and in a top-of-the-table match against Celtic, which effectively ended Aberdeen's trophy chances, led to Jamie Langfield taking over in goal.[28][29] Brown took the starting place back for the final eight matches of the 2014–15 season as Aberdeen comfortably achieved UEFA Europa League qualification with a second-place finish.[30]

Brown did not feature in the first half of the 2015–16 season due to the form of Liverpool loanee Danny Ward, and instead had to wait until Ward returned to Anfield in January before he could make the first of his 13 appearances that campaign.[31] Despite being preferred to Rotherham United loanee Adam Collin in the second half of the season, he was released in May 2016.[32] He was named as the club's Community Supporter of the Year after putting himself forward as AFC Community Trust Player Ambassador and giving up his free time to support dementia-related charity causes.[33]

On 26 July 2016, Brown signed a two-year deal with League Two side Wycombe Wanderers after impressing manager Gareth Ainsworth on a trial basis.[34] However he picked up an injury on the opening day of the 2016–17 season and was unable to dislodge Chelsea loanee Jamal Blackman from the starting eleven after returning to fitness.[7] On 21 November, he joined National League side Eastleigh on a short-term loan.[35] He spent a month at Ten Acres as manager Ronnie Moore needed cover for regular custodian Ryan Clarke, who had injured his elbow.[36] Back at Wycombe he covered two games for the injured Blackman in December, who was returned to the starting eleven upon his recovery.[7]

On 9 January 2017, Brown re-joined his former club Cheltenham Town on loan until the end of the 2016–17 season, with the club now lying in the League Two relegation zone.[37] He won a place on the EFL team of the week for his "outstanding" performance in a 0–0 draw at Crewe Alexandra on 28 January.[38] He featured 21 times as Town posted a 21st-place finish, avoiding relegation out of the English Football League by two places and four points; during his time there he managed to go on a run of four consecutive clean sheets, which included a penalty save and man of the match performance against Leyton Orient.[39] He came close to signing with Cheltenham permanently but the deal fell through after manager Gary Johnson refused to pay the nominal fee of £5,000.[40]

With Blackman back at Chelsea, Brown established himself as Wycombe's number one and was an ever-present during the 2017–18 campaign as they secured promotion out of League Two in third-place.[41] His departure from Adams Park was announced in May 2018 after he chose to leave the club in search of a move closer to his family in Wolverhampton.[42][43]

On 14 May 2018, Brown signed a two-year contract with League Two side Port Vale, a club recommended to him by Gareth Ainsworth.[44][45] Manager Neil Aspin stated that Brown's experience would help with organising the Vale's young defenders on the pitch.[46] He started the 2018–19 season in good form, which he credited to his settled home life and the goalkeeping coaching of Ronnie Sinclair.[47] Speaking in January though he said that the state of the Vale Park pitch was "unacceptable for a professional football club in League Two".[48] On 9 March, he saved a first-half penalty from Mansfield Town's Nicky Ajose to inspire a 2–1 win, in what was John Askey's first victory as "Valiants" boss.[49] He went on to save a Kieran Agard penalty at Milton Keynes Dons on 20 April – his fifth penalty save of the campaign – and then saved the striker's shot from the rebound to help secure a 1–1 draw.[50] He won all four of the club's Player of the Year awards for the 2018–19 season after keeping a total of 16 clean sheets in a struggling team and signed a one-year contract extension in May.[51][52]

He was named on the EFL team of the week after keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 win over local rivals Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road on 2 November.[53] The following month local newspaper The Sentinel named him as Port Vale's best goalkeeper of the 2010s following a public vote; he finished with 44% of the votes, ahead of Chris Neal (30%) and Jak Alnwick (26%).[54] He made 45 appearances during the 2019–20 season, with Jonny Maddison standing in for just one EFL Trophy game.[55]