For five years Mick Clarke was a very popular player at Ossett Town, as the club embarked on its first season in the Northern Premier League. Clarke made his debut on 14 August 1999, the first game of the 1999/2000 season.

That was at Chorley, in a game where The Reds trailed to two goals in the first 25 minutes. A fantastic period at the start of the second half saw Ossett Town go 3-2 up before a glorious chance to make it four was thwarted and Chorley reduced to ten men. Chorley equalised in the last few minutes and Clarke remembers “a load of fans ran on the pitch and went mad, I thought there and then it was going tobe a tough league – and so it proved”.

The manager of the club was Gary Brook, and it was he who brought Clarke to Ingfield from near neighbours Ossett Albion, where he had spent the previous three seasons. “He was a hard man, but I like him because he was a winner and had the same attitude as me. I loved my five years at the club and even when I was out of the side the atmosphere around the place was good, even when new players were introduced”.

Ossett Town had some big names at the time, such as ex-Leeds United youth cup winner Matthew Smithard and striker Scott Jackson. Clarke says “They could both swing a game in your favour, but the best player I played with at Ingfield I would say was Michael Midwood, if he was in the right mood he could win a game singlehanded.”

It wasn’t all high’s though, as Mick Clarke suffered a near career ending injury in a game at Belper where he badly broke his arm. The break was always going to recover, but Clarke admits that mentally it was a tough twelve months. “I was worried I might have lost my bottle, but about the third game back I had a one on one 50/50 challenge and I did not hesitate, so from that moment I knew I would be OK”.

During Clarke’s time other goalkeepers at the club were Lee Bracey who Clarke learnt a lot from as he had spent a lot of his career in the football league and also Jon Scargill “me and him were on the same level of stupid so we had a real laugh together!”

When Clarke’s time at Ingfield was up he returned to Ossett Albion here he played for a further three season as well as three years on the coast at Bridlington Town plus a five game loan spell at Belper, the scene of the broken arm.

These days Clarke doesn’t watch much football as he still plays locally on a Saturday, and says “you have to work harder than the other team then the rest takes care of itself. The time I had at Ossett Town is really special to me as it was there I played at the highest level in my career, and probably the best I had played personally too. I met some really good lads and even loved ‘grumpy’ Graham behind the bar! I have some great memories of Ossett Town.