Gary Bennett (footballer born 1962)

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For the former defender of Sunderland, among others, see Gary Bennett (footballer born 1961)

Personal information
Gary Bennett
Full name	Gary Michael Bennett
Date of birth	September 20, 1962 (1962-09-20) (age 45)
Place of birth	Kirkby, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984-85 1985-88 1988-90 1990-92 1992-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997 1997-99	Wigan Athletic Chester City Southend United Chester City Wrexham Tranmere Rovers Preston North End Wrexham Chester City	0 20 0(3) 0126 (36) 0 42 0(6) 080 0(15) 0121 (77) 0 29 0(9) 0 24 0 (4) 0015 0(5) 0048 0(13)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Gary Bennett (born September 20, 1962, Kirkby) was a professional footballer in the 1980s and 1990s. He played for six different clubs in the Football League, with the majority of appearances being made for Chester City and Wrexham.

1 Playing Career
2 Honours
3 External Links
4 References
5 Sources

[edit] Playing Career

Bennett was 23 when he joined Wigan Athletic from playing local football in Preston in October 1984. At the end of the season, Bennett appeared at Wembley Stadium for Wigan in the final of the Freight Rover Trophy, which ended in a 3-1 win over Brentford. However, Bennett was soon on the move as he followed manager Harry McNally to Chester City, where he scored 13 league goals as the club achieved promotion from Division Four.

Bennett scored 23 times in 1986–87 but his season was overshadowed by an incident in an FA Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday that left opponent Ian Knight badly injured. The matter was eventually settled out of court a decade later.^[1] In November 1988 Bennett moved on to Southend United (scoring against Chester later in the month) but by March 1990 he was back at Chester. He remained there until the end of the 1991–92 season, scoring the winner at Stoke City in April 1992 that effectively sealed Division Three survival for Chester.

After being released by the club, Bennett joined Chester’s arch rivals Wrexham and enjoyed the most prolific spell of his career. He struck 16 league goals as the club achieved promotion in 1992-93 and then struck 32 and 29 times in the next two seasons. After short spells with Tranmere Rovers and Preston North End, Bennett returned to Wrexham for the closing stages of the 1996–97 season. He then moved back to Chester in the summer of 1997 for £50,000, registering 12 goals by early November in his first season back. Unfortunately he failed to add any more during the season and he would manage just one more (the winner at his former club Southend in August 1998) before injury forced him to retire from the game in August 1999.^[2]

Bennett is now the landlord of a pub in Skelmersdale.