James Coppinger

James Coppinger

Personal information
Full name	James Coppinger
Date of birth	(1981-01-18) 18 January 1981
Place of birth	Guisborough, North Yorkshire, England[1]
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position	Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club	Doncaster Rovers
Number	26
Youth career
1997–1998	Darlington
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1998–2002	Newcastle United	1	(0)
1999–2000	→ Hartlepool United (loan)	10	(3)
2001	→ Queens Park Rangers (loan)	0	(0)
2001–2002	→ Hartlepool United (loan)	14	(2)
2002–2004	Exeter City	82	(13)
2004–	Doncaster Rovers	343	(33)
2012	→ Nottingham Forest (loan)	6	(0)
National team
1997–1998	England U16	2	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:20, 29 January 2014 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals).

James Coppinger "Copps" (born 18 January 1981) is an English professional footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for Doncaster Rovers in the Championship. He is in his 10th season at the club, and has made nearly 500 first class appearances in his career for all the clubs he's played for.

Playing career

Early career

Born in Guisborough near Middlesbrough, Coppinger started his career as a trainee for Darlington in 1998, though he was signed by fellow North-East side Newcastle United before he even made an appearance. He moved to Newcastle in a £500,000 joint deal with 17-year-old with Paul Robinson in March 1998 when Kenny Dalglish was manager.^[2] Coppinger struggled to make any impact while coming through the Newcastle ranks, playing just once as a substitute against Tottenham Hotspur in August 2000.^[3]

After two loan spells at Hartlepool United and Queens Park Rangers, Coppinger's contract at Newcastle was ended by mutual consent and in July 2002 he moved to Exeter City.^[2]

Exeter City

He made his debut at Shrewsbury Town on 10 August, netting his first goal 2 weeks later against Torquay United.^[4]

Doncaster Rovers

Coppinger was bought by Doncaster manager Dave Penney for a reported £30,000^[5] in May 2004^[6] as he looked to strengthen the squad following promotion to League 1. He was a constant feature in the side from the start, though in that first season, he failed to score in his 38 appearances.^[7] He scored an average of 5 goals in future seasons, his first goal eventually came on 26 November 2005 in a 2–0 victory over Bristol City at Belle Vue.^[7]

He scored a hat-trick, described as, "Three goals of the highest quality." by the TV commentary,^[8] in the 2008 Football League One semi-final against Southend United in a 5–1 victory which secured a place in the League One play-off final at Wembley against Leeds United.^[9] He was in Doncaster's starting eleven for the final, which Doncaster won, gaining promotion to the Championship. On 14 September 2010, Coppinger scored a hat trick against Norwich in a 3–1 victory.

On 21 July 2011, he signed a new contract at Doncaster keeping him at the Keepmoat till 2014.^[10] Doncaster were relegated at the end of the 2011–12 season and needed to off-load players to reduce the wage bill. As a result, he became a subject of interest from several Championship clubs including Barnsley, who he rejected a move to.^[11] After a few games, on 31 August, he was loaned to Nottingham Forest till January 2013 where he joined ex-Rovers Simon Gillett and Billy Sharp under his ex-manager, Sean O'Driscoll.^[12] Disattisfaction with the lack of games at Forest^[13] led him to return to Rovers after the loan spell.^[14]

Coming on as substitute in the 2–1 win over Stevenage on 12 January 2012, Coppinger reached the milestone of 300 league appearances for Doncaster, one of only 10 players to do so at the club.^[15][16]

On 27 April 2013, in an incredible final match of the season at Griffin Park, Coppinger scored the winning goal in a 0–1 victory over Brentford in the final seconds of 5 minutes of added time only seconds after Brentford's Marcello Trotta had hit a penalty against the crossbar. If Brentford had won, they would have been promoted and Doncaster would have to compete in the play-offs. As it was, his goal put Doncaster one point above Bournemouth as Champions.^[17]

Personal life

Doncaster Rovers have worked with the NSPCC since the beginning of 2009. In June 2011 Coppinger, along with Mark Wilson, James O'Connor and other Rovers staff walked the 62-mile Inca Trek raising almost £50,000 for the charity.^[18]

In January 2013, along with several other people, including fellow footballers, Coppinger faced a race-fixing inquiry with allegations of corruption in gambling on horses to lose on Betting exchanges in nine races between 1 November 2010 and 31 March 2011. He strongly denied the charges,^[19][20] though was found guilty of corrupt and fraudulent practices by the British Horseracing Authority and given a three-year ban from any dealings with registered racing individuals.^[21][22]

Honours

As a player

Newcastle United

• Intertoto Cup runner-up: 2001

Doncaster Rovers

• Football League Trophy winner: 2006–07
• League One Play-off Final winner: 2007–08
• League One winner 2012–13

Career statistics

Club

Stats accurate as of 22:20, 29 January 2014.^[23]

References

External links

• James Coppinger career stats at Soccerbase
• Doncaster Rovers F.C. Profile
• YouTube James Coppinger – Best Hat-trick Ever!