Pemberton: John Matthew (John)

1993-1997 (Player Details)

Centre Back

Born: Oldham: 18-11-1964

Debut: v Tottenham Hotspur (a): 20-11-1993

5’11” 11 st 9lb (1993)

Pemberton was playing for Manchester area side Chadderton and Oldham Boys with David Platt before turning professional with Rochdale in September 1984, after being realeased by Manchester United, as a junior, in June 1983, but after only one game was given a free transfer. Crewe manager Dario Gradi, the master moulder of future stars, gave him a chance to restart his career at Gresty Road. Like teammates David Platt and Geoff Thomas, both future England Internationals, Pemberton went on to better things, joining Crystal Palace in March 1988 for £80,000, after one hundred and fifteen League starts and five games from the bench. He helped Palace win promotion to Division One the following season and figured in their side that was beaten by Manchester United in the 1990 FA Cup Final after drawing 3-3 before losing the replay 1-0. Within three months of those Wembley games he left Selhurst Park, after seventy-six starts in the League and two substitute appearances, to join Dave Bassett’s Sheffield United for £300,000 to play in the top flight after the Bramall Lane side had been pipped by Leeds for the Second Division Championship but still managed to get promoted as runners-up in 1989-90. He was a regular in his time at Bramall Lane and was made skipper. He played sixty-eight League games for the Blades, only one being as a substitute. He did get to Wembley where again he was on the losing side in the 1993 Semi-Final as they were beaten by their City rivals, the Owls. He was also in the Sheffield United team for one of Leeds’ finest hours, as they clinched the 1991-92 Championship at Bramall Lane, with Pemberton doing his best to spoil their day as Lee Chapman turned one of his crosses into his own net. The Blades’ skipper left Bramall Lane with seventy-eight League games, including two from the bench, under his belt and at a fee of £250,000, plus £1,000 for each of his first fifty games. An aggressive and pacey defender Pemberton was brought in to bolster Leeds’ squad midway through the 1993-94 season. He proved to be a crowd favourite as they admired his fully committed attitude and 100% effort. He was mainly used as a central defender but he was also used as left-back cover and even scored a hat-trick for the Reserves against Middlesbrough as an emergency centre-forward. This was a strange feat as throughout his career he was a goal-stopper rather than a goal-scorer. He only managed one at Crewe Alexandra, two at Crystal Palace and none at either Sheffield or Leeds. He also continued his abysmal Wembley record being in the Leeds team which crashed to a 3-0 humiliation to Aston Villa in the League Cup in 1995-96. He suffered knee ligament damage at Chelsea in the latter days of that season and after sitting out the entire 1996-97 season he gave up the game. He was given one chance to resurrect his career when Dario Gradi called him back to Gresty Road in August 1997 but he broke down after one game and decided not to try again. After becoming the holder of an UEFA ‘A’ coaching licence, he was coach of the Nottingham Forest Reserve team in the company of Youth coach Chris Fairclough and First team coach David Kerslake, all former Leeds players, and led his charges to the Pontins Central League Championship. He was Manager of Forest for a short while in late December 2008, after the departure of Coilin Calderwood, until the appointment of Billy Davies in January 2009. He took charge of the team for a 3-2 win at Norwich City and for the upset 3-0 win over Manchester City in the F.A. Cup Third Round at Eastlands the following week. At the end of the 2008-09 season Davies reorganized his coaching staff and Pemerton left by mutual consent after ten years with Forest's backroom team. He was brought in by Crystal Palace for two months as Assistant Manager to Paul Hart in an attempt to avoid relegation from the CCCL. This was achieved on the last day of the season, but he was not retained when his contract ran out on that day.