MIKE GIBSON, arguably the best keeper ever to play for
Bristol City.
Ashton Legends 16
Manager Fred Ford was building a promotion side in 1963 and pulled a master stroke when he motored to Shropshire to sign Shrewsbury Town goalkeeper Mike Gibson for the princely sum of £6,000.
Mike was born in Derby on 15th. July 1939 and gained an England Youth cap while still at school, before playing non league football with Gresley Rovers and Nuneaton Borough. Shrewsbury Town snapped him up in March 1960 and he made 76 third division appearances and helped the Shrews to a League Cup Semi Final before transferring to Ashton Gate in April 1963.
Mike’s early form for City was a little disappointing, culminating in a disastrous day at Eastville where a series of mistakes gifted Bristol Rovers a 3-0 lead in the first eleven minutes of a 4-0 defeat.
Thereafter, however, Mike made the City keeper’s jersey his own , being ever present for three successive seasons from 1964 to 1967 and eventually totalling 383 first team appearances. Mike’s claims to fame included the 1964/65 promotion season and the League Cup Semi final in 1970. A highly skilled performer, Mike would certainly have attracted the attention of First Division Clubs had he not been relatively short for a goalkeeper , standing at 5’9′.
The emergence of a young Ray Cashley in 1972 persuaded City to dispense with Mike’s services and he moved on to Gillingham where he made a further 80 first team appearances before injury finished his career. Mike returned to Bristol to live, becoming a postman and part-time goalkeeping coach at Ashton Gate- a post he holds till this day.
