Mike Stowell

Michael "Mike" Stowell (born 19 April 1965) is an English former professional football goalkeeper, and now goalkeeping coach at Leicester City. As a player, he spent twenty years as a professional, eleven of which were with Wolverhampton Wanderers. He is married to women's footballer Rachel Stowell.
Gaining his chance in the professional game at Preston North End in 1985, he impressed enough to receive a contract with top-flight Everton later in the year. In his five years at the club he was loaned out to Chester City, York City, Manchester City, Port Vale, Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Preston North End. He signed permanently with Wolves in 1990, and was their goalkeeper of choice throughout the decade, making 378 league appearances. In 2001 he signed with Bristol City, before retiring in 2005. He had spells as caretaker manager at Leicester City in 2007, 2010 and 2011.

Having played junior football for Kirkham Junior Football Club, Stowell gained his first experience of professional football with a trial for Preston North End, where he played in their reserves and was offered a one-year contract. He turned this down though as the club were then sat bottom of the Third Division and he was entering his final year's apprenticeship with BT in Preston, the town in which he was raised.

While playing for North West Counties League side Leyland Motors, he was offered a trial at top flight Everton and subsequently offered a two and a half-year contract at the club. He signed in December 1985 for what turned out to be a five-year stay at Goodison Park. However, he was unable to force his way past Neville Southall into the first team and never made a league appearance for the team, instead playing in the Central Reserve league. His sole outing for the "Toffees" was in a Full Members Cup tie against Millwall, in which he kept a clean sheet.

The lack of first-team opportunities at Everton saw Stowell experiencing a string of loan moves to lower league sides. In September 1987 he was loaned to Chester City, making his league debut in a 4–1 win over Aldershot on 5 September 1987. He made 15 further appearances for the Cheshire club before joining their Third Division rivals York City in December 1987. He played six league games for York.

In February 1988 he joined Second Division Manchester City on loan, playing 14 league and one FA Cup game for the club during the latter half of the season. He joined Port Vale in a two-month loan deal in October 1988 as cover for the injured Mark Grew, keeping goal in one cup and seven league games. Wolverhampton Wanderers required his services from March 1989 to the end of the season. His final loan spell was with Preston North End in February 1990, playing just the two games.

His two-month loan spell at Wolverhampton in the spring 1989 was to prove the most influential in terms of his career. Impressing during his seven games as Wolves won the Third Division championship, he was signed by manager Graham Turner in July 1990 for £275,000. Stowell finally had the chance to gain regular first team games and became firmly established as Wolves' main goalkeeper throughout the 1990s, playing 448 times in total as the club tried to break back into the top flight. During this time he fought off competition from stoppers such as Matt Murray, Steve Mautone, and Hans Segers. He eventually lost his first team place to Michael Oakes, who was signed for £500,000 in October 1999.

Stowell was also named in the England B squad during his time at Molineux for a friendly against Algeria in December 1990, but did not compete in the match.

He was given a testimonial match against Aston Villa in July 2000, and the following summer was released by the Midlanders and joined Bristol City on a free transfer, having chosen them over Wrexham. Here, he was mostly a reserve, but managed 25 league appearances spread over his four seasons at Ashton Gate, and was an unused substitute in the 2003 Football League Trophy Final. He retired in 2005, and turned down the offer of becoming an official goalkeeping coach at the club, having already found employment at Leicester City.

Stowell spent the early part of his coaching career as, firstly, a goalkeeping coach, and then assistant manager at Leicester City, before being sacked alongside manager Rob Kelly on 11 April 2007.

In July 2007, he was re-appointed goalkeeping coach at Leicester City by Kelly's replacement Martin Allen.

In August 2007, he took over (joint) managerial responsibility at Leicester, following Allen's sacking. He returned to his goalkeeping coaching role when the club appointed Allen's successor, Gary Megson, the following month.

He resumed joint managerial duties at Leicester in October 2010, after the sacking of manager Paulo Sousa after less than three months in charge. He then resumed his role as goalkeeping coach. He was appointed caretaker-manager for a second time in twelve months, when Sven-Göran Eriksson was sacked in October 2011. After a win and two defeats, Nigel Pearson was re-appointed as Leicester manager and Mike Stowell was made goalkeeping and first-team coach.

He married Rachel McArthur in June 2009, who had given birth to his daughter the previous April.

Playing statistics

• Sourced from Mike Stowell profile at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

Managerial statistics

with Wolverhampton Wanderers

• Football League Third Division champion: 1988–89

with Bristol City

• Football League Trophy winner: 2003