Biography
Midfielder Mark Bonner played a short but important role in Hull City’s retention of Football League status in Warren Joyce’s 1998/99 Great Escape season. Bonner joined the Tigers on loan in early January 1999 and made his debut in a League Division 2 game against Rotherham United, a fixture that City won 1-0 to break a long winless streak. Bonner scored the winner in what became his only City appearance, a knee injury requiring him to return to parent club Cardiff City for treatment. It was that Rotherham win that provided a watershed moment for Joyce’s Tigers, the start of an eighteen match run that saw City lose only twice and lift themselves clear of what seemed like an inevitable relegation.
Mark Bonner was born in Ormskirk in Lancashire, after playing for junior side Euxton Villa as a teenager he joined the junior ranks at Blackpool in the 1990 close season. He made his first team debut as a 17 year old in November 1991, a 5-2 Division Four win over Aldershot, though the Shots’ subsequent bankrupcy and expulsion from the Football League meant that Mark’s debut was expunged from the record and his second “real” debut came four days later in 1-1 draw against Chesterfield. Bonner returned to the Reserves after a handful of appearances as the Tangerines won promotion via the Division Four play-offs.
He played more often in Division Three (rebranded as League Division 2) during the 1992/93 season and by the 1993/94 season he was an established figure in Blackpool’s first team midfield. His first Tangerines’ goal came in an August 1993 win against Wrexham and he went on to score seven times in what became the most productive season of his career in front of goal. His first team chances went into reverse in the 1994/95 season under new manager Sam Allardyce, who gave Bonner only eight starts all season. He re-established himself as a first team regular for Allardyce in the 1995/96 season and spent two more seasons at Bloomfield Road – when he left Blackpool in July 1998 Bonner had made 221 senior appearances and scored 15 goals across seven seasons.
Bonner joined League Division 3 side Cardiff City in July 1998, reuniting with his first Blackpool manager Billy Ayre who was now assitant manager for the Welsh side. After a good start, by October 1998 Mark had dropped out of the first team picture and his loan move to Hull City was designed to give him a regular first team start as well as assist the Tigers’ survival bid. Instead Bonner returned to Cardiff after one game and was restored to the first team in March 1999, contributing to the Bluebirds’ promotion to League Division 2. Bonner spent the next four seasons at Cardiff but injury problems meant he was rarely a sustained first team starter – he did however contribute to two more promotions during his time at Cardiff, from League Division 3 in the 2000/01 season and from League Division 2 in the 2002/03 season. He scored three goals in 170 appearances for the Bluebirds.
In March 2004 Bonner moved to League Division 2 side Oldham Athletic and spent two seasons at Boundary Park, again on the fringes of the first team. He broke his arm in September 2005, a bad injury that required two surgeries before he was advised to give up playing football. When he retired in the 2006 close season Bonner had added 37 appearances for Oldham Athletic, taking his career total to 429 senior appearances and 20 goals in a career spanning fourteen seasons.
On his retirement Bonner opened a furniture store in Chorley, Lancashire. In 2013 he moved to Cardiff where he became sales director for another furniture company.
Details
Nationality: England
Date/Place of Birth: 7 June 1974, Ormskirk
Hull City First Game: 9 January 1999, Rotherham United H (League Division 3), 24 years, 216 days old
Hull City Final Game: 9 January 1999, Rotherham United H (League Division 3), 24 years, 216 days old
Clubs
Blackpool (1991-1998), Cardiff City (1998-2004), Hull City (1999, loan), Oldham Athletic (2004-2006)
Hull City Record
Career: 1 apps, 1 goals
Mark BonnerSeason | LGE App | LGE Gls | FAC App | FAC Gls | FLC App | FLC Gls | EUR App | EUR Gls | OTH App | OTH Gls |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1998/99 | 1 (0) | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |