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MARK PATTERSON
Born: 13 September 1968
Came from: Derby County Went to: Gillingham
First game: 14 August 1993 Last game: 03 May 1997
Appearances: 154 (151/3) Goals: 3
Born in Leeds, Patterson started his career further north with Carlisle United.
Starting as a trainee at Brunton Park, he turned professional in 1986 and, after making just 22 appearances, was signed by then top-flight Derby County for £60,000.
He had to wait over four years to make his debut, which came in November 1991. He appeared to be on the verge of becoming a first-team regular before being side-lined by injury for several months and struggling to regain his place. After six years at the Baseball Ground, he had made 51 appearances and scored three times for the Rams.
He joined Argyle in the summer of 1993 for a fee of £85,000 and established himself as a classy and dependable right-back who became a firm favourite with the Home Park faithful. Having failed to fully establish himself in Derby's expensive squad, he accepted the advances of Argyle boss Peter Shilton, who had witnessed the young full-back's development at Derby.
Signed to replace the outgoing Gary Poole, Patterson became an integral part of Shilton's 1993-94 play-off side. Possessing a ceaseless engine and persistent in the tackle, it was his marauding runs down the right flank that endeared him most to Argyle fans. Despite his attacking instincts, he scored only three times in 154 appearances in a green shirt, but did provide one of the most noteworthy assists in the club's history, delivering the superb cross from which Ronnie Mauge headed home Argyle's Wembley winner against Darlington in 1996.
During his four seasons at Home Park, he experienced a play-off semi-final defeat, relegation to the basement division and subsequent promotion at Wembley. He also played under three different managers in Shilton, Neil Warnock and Mick Jones.
His final season at the club was marred by injury and he managed only a handful of appearances. With his contract expiring in the summer of 1997, he opted to join Gillingham, despite insisting that he would have remained at Home Park had an acceptable offer been forthcoming.
In a productive spell in Kent, he finished with a record similar to that at Home Park, making 124 appearances and scoring twice.
After hanging up his boots, Patterson began his coaching career at Gillingham, working as youth manager and professional development coach in two spells from 2007-10 and 2012-20.
He had also enjoyed a brief spell as assistant-manager at Folkestone Invicta, but left in 2006 to return to Gillingham. He had two spells as caretaker manager at Priestfield, first as co-caretaker in 2014-15 and then as caretaker in 2019.
His other coaching roles included assistant manager of Northern Ireland under-21s from 2021-23, followed by Academy Manager positions at Southend United in 2022-23, Leyton Orient in 2023-24 and finally Bromley in 2024-25.
His progression and coaching experience led to his return to Priestfield in 2025 as Head of Coaching Development.
YOUR CONTRIBUTION
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From Drew Savage in The North on 25 Oct 2013 ...
For the benefit of younger readers, the best one-line explanation I can come up with is: if David Norris had been a right-back, he'd have probably turned out like Mark Patterson.
Signed by Peter Shilton from Derby for £60,000, at that point in history he was simply the latest in a long line of ace Argyle right-backs (following in the bootmarks of Gordon Nisbet, Kenny Brown and Gary Poole) and perhaps at the time we didn't quite realise how lucky we were to have him.
Over the years we've had talented players that didn't have the workrate, and more than our fair share of huffers and puffers who put in the mileage but hadn't got the skills to back them up, but Mark Patterson combined footballing technique and physical effort with style.
When you're growing up you always look out for players who play in your position, and as I progressed through youth football I got moved backwards from being a speedy but limited left-winger, to a midfield scuffler, to ending up getting parked at ... More
APPEARANCE DETAILS [reselect competitions]
The details below reflect appearances in all first-team competitions.
We are very grateful to many who have helped write GoS-DB's player pen-pictures, and to Dave Rowntree and the PAFC Media Team for their help with photos. Thanks also to staff at the National Football Museum, the Scottish Football Museum and ScotlandsPeople for their valuable assistance.
The following publications have been particularly valuable in the research of pen-pictures: Plymouth Argyle, A Complete Record 1903-1989 (Brian Knight, ISBN 0-907969-40-2); Plymouth Argyle, 101 Golden Greats (Andy Riddle, ISBN 1-874287-47-3); Football League Players' Records 1888-1939 (Michael Joyce, ISBN 1-899468-67-6); Football League Players' Records 1946-1988 (Barry Hugman, ISBN 1-85443-020-3) and Plymouth Argyle Football Club Handbooks.
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