Mark Dickson (born 12 December 1981) is a former semi-professional footballer from Northern Ireland. He began his football career as a trainee with Northampton Town, for whom he made one first-team appearance in the Football League Trophy, before returning to his native country, where he played for Newry Town, Larne, Linfield, Crusaders and Donegal Celtic. He won the Irish League and Cup double in successive seasons with Linfield, and scored the winning goal for Crusaders in the 2008–09 Irish Cup Final.
Early life and career
Dickson was born in Belfast. As a schoolboy, he played for the County Antrim under-16 side that reached the quarter-finals of the 1997 Milk Cup, losing to eventual winners Middlesbrough F.C., and also represented Belfast Schools. At club level, he played for St Andrew's Boys, Dunboyne and Glentoran Youth before moving to England to join Northampton Town as a youth trainee. He made only one brief first-team appearance – in the second round of the Football League Trophy on 11 January 2000, as a second-half substitute as Northampton lost to Bristol Rovers in a penalty shootout. While at Northampton, he was called up to the Northern Ireland under-17 team for a friendly match against Wales, and played for the under-18s in the European Championship qualifiers. Dickson completed his two-year apprenticeship with Northampton, but the club did not keep him on.
Newry Town
The 18-year-old Dickson returned to Northern Ireland in the summer of 2000, took a job in the civil service., and signed on semi-professional terms for Newry Town, amid competition from Portadown and Lisburn Distillery for his services. He marked his competitive debut with a deflected goal as Newry beat Crusaders 3–1 on the opening day of the 2000–01 Irish League season. With eight minutes left of the match against Omagh Town two weeks later and 2–0 down, he produced an overhead kick that went in off the crossbar, after which Tommy Morgan equalised. His cross forced Ricky Culbertson into an own goal that gave Newry their first win at Ballymena United for ten years and eased fears of relegation, and a headed goal four days later against Omagh contributed to Newry's comeback from 2–0 down to win 3–2.
Dickson re-signed for Newry, but his form of the previous season dipped. Lowlights of a 1–0 defeat to Ards – that club's first win of the season – included Dickson's first-half failure to score after the goalkeeper had rushed out of his goal to clear and missed the ball, and later "[doing] the seemingly impossible when blasting the ball over the bar from six yards". He was left out of the starting eleven for some time, but returned against Glentoran to produce "what would have been a contender for goal of the season with the match delicately poised when he stole possession 45 yards from goal, cut inside Chris Walker, beat Paul Leeman and just when he was about to pull the trigger, Walker recovered to concede a corner". With the club in financial difficulties, Dickson was one of several players transfer-listed in December 2001, and he dropped down a division to join Larne a few days later.
Larne
Dickson contributed his share of goals, including five in three games in January, a header and a shot in a 4–4 draw with Ballymena, and one of the seven that Larne put past Limavady United in the last game of the season to finish fourth on goal difference. He did however miss a great chance to save Larne from elimination by junior club Killyleagh YC in the sixth round of the Irish Cup.
The Irish League was to be restructured for the 2003–04 season, and the top four teams in the First Division would be promoted. In October 2002, Dickson scored the only goal of the game against Limavady United to give Larne their first home win since the opening day and take them into the automatic promotion positions. The team stayed in and around the top four, and the last promotion place was between them and Bangor for the rest of the season. Dickson's eighth goal of the season, the only goal of the game against Ballyclare Comrades, took them third at the start of March. In April, Larne were losing to Ballymena until Dickson equalised with a volley, and a stoppage-time winner from Mark Parker took them above Bangor on goal difference. The following week, Dickson scored the only goal of the game against Armagh to leave Larne needing a draw away to Bangor on the last day of the season to secure promotion to the Premier League. Larne's goal, scored when a "free kick from the right seemed to strike Dickson on the back of the neck to loop over [the goalkeeper]'s head", combined with "some stout defending", earned them that draw.