Gordon Hobson

Football career Hobson was born in Sheffield attending Firth Park School but played his youth football with Winterton Rangers in Lincolnshire. Trained as a plumber, Hobson continued to play in local football, turning out for Sheffield Rangers on Saturdays and for Manchester Villa, a Chesterfield pub team, on Sundays.

Shortly after his 20th birthday, he was signed by Lincoln City, then in the Football League Third Division. He made his professional debut against Cambridge United in April 1978, producing "a sparkling performance in which he seemed to mesmerise the opposition defenders" with his crosses from the right flank providing two goals for "the Imps" and scoring once himself in a 4–1 victory.

Hobson quickly became established as a first-team regular, generally playing at outside-left with Glenn Cockerill on the right and Mick Harford in the centre.

In 1981–82, Lincoln mounted a creditable attempt to reach the Second Division, missing out on promotion by one point. Over the next few seasons, Lincoln generally finished in mid-table and in the summer of 1985, Murphy resigned. In June, Hobson moved on to Grimsby Town of the Second Division for a £35,000 fee. On 11 April 1987, Hobson scored three goals at Maine Road, where Southampton defeated Manchester City 4–2. Hobson's hat-trick (a header, a tap-in and a penalty) was the Saints' first away from home for 18 years. and by the time that he was fit again, Hobson found it hard to break back into the team, especially with the emergence of younger players such as Rod Wallace, Matthew Le Tissier and Alan Shearer. His first match back at Lincoln was a League Cup match against the club he had just left, Southampton, in which Hobson scored City's consolation goal at The Dell. Hobson spent two more years with Lincoln, finishing as top scorer both seasons, with a hat-trick in a 4–1 win at table-topping Burnley in November 1988.

In the summer of 1990, he joined Exeter City for one last season of League football before dropping down to the lower leagues. At Salisbury City, he became player/coach from 1992 to 1994, later becoming assistant manager.

Career after football Hobson retained his home in the Southampton area and became a director of a yacht charter and sales business, based in nearby Hamble-le-Rice.