John Mackie (footballer, born 1976)


John George Mackie is a former professional footballer who is best known for his time at Reading and Leyton Orient Mackie was a central defender.

Career

Mackie was born in London and played football both for his school and for the Area London School Boys team. His dream was to play for Arsenal with whom he had a try out, but was unsuccessful. Later he gained an apprenticeship at West Ham United. At the end of his two-year apprenticeship Mackie was released by West Ham and he started work on a fruit and veg stall while playing for a pub team and Kingsbury Town. He joined Crawley Town in 1995, playing in the Southern League Premier Division. In 1999 he was signed by, then Reading manager, Alan Pardew and joined the then Second Division club. Pardew immediately loaned Mackie out to Sutton United to gain more experience before he start playing for Reading on a semi-regular basis. In his time at Reading Mackie got to play against Chelsea in a League Cup game where the opposition strike force that night consisted of Hernan Crespo.
Mackie's time came to an end at Reading in January 2004 when he signed for Leyton Orient.
In the 2005–06 season, Mackie made a formidable partnership for Leyton Orient with Gabriel Zakuani and went down in Orient folklore by captaining the Os to their first automatic promotion in 36 years. He was released by the club at the end of the 2006–07 season.
On 16 May 2007, he signed for Brentford on a two-year contract. Two days after signing for the Bees, it was announced that Mackie would be Brentford captain for the 2007–08 season. However, Mackie only made 14 league appearances for the club before leaving by mutual consent. He signed for A.F.C. Hornchurch on 18 January 2008, he has since retired from the game and now runs a fruit and veg stall on Camden High Street. On 7 August 2008, Mackie signed for Hertford Town in a semi-professional capacity, but did not make an appearance.
Mackie was appointed assistant manager of Greenwich Borough in December 2015.
Mackie was appointed assistant manager of Potters Bar Town in May 2019.

Career statistics

Honours

Reading
Leyton Orient