Background
Clarke began his career as an apprentice with N ottinghamshire County, a club his father had appeared for in the 1960s.
Clarke began his career as an apprentice with N ottinghamshire County, a club his father had appeared for in the 1960s.
On 6 October 1982, he made his debut for the Magpies as a goalscoring substitute in a Football League Cup tie away to Aston Villa and went on to 16 appearances that season in the then First Division of the Football League. He would go on to play a further four seasons for N ottinghamshire County, the highlight being the 1983-1984 season when he was called up for the England Youth team In the summer of 1987 he dropped out of the Football League to join the newly relegated Lincoln City, where he also made a goalscoring debut, this time against Stafford Rangers on 5 September 1987.
He would go on to make 30 league appearances as Lincoln secured promotion back to the league at the first attempt.
He would stay at Lincoln for a further five and a half seasons before moving to Doncaster Rovers at the beginning of 1994. He remained at Doncaster for the remainder of the 1993-1994 season before dropping out of the league.
He made a single substitute appearance for Gainsborough Trinity at the beginning of the 1994-1995 season before retiring.