David Longhurst

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title: "David Longhurst" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1965-births", "footballers-from-northampton", "1990-deaths", "english-men's-footballers", "association-football-players-who-died-while-playing", "men's-association-football-forwards", "nottingham-forest-f.c.-players", "halifax-town-a.f.c.-players", "northampton-town-f.c.-players", "peterborough-united-f.c.-players", "york-city-f.c.-players", "sport-deaths-in-england", "english-football-league-players", "20th-century-english-sportsmen"] description: "English footballer (1965–1990)" topic_path: "technology/web" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Longhurst" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English footballer (1965–1990) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox football biography"]

Field	Value
name	David Longhurst
fullname	David John Longhurst
birth_date
birth_place	Northampton, England
death_date
death_place	York, England
height
position	Striker
years1	1983–1985
clubs1	Nottingham Forest
caps1	0
goals1	0
years2	1985–1987
clubs2	Halifax Town
caps2	85
goals2	24
years3	1987–1988
clubs3	Northampton Town
caps3	37
goals3	7
years4	1988–1990
clubs4	Peterborough United
caps4	58
goals4	7
years5	1990
clubs5	York City
caps5	6
goals5	2
totalcaps	186
::

| name = David Longhurst | image = | fullname = David John Longhurst | birth_date = | birth_place = Northampton, England | death_date = | death_place = York, England | height = | position = Striker | youthyears1 = | youthclubs1 = | years1 = 1983–1985 | clubs1 = Nottingham Forest | caps1 = 0 | goals1 = 0 | years2 = 1985–1987 | clubs2 = Halifax Town | caps2 = 85 | goals2 = 24 | years3 = 1987–1988 | clubs3 = Northampton Town | caps3 = 37 | goals3 = 7 | years4 = 1988–1990 | clubs4 = Peterborough United | caps4 = 58 | goals4 = 7 | years5 = 1990 | clubs5 = York City | caps5 = 6 | goals5 = 2 | totalcaps = 186 | totalgoals = 40 David John Longhurst (15 January 1965 – 8 September 1990) was an English footballer. During his career, he played for Nottingham Forest, Halifax Town, Northampton Town, Peterborough United and York City. He died on the pitch during a match for York City against Lincoln City in 1990.

Career

Northampton-born Longhurst was a pacy striker who began his career in Nottingham Forest's youth team under the management of Brian Clough in the early 1980s, and received a permanent contract in 1983. However, he never played a first team game for Forest, and joined Halifax Town in the Fourth Division on a free transfer in 1985. He was a regular goalscorer at the club, scoring 24 goals in 85 league appearances, although it wasn't enough to turn the West Yorkshire club into promotion contenders. After two seasons at Halifax, he joined his hometown club Northampton Town in 1987.

After one season at Northampton, Longhurst was signed by Peterborough United in 1988, scoring a hat-trick in a 3–3 draw with Gillingham in the FA Cup first round at Priestfield Stadium on 19 November that year. Peterborough won the replay 1–0.

He joined York City in March 1990. In the third match of the 1990–91 season against Lincoln City, Longhurst suffered a heart attack on the pitch, and was pronounced dead when he arrived at the hospital. He was the first player to die in a Football League match in 63 years; the previous on-pitch death in a Football League match was Bury defender Sam Wynne in 1927. The subsequent inquest into Longhurst's death revealed that he suffered from a rare heart condition.

York City later named one of the refurbished stands at the Bootham Crescent stadium after him.

References

Bibliography

References

1. {{Hugman. 11919
2. (1987). "Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88". Queen Anne Press.
3. "Gillingham v Peterborough Utd 1st Rd 19 Nov 88". The Posh Supporters Trust.
4. Cross, Elinor. (21 March 2012). "Longhurst Inquest". [[BBC News]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::