Matt Godden

Matthew James Godden (born 29 July 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for EFL Championship club Coventry City.

He progressed through the various youth levels at Scunthorpe before signing his first professional contract at the end of the 2008–09 season.

Godden's youth career at Scunthorpe was hampered by persistent injuries, and he states that the management and youth-team managers at Scunthorpe, in particular Tony Daws, showed a lot of faith in him to offer him the professional contract.

Godden began his career playing for Scunthorpe United, where he signed professional terms in 2009.

During his time at Scunthorpe, he was loaned out on eight occasions in order to gain experience playing first-team football.

Still waiting for his first-team Scunthorpe debut, Godden was loaned to Brigg Town of the Northern Premier League Division One South on a three-month deal, for the opening months of the 2009–10 campaign.

He scored nine goals in 20 games during the loan spell, noting how important gaining experience regarding "the more physical side of football" was in terms of his development.

He briefly returned to his parent club before being loaned out once again, this time joining Conference North club Ilkeston Town towards the end of 2009.

He saw out the remainder of the 2009–10 season playing regularly for Scunthorpe's reserve team, scoring ten goals for them in the latter months of the season.

Godden made five appearances during the loan spell, scoring once, the goal coming courtesy of him capitalising on a quickly taken free-kick to score the opening goal in an eventual 4–2 away defeat to Vauxhall Motors on 9 February 2010.

Godden signed a one-year contract extension to remain at Scunthorpe on 7 June 2010.

Ahead of the 2010–11 season, Godden trained regularly with the first-team and played in a number of pre-season friendlies for the Championship club, with manager Nigel Adkins stating he was pleased with Godden's development after scoring two goals in three pre-season fixtures.

He made his professional first-team debut on 22 September 2010, coming on as an 81st minute substitute in a 5–2 defeat to Premier League club Manchester United in the League Cup at Glanford Park.

Godden made his league debut two months later, on 28 December 2010, appearing as a second-half substitute in a 2–0 away victory at Burnley.

He made a further five appearances during January 2011, all of which were from the substitutes' bench, and made seven first-team appearances for Scunthorpe during the campaign.

Several injuries kept Godden out of action for a number of months and he did not play for Scunthorpe during the first half of the 2011–12 season.

Godden made his Gainsborough debut a day after signing, on 10 March 2011, coming on as a 58th minute substitute and scoring two minutes later in a 3–2 victory against Nuneaton Town at The Northolme.

In March 2012, having not played any football for over a year, Godden joined Conference North club Gainsborough Trinity on a one-month loan agreement.

The move meant he joined up with manager Steve Housham, who had managed Godden during his brief loan spell at Brigg Town two-and-a-half years earlier.

Godden made eight appearances during the loan spell, scoring twice, his other goal coming as Gainsborough secured a 2–0 win over Eastwood Town on 24 March 2012.

He returned to Scunthorpe upon the expiry of the loan deal on 9 April 2012, and made his first appearance for the club in a year-and-a-half when he came on as a late substitute in Scunthorpe's last game of the season, a 1–1 away draw with Tranmere Rovers on 5 May 2012.

Having not played during the opening weeks of the 2012–13 season, Godden re-joined Gainsborough Trinity on an initial one-month loan on 17 August 2012, with a view to the loan being extended.

He made four appearances during the loan, which was curtailed by a calf injury that meant he returned to Scunthorpe earlier than planned.

After recovering from the injury, Godden was subsequently loaned out to Conference Premier club Ebbsfleet United on a one-month deal on 8 November 2012.

The move represented a return home for Godden, with his family being based in Kent.

He made his debut two days after joining, coming on as a second-half substitute and scoring the winning goal as Ebbsfleet fought back from two goals down to secure a 3–2 victory over Hyde United.

After the match, Godden stated his desire to play first-team football as being the reason behind his loan move, also hoping that a good run of form would impress the new management team in place at Scunthorpe.

Godden scored in his following two league matches for Ebbsfleet at the start of December 2012, in home games against Grimsby Town and Cambridge United respectively.

He made five appearances during the month-long loan, scoring three times, and although his loan deal with initially extended by a further month on 6 December 2012, he was recalled by Scunthorpe just a week later.

He subsequently signed a new contract extension later that month, to remain at Scunthorpe until the summer of 2013.

Upon his return to Scunthorpe, he made three substitute appearances, before re-joining Ebbsfleet again in March 2013, on another one-month loan deal.

He made five appearances for Ebbsfleet during the loan spell, scoring twice, and returned to Scunthorpe in early April that year.

His return to Scunthorpe saw him start his first Football League match in a 3–0 away defeat to Preston North End on 6 April 2013, and this served as the start of a run of five consecutive starts to see out the remainder of the season.

Godden remained at Scunthorpe for the 2013–14 season with the club now competing in League Two and he started the season by playing as a second-half substitute in the club's first three matches of the new campaign.

Injury once again curtailed his run in the first-team and a seven-week spell out was to spark another disjointed season for Godden.

He joined Ebbsfleet United of the Conference Premier, one of the clubs he had spent time on loan at, on a permanent basis in May 2014.

Godden spent two seasons at Ebbsfleet, before making a return to the Football League when he signed for Stevenage in June 2016.

He spent two years at Stevenage before joining Peterborough United in June 2018.

After one season at Peterborough, Godden signed for Coventry City in August 2019, helping the club win promotion to the Championship during the 2019–20 season.

Godden started his career at Scunthorpe United, making the decision to move from Kent at the age of 15 to take up Scunthorpe's offer of a place on the club's apprenticeship programme.