Chris Woods
English footballer
Christopher Charles Eric Woods (born 14 November 1959) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who is goalkeeping coach for the Scotland national team.
As a player, he was a goalkeeper who played in the Football League and Premier League for Nottingham Forest, Queens Park Rangers, Norwich City, Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Southampton and Burnley. He also played in the Scottish Football League for Rangers and in Major League Soccer for the Colorado Rapids. He was an England international and was largely Peter Shilton's long-time understudy in the England team in the mid to late 1980s, finally claiming the number one shirt for himself after the 1990 World Cup. In all, he managed to accrue 43 caps in an eight-year international career.
Woods has been goalkeeper coach for Everton, the United States and Manchester United. He was most recently coaching at West Ham United.
Club career
Nottingham Forest
When 17 years old, Woods joined Nottingham Forest as an apprentice in 1976, initially as back-up for John Middleton, then Peter Shilton. With Shilton cup-tied for the 1977–78 Football League Cup, having already played for Stoke City in that season's competition, Woods played every match as Forest reached the final, where they beat Liverpool in a replay, Woods keeping two clean sheets in the process. Shilton remained the club's first choice goalkeeper, and the 1977–78 League Cup games proved to be Woods' only senior appearances for the club as they went on to win the Football League, League Cup again, and European Cup.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Chris Woods” as english footballer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english footballer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q726234. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1990, 1976 and 1977.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Chris Woods”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Chris Woods primary sources, Chris Woods archive and Chris research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Chris Woods”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Chris Woods” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.