Mark Burchill - Player Profile

Mark started his career as a junior at Celtic and he signed his first professional contract for the Bhouys on 3rd June 1997.

He made a total of 50 League appearances and scored 20 League goals whilst at Parkhead.

He had a three month loan spell at Birmingham City which commenced on 22nd September 2000 and he scored 4 League goals in 13 League appearances before another loan move to Ipswich Town on 20th February 2001.

During his three months at Portman Road he made 7 League appearances and scored once.

On 24th August 2001 Portsmouth signed him from Celtic in a £900,000 deal despite stiff competition from Latics who were also eager to sign him.

He had made 24 League appearances and scored 8 League goals for Pompey and played 11 League games, scoring once, for Dundee in a loan deal which commenced on 31st January 2003 before joining Latics on a one-month loan deal on 20th August 2003.

He made his Latics League debut on 23rd August 2003 against Burnley at Turf Moor.

Latics won the game 2-0 and it was quite a historic occasion as it was the first game Latics ever won in the First Division.

However he made just 4 League appearances, (3 as a substitute) in total for Latics before returning to Portsmouth on Monday 22nd September 2003.

A bit of Mark Burchill trivia - did you know that Mark holds the record of scoring the fastest hat trick in a European match? He achieved this playing for Celtic against Jeunesse Esch of Luxembourg in 2000.