A Queens Park Rangers youth product, Goddard made his senior debut in 1977 and spent three season as a striker for the ''R's''. He scored 23 goals in 75 First Team appearances between 1978 and 1980. Sold by Tommy Docherty/Jim Gregory in August 1980 Goddard became West Ham's record signing when he moved to
Upton Park for £800,000. He was West Ham's top scorer in the
1982–83 season, and scored 71 goals in 213 League and Cup matches for the club. One of these goals was in the replay of the
1981 Football League Cup final 2–1 defeat to
Liverpool at
Villa Park. At the start of the
1985–86 season he partnered
Tony Cottee in the West Ham front line, but injury ruled him out after one game. This led to Cottee being partnered by
Frank McAvennie, and the McAvennie-Cottee partnership yielded 54 goals in one season, taking West Ham to 3rd place in the league. He then moved to
Newcastle United in October 1986. He then moved on to Derby County in 1988 before signing for
Millwall for a club record transfer fee in December 1989. In 1991, he moved to Ipswich Town on a free transfer and enjoyed a few more years in the Premier League before retiring in 1994. During the 1994/95 season, he was temporarily caretaker-manager with old teammate
John Wark between the departure of
John Lyall and the arrival of
George Burley and went on to become the club's youth team coach. Later he worked as assistant manager at
West Ham United for
Glenn Roeder, a former teammate when he played at QPR and Newcastle United. He left that post on 20 January 2004, shortly after the arrival of new manager
Alan Pardew.
International career During his playing career, he gained
caps for
England U21s (scoring five times). Goddard was capped once for
England at senior level, on 2 June 1982, a 1–1 friendly draw against
Iceland, during which he scored England's only goal. The game was originally an
England B fixture but was subsequently upgraded to full international status meaning Goddard was awarded his cap. Despite this successful appearance, he was not selected for the
World Cup squad that summer and never played a senior match for England again. ==Personal life==