Born in Crewe on 11th April 1980, Marvin Leon St Clair Robinson joined Derby County as a trainee, signing pro for The Rams in the summer of 1998 when Jim Smith was the Manager and his first team debut, after a string of fine performances in the reserves, came at the end of his first season as a pro, on 2nd May 1999 when he came on as a 78th minute sub for Kevin Harper, who himself had replaced the injured Darryl Powell early in the game, which was being broadcast live on TV. The opponents? The mighty Arsenal which meant that the then teenage Robinson had to come up against the legendary Gunners defence of Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams & Winterburn in his first ever senior game! Nicholas Anelka had scored early in the game and, despite Kanu, Bergkamp, Petit, Overmars and Viera also in the Arsenal line up, that's how it stayed. Marvin's team-mates included Mart Poom, Paulo Wanchope and Mikkel Beck. The crowd was 37323.
If making your Premiership bow against Arsene Wenger's men was pretty impressive, his next appearance and first start, on 20th November 1999 was in front of 33370 at Pride Park, Manchester United were the visitors, so Marvin had 90 minutes against Jaap Stam and Mikael Silvestre alongside partner Dean Sturridge. Also included in United's side were the likes of Beckham, Keane and Giggs and their scorers Nicky Butt and Andy Cole, Rory Delap got a last minute consolation in the 2-1 loss. Marvin received a yellow card and shortly afterwards received a contract which took him through to June 2003 at the Club.
A mix of sub appearances and starts followed during that 1999-2000 season, 9 appearances in all came his way during the top-flight campaign, though the bustling forward received a couple of red cards in reserves matches that season, during which he also had a few off the field disciplinary problems.
However he bounced back at the start of the following season, including playing Chesterfield in the DFA Centenary Cup before going out on loan to Stoke City, then in Division Two.
He scored his first senior goal on his Potters debut, the fourth goal in a 4-0 home win over Oxford United, Carl Muggleton was also at Stoke at the time, that was followed by a 1-1 derby draw with Port Vale and then a home game with Rotherham United on 23rd September 2000, but a challenge close to the end of the game left young Marvin with a fractured leg, both bones in his lower leg being broken.
It was April 2002 when he next appeared in a senior game, sub for Derby at home to Leeds United followed by the final game of the season, a relegation wake for County, who were 1-0 down when Marvin came on as a 68th minute sub, taking his place alongside a young man named Ian Evatt, and within 10 minutes The Rams were level thanks to Robo's first goal for the Club that had showed so much faith in him.
In the Autumn of last year he was set to join Exeter City on loan but, with the deal all but done, an opportunity to join Tranmere Rovers on a similar basis came up and was taken. Two months were spent at Prenton Park, Marvin made 7 appearances, scoring on his last one, the equaliser in a 2-1 win at QPR.
At the end of last season, Marvin made his Rams' swan song as a sub in a 2-0 loss at Sheffield United, his contract was not renewed and after training with the likes of Barnsley, he joined The Spireites on a non contract basis, making his debut at Grimsby for the broken ankle victim Caleb Folan before he began a good run of scoring against Brentford, Rushden & Diamonds, Macclesfield and then, on 18th October, he bagged his first ever senior brace in the 3-0 win over Swindon Town. Marvin eventually signed to the end of the season after lengthy negotiations and a number of "final deadlines", recently he and David Reeves have been battling it out for the attacking berth against the rejuvenated Glynn Hurst as The Spireites look to notch up sufficient points to keep in Division Two again.
Phil Tooley
