Meet the Scouse goalie who’s a social media hit for his super-honest howlers and heroes videos

An amateur goalie from Liverpool has become an unexpected social media hit thanks to his super-honest videos showing not just great saves but some absolute howlers.

Joe Marsh set up The Scouse GK on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube in August last year, capturing all his best and worst match moments from behind the goal.

He’s just hit 125k followers on TikTok and regularly gets half a million views for his highlights videos. The biggest one attracted almost five million, and in just the last 30 days he’s had a massive 16.5million total views.

Joe, who comes from Childwall, started the account after switching from outfield to keeper towards the end of last season for Honourable Artillery Company FC.

He’s been playing for the club in the Amateur Football Combination since moving to London six years ago to work in web design and branding.

After standing in for a few games, when the opportunity came up to move permanently to goal, he was happy to take it and decided to document how things went in his new position.

“I loved it so when they asked me to stay there I said I’d create a social media account,” he says. “I just thought I’d see how it went and the first few months were OK, but the last two or three it’s just gone crazy.

“I didn’t expect it to be this big, and the idea of 4.8milion people seeing one of my videos just blows my mind. It’s unbelievable.”

Joe, who’s 28, says one of the reasons he’s got such a huge following is he doesn’t pretend to be perfect.

“I think that’s what people really like about my account, I’m definitely not like a classic influencer in the sense of ‘here’s all the good stuff’.

“Some goalies out there put things in slow motion and have someone toss a ball and they tip it away and it looks great.

“I’m going for a more honest goalkeeping vibe and goalkeepers like that because every goalkeeper’s made the same mistakes – they’ve thought a shot was going wide and left it or dropped a catch and it’s gone in. 

“I always get other goalies commenting on those and saying, ‘that’s happened to me’.”

Joe captures match and training footage on a GoPro set up on a tripod behind his goal. 

“I just press record and try and forget it’s there, which is sometimes hard, but I like to think it doesn’t affect what I’m doing.

“At the start I’d be thinking, I hope I get a good save here because then it’ll look great, but I was still learning to be a goalkeeper. I’ve had coaching and improved loads over six months because it’s like a different sport compared to being outfield so making the videos is about me getting to be being a better goalie as well.

“At the end of 2023 I posted two compilation videos – all the best saves and all the goals I conceded – and even editing those I could spot a pattern of things I’d do wrong so that’s really helped me improve.”

Joe says social media being what it is, he does get some stick sometimes for his blunders, but he takes it all in his stride.

“I know people want to see me make mistakes and concede, that definitely gets the most views and I don’t mind that. And then if the abuse comes, even that’s mostly OK. Some do go in on you but if I answer them back they usually backtrack straight away.

“Most people just like to see a game from a keeper’s perspective. I get people commenting saying, ‘I’ve never known what it was like to be a goalie but now I can see’ because a shot that looks average from open play can look amazing when you see it from behind the goal. It’s that POV, because you’re with me in the game and this is what I see.”

With his account growing all the time, Joe signed a sponsorship deal with glove brand One Glove in February, and he was just invited to shoot with one of the Sidemen, the biggest YouTube collective in Europe.

“I’ve been very shocked by the reaction I’ve had since I started the accounts but I think people just relate to the honesty so I feel like I’m just getting started,” he says. 

Follow Joe on social media:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheScouseGK 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thescousegk/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@the.scouse.gk

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