Shayne Bradley

Shayne Bradley (born 8 December 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He retired after suffering an ankle ligament injury in 2003.

Shayne Bradley
Personal information
Full name Shayne Bradley
Date of birth (1979-12-08) 8 December 1979
Place of birth Gloucester, England
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing position(s) Striker
Club information
Current team
 Tuffley Rovers
Youth career
Robinswood Youth
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2000 Southampton 4 (0)
1999 → Swindon Town (loan) 7 (0)
1999 → Exeter City (loan) 8 (1)
2000–2002 Mansfield Town 47 (11)
2002–2003 Eastwood Town
2002–2003 → Chesterfield (loan) 9 (2)
2003 → Lincoln City (loan) 3 (1)
National team
England schoolboys
Teams managed
2008– Tuffley Rovers (player-manager)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Early years

Born in Gloucester, Bradley began his football career playing for Robinswood Youth in the Gloucester and District Under 9's league. Consistent performances for his club and for Heron Primary School enabled him to achieve a call up for the Gloucester Primary Schools Football Association team in 1990 and 1991. After moving to Sir Thomas Rich's secondary school, Bradley helped his year group to win three Gloucestershire County Cup trophies. During this time he was approached by Southampton, and he signed associate schoolboy forms on his 14th birthday.

England schoolboys

During 1994 and 1995, Bradley was successful in a number of trials and was selected to play for the England schoolboys squad for the Victory Shield matches against Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as friendlies against Brazil and Germany. Bradley was selected in the starting eleven for the first game against Wales, played at Spytty Park, Newport. He played centre-forward, partnering current Manchester United striker Michael Owen; the team was captained by United defender Wes Brown. Bradley played five times for the England squad, including against Germany at Wembley.

Professional career

When he turned 16, Bradley was offered a YTS contract at Southampton and, at the expiry of this, his first professional contract. Between 1998 and 2001, Bradley was a regular scorer for the reserve team, but played only four games for the first team (all as substitute).[1] He also played a number of first team games on loan at Exeter City and Swindon Town. After a meeting with Southampton manager Glenn Hoddle, Bradley decided to move to Mansfield Town to get more first team games. It was reported that the transfer fee of £100,000[1] was Mansfield's club record.

Mansfield Town

Shayne started his Mansfield career well, scoring nine goals in his first half season and striking an effective partnership with Chris Greenacre. In the 2001–02 season, Mansfield manager Billy Dearden left the club and was replaced by Stuart Watkiss. At the time, Mansfield were chasing promotion from Division 3. The Stags suffered a dip in form under Watkiss, but were still able to gain promotion at the end of the season. Shayne was a regular scorer when he played, but he was beginning to have problems with a series of injuries.

Bradley began the 2002–2003 season by injuring his ankle in a pre-season friendly against Nottingham Forest on 27 July 2002[2] and then, in his bid to return to fitness, damaged the ligaments in his other ankle in a reserve team game against Hull City on 28 August 2002.[3] The injury required surgery.[4] In October Bradley's contract was paid up by the club, with manager Stuart Watkiss stating that, as the club's record signing and one of its highest earners, "in terms of value for money, the deal has been catastrophic for the club".[5] To try to obtain fitness, Bradley signed for non-league side Eastwood Town.[6]

Chesterfield and Lincoln City

In December 2002, Bradley signed for Mansfield's local rivals Chesterfield, agreeing a contract until the end of the 2002–2003 season.[7] He made his Chesterfield debut in the 1–0 home defeat to Oldham Athletic on 21 December 2002 before scoring in his next two games. On 18 January 2003, Chesterfield entertained Bradley's previous club Mansfield Town, whom he had left under something of a cloud. In the build-up, he expressed the opinion that he did not think that Watkiss rated him as a player and that the club had treated him badly by playing him when he was not fully fit.[8] The game, however, proved to be a disaster for Bradley when, just three minutes after coming on as a substitute, he was sent off for spitting at Mansfield defender Rhys Day; Bradley later sent a personal letter of apology to Day.[9]

Following the resulting suspension, Bradley struggled to make the first-team and, in March 2003, joined Lincoln City on a month's loan,[10] debuting in the 3–0 home victory over Hartlepool United on 4 March 2003. A calf injury saw him limp off after 35 minutes of his second game against Southend United at Roots Hall and miss the following three games before making a goalscoring return in the 1–0 home victory over Kidderminster Harriers on 25 March 2003.[11] However, he sustained an ankle injury in the pre-match warm-up for the following game with Bristol Rovers and returned to Chesterfield, having been fit for just three of the seven games Lincoln played in the month.[12]

After football

Bradley retired at the end of the 2002–2003 season after a double reconstruction of his right ankle and returned to his home town of Gloucester. After a few years away from football, he was offered a coaching role with Gloucester City's youth set-up where he is in charge of the U13s. In July 2008, he was appointed manager of Tuffley Rovers in the Gloucestershire County League, although he will continue his work with Gloucester. Outside of football, Bradley resides in Abbeymead and works for E-on.[13][14]

gollark: * OIR™
gollark: As planned.
gollark: <@738361430763372703> Are you experiencing OIR™?
gollark: ++radio connect
gollark: ++magic reload_config

References
  1. Holley, Duncan; Chalk, Gary (2003). In That Number – A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology Publishing. p. 488. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.
  2. "Update on injury to Shayne Bradley". Mansfield Town FC. 29 July 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  3. "Bradley sidelined – again!". Mansfield Town FC. 29 August 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  4. "The latest injury news from Field Mill". Mansfield Town FC. 12 September 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  5. "Bradley to have contract paid up". Mansfield Town FC. 21 October 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  6. "Bradley coup for Eastwood". NonLeague Daily.com. 26 October 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  7. "Shayne Bradley signs on". Chesterfield F.C. Official Website. 12 December 2002. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  8. "I'm looking forward to the game". Chesterfield FC. 16 January 2003. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  9. "Bradley apologises". Chesterfield FC. 20 January 2003. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  10. "Striker Bradley comes on board". Lincoln City FC. 4 March 2003. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  11. "Lincoln 1–0 Kidderminster". BBC. 25 March 2003. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
  12. "Bradley back with Spireites". Lincoln City FC. 3 April 2003. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  13. "Bradley gets Tuffley job". The Gloucestershire Citizen. 18 July 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
  14. "Saint charged with taking Tuffley back into Hellenic". NonLeagueDaily.com. 20 July 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
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