Shayne Bradley

Shayne Bradley(born 8 December 1979 in Gloucester, UK) was a professional footballer before having to retire through an ankle injury in 2003.

Early years

Shayne 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, Shayne helped his year group to win 3 Gloucestershire County Cup trophies. During this time he was approached by Southampton FC, and he signed associate schoolboy forms on his 14th birthday.

England Schoolboys

During 1994 / 95 Shayne 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. Shayne was selected in the starting 11 for the first game against Wales, played at Spytty Park, Newport. He played centre forward, partnering current Newcastle United player Michael Owen. The team was captained by Manchester United defender Wes Brown. Shayne played 5 times for the England squad, including against Germany at Wembley.

Professional career

When he turned 16, Shayne was offered a YTS contract at Southampton and at the expiry of this he was offered his first professional contract. Between 1998 and 2001, Shayne was a regular scorer for the reserve team, but played only 4 games for the first team, but he played a number of first team games on loan at Exeter City and Swindon Town. After a meeting with then Southampton manager Glenn Hoddle, Shayne decided to move to Mansfield Town in an effort to get more first team games. It was reported that the transfer fee was Mansfield's club record.

Mansfield Town

Shayne started his Mansfield career well, scoring 9 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^[1] and then, in his bid to return to fitness, he damaged the ligaments in his other ankle in a reserve team game against Hull City on 28 August 2002.^[2] The injury required surgery^[3] and 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".^[4] To try to obtain fitness, Bradley signed for non-league side Eastwood Town.^[5]

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.^[6] 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 Mansfield's then manager Stuart Watkiss rated him as a player and that the club had treated him badly by playing him when he was not fully fit.^[7] 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 personal letter of apology to Day.^[8]

Following the resulting suspension, Bradley struggled to make the first-team and in March 2003 joined Lincoln City on a months loan,^[9] 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. 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.^[10]

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 FC in the Gloucestershire County League though he will continue his work with Gloucester. Outside of football, Bradley resides in Abbeymead and works for E-on.^[11][12]

References

External links

• Shayne Bradley career stats at Soccerbase
• Lincoln City F.C. Official Archive Profile