Gregg Blundell

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Gregg Blundell
Personal information
Full name Gregg Steven Blundell
Date of birth (1977-10-03) 3 October 1977 (age 46)
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1994–1997 Tranmere Rovers 0 (0)
1997 Knowsley United ? (?)
1997–2001 Vauxhall Motors ? (?)
2001–2003 Northwich Victoria 90 (39)
2003–2005 Doncaster Rovers 86 (28)
2005–2007 Chester City 57 (12)
2007–2009 Darlington 71 (10)
2008 Accrington Stanley (loan) 2 (0)
2009 Chester City x (x[1])
2009 Barrow (loan) 19 (2)
2010–2011 Barrow 9 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 11:22, 6 May 2011 (UTC)

Gregg Steven Blundell (born 3 October 1977 in Liverpool, England) is a retired English footballer who played as a striker. He is now a physiotherapist for Tranmere Rovers. Prior to his appointment at Tranmere he combined playing football and being the club's physiotherapist at Barrow AFC[2] in the Conference National.

Football career

Early career

Gregg started as a trainee at Tranmere Rovers but was released. After a spell with Knowsley United, he began a prolific scoring record with Vauxhall Motors, who rose through the non-league pyramid in his spell there. The goals continued to flow after a move to Football Conference club Northwich Victoria in 2001. Despite playing for a side in the bottom half of the table, Blundell had a strong scoring record. This prompted a move to Conference promotion chasers Doncaster Rovers in March 2003.

Doncaster Rovers

Blundell's first season with Rovers ended with his promotion to the Football League, after play-off wins over future club Chester City and Dagenham & Redbridge. His belated Football League debut at Leyton Orient on 9 August 2003 saw him open the scoring in a 3-1 win, as Rovers went on to win the Division Three title. Blundell scored 18 goals during the season.

However, many Rovers fans felt that he had reached his level at League one and despite being given chances in the first team, he never managed to achieve the success he had the season before.

Chester City

Blundell was signed by Chester City from Doncaster Rovers for a Club Record Fee in July 2005 (reputedly £105,000). He made a quick impact with Chester, bagging six goals by the end of September 2005 as Chester challenged for promotion from Football League Two. But his season was to lie in tatters after an injury sustained against Rochdale on 7 October 2005. After missing three months out injured, just one more goal was managed before the end of the season. His confidence was still never fully recovered the following season and Chester accepted a nominal bid for Blundell from Darlington as transfer deadline day approached in January 2007.

Darlington

He was re-united with former manager Dave Penney at Darlington. Again the goals did not flow in the rest of the season, but he did score a late penalty equaliser on his return to Chester in April 2007. Apart from a loan spell with Accrington Stanley, Blundell remained at Darlington until the summer of 2009 when he returned to Chester who had just suffered relegation to the Conference National.

Chester and Barrow

Blundell stayed just a half a season with Chester, scoring three goals in eighteen league games, before moving to Barrow AFC on loan as Chester looked to cut costs. With Chester unable to pay their players, Blundell left in January 2010, signing permanently with Barrow.

On 13 March 2010, Gregg scored the only goal of the match as Barrow beat Salisbury City in the 1st Leg of the FA Trophy Semi Final at Salisbury. He remained with Barrow for the following season, but left in June 2011.[2]

Personal life

He graduated from the University of Salford in 2008 with a degree in Physiotherapy[3] and has been studying for a master's degree in Football Rehabilitation at Edge Hill University.[2]

Blundell is the uncle of Sheffield United midfielder James Wallace.[4]

Physiotherapy career

After combining playing football and physiotherapy at Barrow, he retired from professional football at the end of the 2010-11 season and on 21 June 2011 Tranmere Rovers confirmed his appointment as the club's new physiotherapist.[5]

Honours

As a player

Doncaster Rovers

Barrow AFC

References

  1. All Chester City players' statistics for the 2009/10 season were expunged after Chester were expelled from the Conference National for breaking league regulations
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. My Graduation - July 2008 graduation booklet pg. 34, University of Salford, July 2008
  4. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links