Craig George Pead (born 15 September 1981) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a full back in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and Notts County. He was capped by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at youth level and later became a

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Club career

Coventry City

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, Pead began his career in the youth system at

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

in 1997 and signed his first professional contract in September 1998. While a teenager, Pead had an operation on his right knee, which removed 90% of the

cartilage Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck an ...

and the subsequent problems with the knee were so severe that he contemplated quitting football. After returning to fitness and being moved from

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

to his preferred central midfield position, Pead finally made his senior debut when he played the opening 82 minutes of a 1–0 defeat to

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

on 21 April 2002. Pead broke into the squad during the 2002–03 season and was a regular inclusion from December 2002 through to the end of the campaign. He made 26 appearances and scored the first senior goal of his career, which came in a 2–2 draw with

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

on 5 April 2003. Pead's progress was rewarded with a new two-year contract in March 2003 and he was voted the club's 2002–03 Young Player of the Year. Behind three

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

midfielders in the pecking order and suffering with injuries, Pead had "a wasted" 2003–04 season, in which he made only 18 appearances, scoring one goal. A calf injury saw him sit out the opening month of the 2004–05 season and he subsequently spent much of the campaign away on loan. Pead was released in May 2005 and made 45 appearances and scored two goals during seven years as a professional at Highfield Road.

Walsall

On 23 March 2005, Pead joined League One strugglers

on loan until the end of the 2004–05 season. He was an ever-present starter in the final eight league matches of the season and helped the Saddlers finish comfortably in mid-table. On 27 May 2005, Pead joined Walsall on a permanent basis and signed a two-year contract. He captained the team on occasion during a disastrous 2005–06 season, which ended with relegation to League Two. Pead had an excellent 2006–07 season, making 45 appearances and winning the first

silverware Silverware may refer to: * Household silver including **Tableware **Cutlery **Candlesticks *The work of a silversmith * Silverware is also a slang term for a collection of trophies A trophy is a tangible, durable reminder of a specific achieveme ...

of his career when Walsall secured an immediate return to League One by winning the League Two championship. He was voted into the League Two PFA Team of the Year, but despite the accolade, Pead was not offered a new contract by manager

Richard Money Richard Money (born 13 October 1955) is an English former footballer and manager who was most recently manager of National League club Hartlepool United. Before this, he managed Cambridge United, overseeing the side's return to the Football Leag ...

and was released in June 2007.

Brentford

On the recommendation of his former Walsall captain Michael Dobson, Pead joined newly relegated League Two club

on a two-year contract on 2 July 2007. Less than three weeks later, he suffered an ankle ligament injury during a

pre-season friendly An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

and had to wait until 1 September to make his competitive debut for the Bees, which came in a 2–1 victory over

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. He was utilised as a central midfielder by manager Terry Butcher, but after Butcher was replaced by Andy Scott in December 2007, Pead was moved to right back, which had come to be his preferred position. Despite making 35 appearances during the 2007–08 season and being voted into the League Two PFA Team of the Year for the second year in succession, Pead was made available for transfer by manager Andy Scott in May 2008. He failed a medical at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

in May and trialled with

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

in July 2008 and remained with Brentford for the 2008–09 season. He began the season as a regular starter, but dropped to the bench in September 2008 and underwent exploratory surgery on his long-standing knee problem late in the year. Pead failed to return to fitness before the end of the season, but despite making just six league appearances, he was awarded a League Two championship medal. Pead was released in May 2009 and elected to retire, due to his long-standing knee problem. During his two seasons with Brentford, he made 44 appearances.

Coventry Sphinx

Pead came out of retirement to join Midland Alliance club

Coventry Sphinx Coventry Sphinx Football Club is a football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the and play at Sphinx Drive. History The club was established in 1946 as a works team for Armstrong Siddeley under th ...

in August 2010. He made just one appearance for the club, in a 4–3 defeat to Friar Lane & Epworth on 10 August.

Redditch United

Pead joined Conference North club

Redditch United Redditch United Football Club is an English football club based in Redditch, Worcestershire. The club participates in the and play their home games at the V Trico Stadium. They are managed by former Captain and Assistant Manager Matt Clarke. ...

in August 2010 and made 12 appearances during the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season.

International career

Pead was capped by England at U18 and

U20 U20 or U-20 may refer to: Naval vessels * * , a sloop of the Royal Navy * , a submarine of the Austro-Hungarian Navy Other uses * Great truncated cuboctahedron * Meizu U20, a smartphone * Roland U-20, a synthesizer * Small nucleolar RNA SN ...

level. He was a part of the U20 squad which finished fourth at the 2002 Toulon Tournament.

Coaching career

On 14 August 2021, Pead joined Southern League Premier Division Central club Banbury United as first team

. He later followed Banbury United manager

Andy Whing Andrew John Whing (born 20 September 1984) is an English football manager and former professional player who played as a right back. He is the manager of club Banbury United. Playing career Coventry City Whing was born in Birmingham West Midla ...

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

club

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

Personal life

Pead's father worked as a

kit man An equipment manager is the person in charge of equipment used by a business or organization. Their duties include purchasing, maintenance, repair, inventory, transportation, storage, cleaning, and liquidation. They are responsible for providing t ...

at Coventry City. Whilst a player at Brentford, Pead shared a flat in

Feltham Feltham () is a town in West London, England, from Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it became part of the London Borough of Hounslow in 1965. The parliamentary constituency of Feltham and Heston has been held by Labour Party MPs ...

with

Lee Thorpe Lee Anthony Thorpe (born 14 December 1975) is an English former professional footballer and youth development coach for Blackpool. As a player he was a forward from 1994 to 2011. He made over 400 appearances, in a career spanning 18 years, in t ...

. After his retirement from football in 2009, Pead returned to the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

and opened Soccer Rockz, a youth football coaching school. He later worked as Business Development Manager for BPMpro, as a personal trainer and as an FA-registered

intermediary An intermediary (or go-between) is a third party that offers intermediation services between two parties, which involves conveying messages between principals in a dispute, preventing direct contact and potential escalation of the issue. In law ...

Career statistics

Honours

;Walsall *

Football League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

: 2006–07 Brentford * Football League Two: 2008–09 Individual * Football League Two PFA Team of the Year: 2006–07, 2007–08 *

Young Player of the Year: 2002–03 * Coventry City Academy Hall of Fame

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pead, Craig 1981 births Living people English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Coventry City F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Redditch United F.C. players Men's association football utility players Sportspeople from Bromsgrove English Football League players National League (English football) players Coventry Sphinx F.C. players England men's youth international footballers Footballers from Worcestershire