David Spencer Gregory (born 23 January 1970) is an English retired 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

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 ...

. He played alongside his brother

Neil Neil is a masculine name of Gaelic and Irish origin. The name is an anglicisation of the Irish ''Niall'' which is of disputed derivation. The Irish name may be derived from words meaning "cloud", "passionate", "victory", "honour" or "champion".. A ...

whilst at

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

and

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

Career

Born in

Polstead Polstead is a village and civil parish in the Babergh district of Suffolk, England. The village lies northeast of Nayland, southwest of Hadleigh and north of Colchester. It is situated on a small tributary stream of the River Stour. Histo ...

, Gregory began his career at

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

, making 32 appearances between 1987 and 1995. He made two appearances on loan at

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

and three appearances at

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

after leaving Ipswich. He joined Colchester United in 1995 and spent seven years at

Layer Road Layer Road was a Football League stadium in Colchester, England. It was only used for football matches and was the home ground of Colchester United before being replaced by the Colchester Community Stadium. The stadium held spectators and was ...

, making 226 league appearances and scoring 19 goals. Gregory helped the U's to their first league promotion for 22 years in 1998 when he stepped up to put Colchester ahead from the spot in the Third Division playoff final. Gregory made history along with

as the first pair of brothers in a play-off final in the same match. His brother Neil joined the U's in 1998 and played alongside David until 2000. Gregory featured regularly in the first team until he cracked a bone in his foot playing against

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 March 2002 and failed to recover fitness by the summer break. He again teamed up with his brother Neil at Canvey Island in July 2002. After his retirement from playing, David joined the Colchester United media department as a Communications and PR Officer and, in April 2013, he was inducted into the club's Hall of Fame having scored the winning penalty in the 1998 Wembley play-off final.

Honours

Colchester United *

Football League Third Division play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

runner-up: 1996–97

References

External links

* *
David Gregory at Coludata.co.uk
1970 births Living people English men's footballers Ipswich Town F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Canvey Island F.C. players Wivenhoe Town F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Men's association football midfielders People from Polstead Footballers from Suffolk {{England-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub