David William Partridge (born 26 November 1978) is 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

central defender 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 ...

. Partridge's club career included spells at

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

and

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

in Scotland,

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

in England and St. Patrick's Athletic in Ireland, as well as several other clubs on loan. He ended his career in English non-League football, with

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

and

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authority area with borough status and unparished area in the ceremonial county of Essex, England. It is part of the London commuter belt and an area of regeneration within the Thames Gateway redevelopment zone. The l ...

. Born in England, he represented

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

in international football, making seven appearances.

Club career

Dundee United

Born in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, London, Partridge joined

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

as an apprentice in August 1996 but did not break into the first-team and joined

for a fee of £40,000 in March 1999. An agreed move to

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

, where he would have linked up with his former Dundee United manager,

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former association football, football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances betwe ...

, in August 2001, fell through and Partridge eventually joined English Division Three side

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

in January 2002 on a three-month loan, having made 75 league and cup appearances for Dundee United in three seasons. Having made three appearances, Partridge was sent off on his home debut for Leyton Orient, after fracturing the jaw of Swansea City defender Terry Evans with a deliberate elbow. Following his return, he made a further four appearances for Leyton Orient in his loan spell.

Motherwell

Partridge joined

on a free transfer in July 2002. Manager

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps ...

had spotted Partridge playing for West Ham reserves and brought him to Dundee United where he was working at the time. When Butcher took over at Motherwell, he made Partridge his first signing. His performances for Motherwell led to him being called up for the Wales national football squad in January 2005. Butcher said of Partridge, ''"It just shows what players can achieve if they knuckle down and work hard ..He's a left-footed centre-half and there are not many good ones about. If you do well at Scottish Premier level, which is still a good standard, then you have a great chance to show what you can do on the international stage. David is in a good position to go on from here and establish himself with Wales, I've always had a good feeling about him."'' Partridge made a total of 86 league and cup appearances in three seasons for Motherwell.

Bristol City

Partridge joined

for £150,000 at the start of the 2005–2006 season, signing a three-year contract. Manager

Brian Tinnion Brian Tinnion (born 23 February 1968) is an English former football player and manager. He made over 450 appearances for Bristol City, including a spell as player-manager where he is currently in the role of Academy Director. He started as a l ...

described him as ''"..a left-sided central defender, a tough character who will inspire."'' He made 13 league and cup appearances for Bristol City in the 2005–2006 season but following the arrival of

Gary Johnson Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and politician. He served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for Presid ...

as manager and a breach of club discipline for which Partridge and other players were fined two weeks' wages after being arrested on suspicion of violent disorder following an incident in a nightclub in October 2005, he was sent out on loan to

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

in January 2006 until the end of the season. He was transfer listed in May 2006 after returning from Milton Keynes Dons and joined

on a one-month loan at the start of the 2006–2007 season with a view to a permanent transfer. However, in September 2006, he was sentenced to two months in prison alongside teammates

Bradley Orr Bradley James Orr (born 1 November 1982) is an English retired footballer. Career Newcastle United & loans Born in Liverpool, Merseyside, Bradley Orr started his senior career with Newcastle United, and was loaned out to Burnley due to lack o ...

and

Steve Brooker ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

for his part in the "drink-fuelled brawl" at a nightclub in the previous October. He was released after one month but was unable to win back a first-team place at Bristol City and joined Brentford on a one-month loan in January 2007. On his third appearance for Brentford against

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somer ...

, he was sent off for headbutting and subsequently his loan spell was not extended. Partridge returned to Bristol City and then joined

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

on a one-month loan in March 2007. His lack of fitness however meant that he did not make an appearance for Swindon and he returned to Bristol City the following month. A broken hand suffered during the summer of 2007 meant that he missed all of pre-season training and was ruled out of the start of the 2007–08 season. His contract with Bristol City was terminated by mutual consent in August 2007.

Brentford

Partridge signed a one-month contract at

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 ...

on 20 December 2007 as a free agent. However, he made no appearances for the

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 ...

side.

St Patrick's Athletic

Partridge signed for

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

runners-up

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origin ...

on 29 January 2008. Initially used at left back, he soon settled into a centre-half spot where he impressed greatly as a solid, no-nonsense defender with very good distribution of the ball out of defence. Injury and suspensions have halted his progress with the Saints though he returned to the first team for the 2009 season.

Non-League football

Partridge was signed by

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

side

in January 2010 as a replacement for the departing

Wayne Hatswell Wayne Mervin Hatswell (born 8 February 1975) is an English former professional footballer and current assistant head coach at Walsall. Playing career Born in Swindon, Hatswell began his career with Swindon Supermarine and also played for Witn ...

. He was released by Cambridge at the end of 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, and joined Thurrock at the start of the 2011–12 season.

International career

He has represented Wales at Under-18 and Under-16 level, as well as securing an Under-21 cap against Turkey in 1997. He was called up to the senior squad and made his debut in a 2–0 friendly win over

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

in February 2005. He went on to make further appearances in Wales'

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

qualifying campaign against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

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 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. His last appearance for Wales was the friendly game against

Trinidad & Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of Gr ...

in May 2006.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Partridge, David 1978 births Bristol City F.C. players Living people Welsh footballers Wales international footballers Motherwell F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players St Patrick's Athletic F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Thurrock F.C. players Wales under-21 international footballers English Football League players National League (English football) players League of Ireland players Scottish Premier League players Footballers from Westminster Association football central defenders Expatriate association footballers in the Republic of Ireland