Gary George Alexander (born 15 August 1979 in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, in the London Borough of Lambeth, historically in the County of Surrey. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The population of the London Borough of Lambeth was 303,086 in 2011. The area expe ...

) 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 ...

. He was recently interim manager of

Cray Wanderers Cray Wanderers Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in Sidcup, London. Based on later reports, the club has a claim to have been established some time in 1860 in the twin villages of St Mary Cray and St Paul's Cr ...

. Alexander previously played for

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 ...

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

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 ...

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

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 ...

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

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 ...

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

and

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

. He was also caretaker manager of

alongside

Martin Hinshelwood Martin Hinshelwood (born 16 June 1953) is an English football coach and former professional player. He is an academy coach at Lewes and was interim Manager at Crawley Town alongside Gary Alexander, following the sacking of manager Richie Ba ...

Career

West Ham United and Exeter City

He began his career with

, but his first taste of first team football came with a loan spell at

in the 1999–2000 season. Alexander scored 16 goals in 37 league games for the Grecians and although he was only on-loan to Exeter, became their Player of the Season. His form with Exeter convinced

to sign him from West Ham for £300,000 in July 2000.

Swindon Town

Alexander's time at Swindon was short. He played only one season, scoring seven goals in 43 appearances in all competitions.

Hull City

With Swindon Town in financial difficulties they accepted a bid from

in June 2001. His first season saw him score 20 goals in 47 appearances in all competitions and in the 2001–02 season he was awarded the Hull City Player of the Season award.

Leyton Orient

In January 2003 he moved to

where he soon became a first team regular. Alexander rejected a new deal in May 2007.

Millwall

On 24 May 2009 Alexander scored twice for Millwall in the 2008–09 League One play-off final. However, he was unable to prevent Millwall losing 3–2 to

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

, despite Alexander's two goals giving Millwall a 2–1 half-time lead. He missed a chance to put Millwall 3–1 up and claim his hat-trick.

Brentford

In August 2010 Alexander signed for Brentford for an undisclosed fee and made his debut on 7 August against

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

. He scored his first Brentford goal a week later in a 2–1 home defeat to

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 ...

. On 28 January 2012 Alexander scored a hat-trick in a 5–2 win over

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

Crawley Town

In March 2012 Alexander signed on loan for

until the end of the 2011–12 season. Alexander scored seven goals in fourteen appearances for Crawley as they finished 3rd in

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 ...

and were promoted to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

. Following the sacking of manager Ritchie Barker, Alexander became caretaker manager on 28 November 2013, alongside chief scout

AFC Wimbledon

On 31 January 2013 Alexander joined

, on loan until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. He scored three goals in 18 appearances, the last of which was the first in a 2–1 win over

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

on 27 April 2013, the final day of the season, that preserved the Dons'

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 ...

status.

Burton Albion

On 31 January 2014, Alexander signed for

. He was released by the club at the end of the season.

Coaching career

Alexander joined Greenwich Borough in July 2014. On 22 December 2015, Alexander became player-manager. He guided them to promotion from the Southern Counties East in 2015–16 and the following season they reached the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

South Division play-offs. He left the club in January 2018. After turning out for Chatham Town for a couple of matches, Alexander joined Ashford United in mid-January 2018, initially as assistant manager team but with a view to becoming manager for the following season. He was sacked in November 2018. After a spell scouting for Millwall, he was appointed manager of

Glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

in September 2019. Alexander resigned from this role in June 2021. In December 2021, Alexander was appointed assistant to Interim Manager

Grant Basey Grant William Basey (born 30 November 1988) is an former professional footballer who played as a left-back. He is the manager of VCD Athletic. Born in England, he represented Wales internationally at youth levels U17, U19 and U21, Playing care ...

at Isthmian League Premier Division side

Career statistics

Honours

As a player

Leyton Orient *

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 ...

third-place promotion: 2005–06 Millwall *

Football League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Crawley Town * Football League Two third-place promotion: 2011–12 Greenwich Borough *

Southern Counties East League The Southern Counties East Football League is an English football league established in 1966, which has teams based in Kent and Southeast London. Until 2013, it was known as the Kent League. There was a previous Kent League, that existed from ...

: 2015–16

As a manager

Greenwich Borough * Southern Counties East League: 2015–16

As an individual

Player of the Year: 1999–00 *

Player of the Year: 2001–02

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Gary 1979 births Living people Footballers from Lambeth English footballers Association football forwards Swindon Town F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players AFC Wimbledon players Burton Albion F.C. players English Football League players English Football League managers English football managers Isthmian League players Crawley Town F.C. managers Greenwich Borough F.C. players Greenwich Borough F.C. managers Chatham Town F.C. players Ashford United F.C. players Ashford United F.C. managers Millwall F.C. non-playing staff Glebe F.C. managers