Gary Crosby (born 8 May 1964) is an English

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 ...

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 is the current assistant manager of

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

Playing career

Crosby played for

Lincoln United Lincoln United Football Club is a football club based in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Ashby Avenue. Nicknamed the Whites after their home kit colours, they have played at Ashby Avenue since th ...

in his teens. He had been one of the most promising players in the Lincoln area and regularly appeared for Lincoln City's youth and reserve sides. A slight but skilful player, it was often felt his physique would prevent him turning professional. He was finally given an opportunity in the professional ranks when he joined Lincoln City on non-contract terms in September 1987. However, in a struggling team he found it difficult to make an impact and made just seven appearances for the Imps before rejoining Lincoln United. In 1988, Crosby came to the attention of Grantham Town manager

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...

while playing for the Lincolnshire County FA side and was soon signed by Grantham on a free transfer. He made just nine appearances for the Gingerbreads scoring twice. He joined

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

for £20,000 (a Grantham club record) in December 1987 where he went on to make 152 appearances, scoring 12 goals, during a seven-year career at the City Ground. During his time at Forest the club played in numerous cup finals at Wembley. His most famous goal came against Manchester City in a 1–0 win for Forest. Crosby headed the ball out of goalkeeper

Andy Dibble Andrew Gerald Dibble (born 8 May 1965) is a Welsh football coach and former professional player. As a player, he was as a goalkeeper from 1982 to 2006. During his career he played in the Premier League for Manchester City and in the Scottish ...

's hand before rolling the ball into an empty net. Crosby spent three games on loan at

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

, during the 1993–94 season. He joined

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

on a free transfer in 1994. Crosby made just 44 appearances for the club, scoring six goals. His spell at the Yorkshire club included an appearance at Wembley in the playoff final. The 1997–98 season saw him play a handful of times for

Rushden & Diamonds Rushden & Diamonds Football Club was an association football club based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England. Nicknamed "The Diamonds", the club played at Nene Park. The club's main rivals were county neighbours Kettering Town F.C., Ke ...

. He returned to

for the start of the 1998–99 season.

Coaching career

His return to Ashby Avenue was to be short lived and in October 1998 he linked up with close friend

Nigel Clough Nigel Howard Clough (born 19 March 1966) is an English professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of Mansfield Town. Playing predominantly as a forward, but later in his career used as a midfielder, Clough was ...

, joining

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 grou ...

as player/assistant manager. Their first game in charge came at Grantham in an FA Trophy replay at The Meres, in which Albion won 3–0. Crosby made his debut for the Brewers in the 1–1 draw with Nuneaton Borough on 3 November 1998. The 2001/02 season saw Burton win the Unibond Premier Division title and promotion into the Conference under the Clough/Crosby management. Crosby resigned from his position as assistant manager in January 2005, due to work commitments. However, following a short time out of the game Crosby returned to Burton Albion ahead of the 2006/07 season. By Christmas of the 2008/09 season Clough and Crosby had led Burton Albion to a 13-point lead at the top of the Conference National; however, in January 2009 Clough left Burton Albion to replace

Paul Jewell Paul Jewell (born 28 September 1964) is an English football manager and former player, who was most recently director of football at Swindon Town. Jewell began his playing career with Liverpool, continued at Wigan Athletic and concluded in a ...

as manager of

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

. In January 2009 Crosby followed

to Derby County taking the position of assistant manager. After the departure of

from

in 2013 Crosby followed Clough to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

acting as coaching staff. He later returned to Burton Albion (2015-2020) alongside manager Clough before their appointment by Mansfield Town in November 2020.

Honours

;

* Football League Cup winners:

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

Full Members Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. Th ...

winners: 1992

References

External links

Article adapted from original profile on Official Grantham Town website
*
Lincoln City F.C. Official Archive ProfileGrantham Town F.C. Official ProfileThe Dibble Incident video on Youtube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crosby, Gary 1964 births People from Sleaford, Lincolnshire Living people English footballers Lincoln United F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Grantham Town F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Rushden & Diamonds F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. non-playing staff Derby County F.C. non-playing staff Sheffield United F.C. non-playing staff Mansfield Town F.C. non-playing staff Premier League players Association football midfielders FA Cup Final players Association football coaches