Jay Denny (born January 6, 1986) is an American
soccer player
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 ...
.
A midfielder, Denny began his career with
Stoke City
Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...
but never appeared for the first team. He made 14 appearances 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
Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...
. He then moved into
non-League football
Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...
and played for
Nuneaton Borough
Nuneaton Borough Football Club is an English football club that is based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The men's 1st team competes in the , the seventh tier of English football.
In 1889, Nuneaton St. Nicholas FC was the first team in Nuneaton t ...
,
Brackley Town
Brackley Town Football Club is a Association football, football club in Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at St. James Park. The club won the FA Trophy in 2018.
History
Established in 1890, the club sp ...
,
Halesowen Town
Halesowen Town Football Club is a football club based in Halesowen, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Grove Recreation Ground.
History
The club was believed to have been established around 1873, but rece ...
,
Leamington,
Halesowen Town
Halesowen Town Football Club is a football club based in Halesowen, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Grove Recreation Ground.
History
The club was believed to have been established around 1873, but rece ...
,
Hednesford Town
Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park.
History
The club was established in 1880 as a merger of the Red & Whites and Hill Top. and
Worcester City
Worcester City Football Club is an English football club based in Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Midland Football League, the ninth tier of English football. Established in 1902, the club play at Claines Lane.
Worcester City's ...
before joining Solihull Moors in 2012.
In international football, Denny played for the
United States at under-17 and
under-20 level.
Playing career
Stoke City
Denny was born in
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
,
of English parents, and has lived in England since 1994.
He began his career as a trainee with
Stoke City
Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...
after being spotted playing for Cannock Schools district football team at thirteen years of age. He was awarded an academy scholarship at sixteen and a professional contract at eighteen, scored in the match that secured the reserve league championship in the 2003–04 season, and won the club's Young Player of the Year award.
[ Denny was first selected for Stoke's first team for the visit of ]West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...
in May 2004, but remained an unused substitute. He signed a new contract at the end of that season, and appeared on Stoke's bench on eight occasions, but without getting any time on the pitch, and was allowed to leave the club at the end of the 2004–05 season.
Shrewsbury Town
In the 2005 close season, Denny joined 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 Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...
on a free transfer with a sell-on clause.[
Denny started for Shrewsbury on the opening day of the 2005–06 season, in a 1–0 defeat at home to ]Rochdale
Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...
. He made seventeen appearances for Shrewsbury in all competitions.
Denny scored two goals for Shrewsbury Town in the 3–2 League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
victory against Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...
, an 89th-minute equaliser and the winner in extra time, sending Shrewsbury into the second round of the competition. His contract with the club was terminated by mutual consent in April 2006.
Nuneaton Borough
Denny then joined Conference North
The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...
club Nuneaton Borough
Nuneaton Borough Football Club is an English football club that is based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The men's 1st team competes in the , the seventh tier of English football.
In 1889, Nuneaton St. Nicholas FC was the first team in Nuneaton t ...
and made his debut in a Birmingham Senior Cup match against Racing Club Warwick in October 2006. Denny spent one season with Nuneaton, for whom he started twenty games and made a further seven appearances, and scored three goals, one winning goal of the season with a strike against Stalybridge Celtic. Denny was offered a contract in the United States with the Richmond Kickers
Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL-1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional S ...
but he eventually decided against the move after making a trip to Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
.[ He was released by the club in May 2007] and joined Brackley Town
Brackley Town Football Club is a Association football, football club in Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at St. James Park. The club won the FA Trophy in 2018.
History
Established in 1890, the club sp ...
, again joining up with former manager, Roger Ashby.
Halesowen Town
Although Denny signed for Brackley Town in the 2007 close season, he left that club after a few weeks to sign for Southern League Premier Division
The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...
side Halesowen Town
Halesowen Town Football Club is a football club based in Halesowen, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Grove Recreation Ground.
History
The club was believed to have been established around 1873, but rece ...
, then managed by Martin O'Connor.[ He made 43 appearances for the Yeltz, more than any other player in the 2007–08 season,] and scored five goals in all competitions. One was a late equaliser at Kings Lynn
King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
, the eventual champions, and another away at Team Bath
TeamBath is the University of Bath's sporting organisation. In addition to entering teams in BUCS intervarsity competitions, TeamBath has also entered teams in national leagues and competitions. Team Bath F.C. reached the first round proper of t ...
in a 3–0 league victory. Denny played alongside Darren Caskey
Darren Mark Caskey (born 21 August 1974) is an English football coach and former professional footballer.
As a player, he was a midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur. He also played in the Football League for ...
in midfield.
Halesowen lost in the promotion play-off final to Team Bath; the winning goal was scored in the final minute of playing time. After Halesowen's semi-final, four days before the final, was abandoned, the League insisted that the final could not be delayed so the match should be replayed two days later. Thus Halesowen had to play the final just 48 hours after winning their semi-final, and their opponents had an additional 48 hours rest and preparation time. The Yeltz suffered major financial problems the following year and just missed out on the playoffs. Denny played 93 games in two seasons at Halesowen,[ scoring 15 goals.][
Denny left Halesowen in the summer of 2009 to join up with ]Shamrock Rovers
Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...
on trial, before eventually joining Leamington for a short spell, however, Halesowen Town's off the field problems were now seemingly resolved and manager Matty Clarke persuaded Denny to return to The Grove as club captain. He spent the season at The Grove narrowly missing out on the play-offs before signing for Southern League Premier rivals Hednesford Town
Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park.
History
The club was established in 1880 as a merger of the Red & Whites and Hill Top. .
Hednesford Town
Manager Bernard McNally
Bernard Anthony McNally (born 17 February 1963) is a former Northern Ireland international footballer who played in midfield.
During his club career he played for Shrewsbury Town (1980–1989), West Bromwich Albion (1989–1995), Hednesford ...
signed Denny for Hednesford Town
Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park.
History
The club was established in 1880 as a merger of the Red & Whites and Hill Top. in July 2010 on a 12-month contract, one of a number of new recruits for the 2010–11 campaign. The club won the Southern League Cup, beating Hemel Hempstead Town
Hemel Hempstead Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. Affiliated to the Hertfordshire County Football Association, they are currently members of the National League South and pla ...
over two legs, 5–1 on aggregate. The team followed up the cup success by qualifying for the playoffs after finishing the league season in second position behind champions Truro City. This gave the Pitmen home advantage in the semi-final against Leamington, a game they won 3–1 to progress to the playoff final against third-place finishers Salisbury City
Salisbury City Football Club was an English football club based in Salisbury, Wiltshire. They were formed in 1947 and played at The Raymond McEnhill Stadium. Salisbury had gained back-to-back promotions in recent years, first to the Conference S ...
. However, after a 1–1 draw in the 90 minutes Hednesford regained the lead, but Salisbury equalised late in extra time and won the tie on penalties. Denny finished the season with two goals from 54 appearances in all competitions, one from 42 in the league.[ Hednesford transferred to the ]Northern Premier League
The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...
for the 2011–12 season. Denny renewed his contract for the new season, and captained the side to another playoff campaign, but was sent off in the semi-final as Bradford Park Avenue
Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club is an association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in , at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The name derived from their former hom ...
won 5–0.
Worcester City
After training with the club during pre-season, Denny joined Worcester City
Worcester City Football Club is an English football club based in Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Midland Football League, the ninth tier of English football. Established in 1902, the club play at Claines Lane.
Worcester City's ...
on non-contract terms before the 2012–13 season. In September, having started only one game for Worcester, Denny moved to fellow Conference North
The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...
team 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 ...
, for whom he made his debut in an FA Cup second qualifying round match against Westfields.
Newtown
In June 2017, Denny joined Welsh Premier League
The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 20 ...
side Newtown.
International career
Denny made various appearances for the United States U-17s and U-20s national teams. He captained the U-20 squad on two occasions in a tournament in Ireland (Wales and Northern Ireland). Denny was forced to miss the U-20 squad's final training camp before selection for the CONCACAF final qualifying tournament for the 2005 under-20 World Cup because of professional commitments to Stoke City; this coincided with a change of national coaches prior to the competition and he was not selected for the tournament squad.
Career statistics
References
External links
*
Halesowen Town profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denny, Jay
1986 births
Living people
Soccer players from Santa Monica, California
Men's association football midfielders
American men's soccer players
Stoke City F.C. players
Shrewsbury Town F.C. players
Nuneaton Borough F.C. players
Brackley Town F.C. players
Halesowen Town F.C. players
Leamington F.C. players
Hednesford Town F.C. players
Worcester City F.C. players
Solihull Moors F.C. players
AFC Telford United players
Newtown A.F.C. players
English Football League players
National League (English football) players
Southern Football League players
Northern Premier League players
American expatriate men's soccer players
Cymru Premier players