Matthew Ronald Sparrow (born 3 October 1981) 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 ...

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 ...

Sparrow made 440 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 ...

across his 17-year-long playing career, notably 369 over two spells with

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 ...

, also appearing professionally for

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 ...

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 ...

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

and Lincoln City. He went on to play at non-league level for

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the Football League in 1893 and remained members of the Second Division until 1912, making Gainsbo ...

, before emigrating to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

going on to feature semi-professionally for

Sorrento Sorrento (, ; nap, Surriento ; la, Surrentum) is a town overlooking the Bay of Naples in Southern Italy. A popular tourist destination, Sorrento is located on the Sorrentine Peninsula at the south-eastern terminus of the Circumvesuviana rail ...

, Joondalup United, Bayswater City and Fremantle City.

Club career

Scunthorpe United

Born in

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, London, Sparrow spent 11 years of his professional career at Scunthorpe United, playing in the bottom three tiers of league football for them. He formally signed for the club as a 16-year-old and played in the FA Youth Alliance final for Scunthorpe at the old Wembley stadium against

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 ...

. After spending several months in prison in 2001, he became a regular in the Scunthorpe first team. He was part of the team that won promotion to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

after finishing the 2006–07 season as champions. In August 2007, he was offered a new three-year contract with the club. Sparrow scored twice in the 2008–09 League One Play-off Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

against

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 ...

, helping them to a 3–2 victory and promotion to the

Testimonial year

Sparrow made his 300th appearance for Scunthorpe in April 2009, and subsequently played in a testimonial match which took take place on 1 May. Former Scunthorpe striker

Billy Sharp Billy Louis Sharp (born 5 February 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker and captains club Sheffield United. He has also played for Rushden & Diamonds, Scunthorpe United, Southampton, Nottingham Forest, Reading, ...

and veteran midfielder

Peter Beagrie Peter Sidney Beagrie (born 28 November 1965) is an English former professional association football, footballer, sports television pundit and commentator. As a player, he was a Midfielder#Winger, left-winger in a career that lasted from 1983 to ...

returned for the match. Also involved were

Jack Cork Jack Frank Porteous Cork (born 25 June 1989) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Burnley and the English national team. He played for the Great Britain Olympic team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Cork star ...

Alex Calvo Garcia Alejandro "Alex" Calvo García (born 1 January 1972), sometimes known as Jandro, is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Football career After unsuccessfully emerging through Real Sociedad's youth ranks and playing with amat ...

Jamie McCombe Jamie Paul McCombe (born 1 January 1983) is an English professional footballer who last played for Lincoln City. Career Frickley Athletic Jamie McCombe played youth team football for Frickley Athletic in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire between 1 ...

Jamie Forrester Jamie Forrester (born 1 November 1974) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker between 1991 and 2010. He played in France, the Netherlands and his native England. He notably played for Grimsby Town, Scunthorpe Unit ...

John Eyre John Eyre may refer to: Politicians *John Eyre (died 1581), Member of Parliament for Wiltshire and Salisbury *John Eyre (died 1639), MP for Cricklade * John Eyre (1659–1709), MP for Galway Borough, son of the above *John Eyre (died 1745), MP for ...

Lee Ridley Lee Ridley (born 5 December 1981) is an English professional footballer who plays as a left back for Winterton Rangers. He has previously played professionally for Scunthorpe United, Cheltenham Town, Darlington, Lincoln City and Grimsby Town ...

, Paul Wilson,

Steve Housham Steven James Housham (born 24 February 1976) is an English football manager and former footballer. Housham played as a midfielder from 1993 to 2007, notably in the Football League for Scunthorpe United where he was part of the club that triump ...

Andy Butler Andrew Peter Butler (born 4 November 1983) is an English football manager and player who plays for Farsley Celtic F.C., Farsley Celtic as well as being youth development phase coach at Scunthorpe United F.C., Scunthorpe United. Born in Doncast ...

Mark Jackson Mark A. Jackson (born April 1, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player. A point guard from St. John's University, he played for the New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, Toronto Raptors, Utah ...

Martin Carruthers Martin George Carruthers (born 7 August 1972) is an English former footballer who played as a forward for Aston Villa, Hull City, Stoke City, Peterborough United, York City, Darlington, Southend United, Scunthorpe United, Macclesfield Town, Bos ...

, Steve Torpey, Lee Hodges, Paul Harsley, Wayne Graves, Lee Turnbull,

Tony Daws Anthony Daws (born 10 September 1966 in Sheffield) is an English football coach and former professional footballer, he is academy manager of National League side Scunthorpe United. As a player, he was a striker and played for Notts County, Sh ...

Andy Crosby Andrew Keith Crosby (born 3 March 1973) is an English professional football manager and former player who is interim manager at club Port Vale. A defender during his playing days, he began his career at Leeds United, but made his debut in th ...

Ian Baraclough Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the Northern Ireland national team. He previously managed the Under-21 team. As a player, he was a defender fr ...

, Cleveland Taylor, Chris Hope,

Kevin Sharp Kevin Grant Sharp (December 10, 1970 – April 19, 2014) was an American country music singer, author, and motivational speaker. Sharp came on the country music scene in 1996 with his first single: a cover of Tony Rich's " Nobody Knows", which to ...

Kevin Pressman Kevin Paul Pressman (born 6 November 1967) is an English football coach and former professional goalkeeper, who is the current goalkeeping coach for Grantham Town. As a player he made over 500 appearances in both the Premier League and Footb ...

Paul Musselwhite Paul Stephen Musselwhite (born 22 December 1968) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and is the goalkeeping coach at club Scunthorpe United. He made 692 appearances in the league and 815 appearances in all ...

, Justin Walker, Ross Hyslop, Brian Quailey, Sam Beagrie, Des Comerford and

Simon Elliott Simon John Elliott (born 10 June 1974, in Wellington) is a retired New Zealand International footballer who most recently served as head coach of USL Championship side Sacramento Republic FC. Semi-professional and college career Elliott play ...

– plus managers

Brian Laws Brian Laws (born 14 October 1961) is an English former professional footballer and manager. Playing as a defender, Laws made over 100 appearances for each of Burnley, Middlesbrough, and Nottingham Forest. In 1994, Laws became player-manager of ...

and

Nigel Adkins Nigel Howard Adkins (born 11 March 1965) is an English professional football manager and former player and physiotherapist. Adkins played as a goalkeeper for Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Athletic. He finished his playing career and began his mana ...

. On 24 June 2010, it was reported that Sparrow had turned down a new contract offer and was looking elsewhere to continue his career.

Brighton & Hove Albion

On 29 June 2010, Sparrow signed for

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 ...

side

, penning a three-year contract. Brighton won the League One championship that season (in which Sparrow scored four goals) and were promoted to the Championship. In the 2011–12 season, Sparrow scored two goals, both in the 3–0 home win over Southampton. However, he received a red card and a three-match suspension in February's win against Leicester City, for a reckless sliding tackle.

Crawley Town

On 10 January 2013, Sparrow signed for

and fellow Sussex side

on a free transfer. Sparrow made his Crawley debut only two days later on 12 January, coming on in the 67th minute as a substitute replacing fellow midfielder

Dannie Bulman Dannie Mark Bulman (born 24 January 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played in the English Football League with Wycombe Wanderers, Oxford United, Crawley Town and AFC Wimbledon. Prior to retiring, ...

, in a 2–0 defeat against

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

. He made his home debut on 2 February in a 1–1 draw against

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 ...

. He scored his first goal for the club on 9 February in a 2–1 defeat against his former club Scunthorpe United. He scored his second goal for the club in a 2–2 draw against

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

. He played 17 times for Crawley in the league that season, scoring three goals as they finished in 10th place, their highest-ever league placing.

Return to Scunthorpe United

Sparrow returned to his old club

on 2 July 2013 after being released by Crawley Town. On 5 May 2015 it was announced that Sparrow wouldn't be offered a new deal and was free to leave the club.

Later career

On 24 June 2015, he signed a one-year deal with

Conference Premier 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-profess ...

club Lincoln City and make his debut in a home game against

. In 2016, he emigrated to Western Australia and joined semi-professional club

. On 6 October 2016, it was announced that Sparrow had signed with

of the

National League 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 ...

. He made a total of 4 appearances for Gainsborough before returning to Australia. Sparrow signed for Joondalup United for the

2017 National Premier Leagues The 2017 National Premier Leagues was the fifth season of the Australian National Premier Leagues football competition. The league competition was played amongst eight separate divisions, divided by FFA state and territory member federations. ...

season, where it was announced that he would also work in a coaching role.

Personal life

He attended the

John Leggott College John Leggott College is a sixth form college on West Common Lane, in Old Brumby, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. History Technical school The earliest predecessor to the college was known as Scunthorpe Technical High School oCole Str ...

in Scunthorpe between 1998 and 2000, studying Leisure and Tourism.

Career statistics

Honours

Scunthorpe United *

Football 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 ...

: 2006–07 *

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

: 2008–09 Brighton & Hove Albion *

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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sparrow, Matt 1981 births Living people Footballers from Wembley Sportspeople from Scunthorpe English footballers Association football midfielders Scunthorpe United F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players English Football League players