Robert Edwards (born 23 February 1970) is a 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 started out as a forward and changed to a defender or midfielder. He played 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

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

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. The ...

and

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

before retiring and starting his own joiner business in 2006.

Career

Crewe Alexandra

Edwards came through the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

at Crewe Alexandra, making his first team debut, aged 17, when coming on as a substitute in a 2–1 win over Newport County in a

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

game at

Gresty Road Gresty Road or the Alexandra Stadium, currently known as the Mornflake Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Crewe, Cheshire, England. The home ground of Crewe Alexandra, it has an all-seated capacity of 10,153. History Cre ...

on 13 February 1988.Crisp, p.119. He made his first Crewe start and scored his first Crewe goal in a 3–0

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

second round victory over

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

on 10 December 1988,Crisp, p.120. but was mainly restricted to occasional substitute appearances until the 1990-91 season, during which he scored 11 times in 32 appearances, including eight goals from 17 league starts in Crewe's final games of the season.Crisp, p.122. In the opening fixture of the following season on 17 August 1991, Edwards scored a hat-trick as Crewe won 7-4 at

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

in the London club's first Football League match. He scored another hat-trick in his penultimate Crewe appearance, a 3-2 victory at local rivals

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the count ...

on 2 March 1996. In 198 Crewe appearances, he scored 58 goals before being sold to

for £150,000 on 8 March 1996.

Huddersfield Town

Edwards had two spells at Huddersfield Town. He scored two of the most important goals in his career at Huddersfield one in 1997 against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

where Huddersfield passed the ball 16 times around the field for it to fall for Edwards outside the 18 yard box to smash it into the back of the net. And in 2004 scored the goal that took Town through to the play off final. He was released by Huddersfield at the end of the 2004–05 season, joining

Ossett Albion Ossett Albion Association Football Club was an English football club. They played at Queen's Terrace in Ossett, in West Yorkshire, more commonly known as Dimplewells, the area of Ossett the ground is situated in. History The club was formed in ...

from where he joined

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, southeast of Oldham and east of Manchester. The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshire ...

in May 2006. He retired in November 2006 after playing just 11 times for Mossley. He is now involved with Holmfirth Town F.C..

References

Sources

External links

* 1970 births Living people Footballers from Manchester English men's footballers Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Mossley A.F.C. players English Football League players Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football wingers Men's association football utility players Ossett Albion A.F.C. players {{England-footy-defender-1970s-stub