Willem John Stanley Puddy (born 4 October 1987) is an English 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 plays as a goalkeeper.

Career

Youth career

Born in

Warminster Warminster () is an ancient market town with a nearby garrison, and civil parish in south west Wiltshire, England, on the western edge of Salisbury Plain. The parish had a population of about 17,000 in 2011. The 11th-century Minster Church of S ...

, Puddy began his career as a youth player with

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

, spending seven years with the side before being released.

Cheltenham Town

In 2006, he joined

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 ...

, spending time on loan at Mangotsfield United, Yate Town,

Stafford Rangers Stafford Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional English football team from Stafford which plays in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. The team wear black and white stripes with black shorts. Stafford Rangers' rivals include T ...

and Tamworth to gain experience, before being handed his professional debut for Cheltenham on 2 May 2009 in a 2–0 defeat to Southend United. At the start of the 2009–10 season, Puddy joined

Conference South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

side Bath City on a three-month loan deal, making four appearances before returning to Cheltenham after sustaining an injury. He was released by the club along with 7 other players in May 2010, and began training with Wolverhampton Wanderers as he recovered from an ankle operation.

Salisbury City

On 25 October 2010, he played a game on his return from his ankle operation

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 ...

. Start in the Red Insure Cup against

Wimborne Town Wimborne Town Football Club is a football club based in Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England. They were established in 1878 and won the FA Vase in 1992. They reached the First Round Proper of the FA Cup in the 1982–83 season for the first t ...

. On 5 November 2010, he joined

Swindon Supermarine Swindon Supermarine Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in South Marston, near Swindon, England. The club plays in the and is affiliated to the Wiltshire Football Association. The club plays at Webbswood Stadium on the nor ...

to be able to play in the 2nd round F.A. Cup game against Colchester United.

Chippenham Town

On 13 August 2011, Will joined

Chippenham Town Chippenham Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club club based in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England. They are currently members of and play their games at Hardenhuish Park. History The club states it was established in 1873,

. He made his first appearance for the club later that day in a

Southern Football League 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 fo ...

Premier Division game against Stourbridge. He left in January 2012 to play for Salisbury City.

Salisbury City

After leaving Chippenham, he returned to

. He spent the rest of the 2011–12 season with The Whites, only losing one game in a Salisbury City Shirt helping secure a strong finish to the season. He then committed to the club again signing for the 2012–13 season during the pre–season period. Will went on to play over 40 games in the 2012–13 season ending in The Whites winning promotion by the way of the playoffs. During the pre–season period before the 2013–14 season, Mikey Harris signed Will on for the upcoming season stating that he had full faith in Will, and believed that he would continue to do well. Will played an integral role in pre-season, playing pretty much every minute. Will went on to play much of the 2013–14 season, again appearing over 40 times in the league with 14 clean sheets, ending in being awarded the player's player of the season award by his fellow professionals.

Bristol Rovers

On 11 August 2014, he joined Bristol Rovers on non-contract terms. He started for Bristol Rovers in the

2015 Conference Premier play-off Final The 2015 Conference Premier play-off Final, known as the 2015 Vanarama Conference Promotion Final for sponsorship reasons, was a football match between Bristol Rovers and Grimsby Town played on 17 May 2015 at Wembley Stadium in London. It was the ...

against Grimsby Town on 17 May 2015, and was substituted for

Steve Mildenhall Stephen James Mildenhall (born 13 May 1978) is an English former professional footballer who is goalkeeping coach at Swindon Town. As a player he was a goalkeeper, he made almost 500 appearances in the Football League and over 500 games in total ...

during the stoppage time of extra with the score at 1–1. Rovers went on to win the penalty shoot-out 5–3. Puddy made his return to the Bristol Rovers team in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

1–0 defeat to Portsmouth. Puddy proceeded to play in the league on 10 December 2016 in a 4–2 victory over

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

Braintree Town

On 23 September 2016, Puddy joined

Braintree Town Braintree Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Braintree, Essex, England. They are currently members of and play at Cressing Road. History The club was formed on 24 September 1898 as Manor Works, the works team o ...

on a one-month loan deal from Bristol Rovers. Puddy made his debut for the club in a 1–0 defeat to Forest Green Rovers. Puddy injured himself in the FA Cup 4th qualifying round 4–2 victory over Bromley.

Sutton United

On 27 February 2017, Puddy joined Sutton United on an initial one-month loan deal as a direct replacement for injured first choice goalkeeper Ross Worner. He made his debut for the club on 28 February 2017, keeping a clean sheet during a 1–0 victory over Boreham Wood. Puddy kept a second clean sheet in his next match, a 0–0 draw with

Barrow Barrow may refer to: Places England * Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria ** Borough of Barrow-in-Furness, local authority encompassing the wider area ** Barrow and Furness (UK Parliament constituency) * Barrow, Cheshire * Barrow, Gloucestershire * Barro ...

, Sutton's first away clean sheet back in the non-League top flight for 26 years since a 9–0 victory against

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

on 22 September 1990.

Career statistics

Honours

Salisbury City *

play-offs:

2012–13 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 ...

Bristol Rovers * Conference Premier play-offs: 2014–15 *

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 ...

Automatic Promotion: 2015–16

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Puddy, Will 1987 births Living people People from Warminster English footballers Association football goalkeepers Bristol City F.C. players Bath City F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players Mangotsfield United F.C. players Yate Town F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Tamworth F.C. players Swindon Supermarine F.C. players Chippenham Town F.C. players Salisbury City F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Sutton United F.C. players Hereford F.C. players National League (English football) players English Football League players Southern Football League players Braintree Town F.C. players