Peter David Handyside (31 July 1974 – 9 February 2024) was a Scottish 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

from 1992 until 2007. Despite being Scottish, Handyside played his entire career in England, having initially came through the youth ranks at Heston Rovers he was scouted by Grimsby Town who signed him as a junior before promoting him to the first team in 1992. Handyside went on to make over 200 appearances for Grimsby in all competitions and was in the team that won the

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

play-offs and

Football League 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 Leag ...

during the 1997–98 season. In 2001 after nine years at

Blundell Park Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9, ...

, Handyside joined

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 ...

who he went on to captain and eventually earning promotion out of the Second Division like he had previously done at Grimsby. In 2003, he signed with

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

where he remained for a year before dropping into non-league football with

Northwich Victoria {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

. In 2006, he signed with

Hucknall Town Hucknall Town Football Club are a football club based in the town of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England. The club are members of the and play at Watnall Road. History Hucknall Town were renamed from Hucknall Colliery Welfare in 1987 and for ...

before retiring at the end of the 2006–07 season at the age of 33.

Career

Early career

Handyside was a product of the youth system at Heston Rovers a local side from his home town of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...

. He also had a spell on the books of the youth team of Queen of the South including playing in a BP Youth Cup second round tie against Celtic on 31 October 1990.

Grimsby Town

Handyside was trialled by Grimsby Town and was signed by the club's youth team in 1990. He took his step up into the first team in 1992 and was eventually the club's long-term replacement for veteran centre back

Paul Futcher Paul Futcher (25 September 1956 – 23 November 2016) was an English professional footballer who had a distinguished career as a defender in the English Football League, for England under 21s and as manager of several non-league clubs. He is ...

and made an excellent pairing with

Mark Lever Mark Lever (born 29 March 1970) is an English former professional association football, footballer and coach who played as a Defender (association football), defender from 1988 until 2005. Lever came through the youth ranks at Grimsby Town F.C ...

. Handyside's maturity grew and he became an integral part of Grimsby's defensive setup, and along with Lever, John McDermott,

Tony Gallimore Anthony Mark Gallimore (born 21 February 1972) is an English former professional footballer who played as a left back from 1990 to 2007. He began his career with Stoke City in 1990 and subsequently spent two separate loan spells with Carlisl ...

Graham Rodger Graham Rodger (born 1 April 1967) is an English football coach, former professional footballer and scout. As a player, he was a defender from 1984 until 1998 for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Coventry City and Luton Town before finishing his care ...

, Kevin Jobling and

Richard Smith Richard Smith may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Richard Penn Smith (1799–1854), American playwright * Richard Smith (silent film director) (1886–1937), American silent film director * Richard Smith (screenwriter), Scottish screenwriter, ...

was part of arguably Grimsby's best ever defence. The 1997–1998 Handyside continued to be the nucleus of Town's strong defence that helped achieve a promotion back to the First Division via the play-offs, and victory in the

. He bowed out at Grimsby after the 2000–01 season. An injury-troubled campaign, he was often replaced by loan-signing Zhang Enhua. At the end of the season, he rejected the chance to stay on with Grimsby and moved to Second Division Stoke City.

Stoke City

Handyside joined

in the summer of 2001 on a free-transfer and was made club captain. He played in 41 matches in 2001–02 including the

2002 Football League Second Division play-off final The 2002 Football League Second Division play-off Final was an association football match which was played on 11 May 2002 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, between Brentford and Stoke City. It was to determine the third and final team to gai ...

which saw Stoke beat

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

to gain promotion. That season he also scored his first and only goal for Stoke in an

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 ...

tie against

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...

. He missed only three matches in 2002–03 as Stoke narrowly avoided relegation and at the end of the campaign he was released by Tony Pulis.

Barnsley

In 2003, he made a move to

but after a season hit with fitness and injury problems he departed

Oakwell Oakwell is a multi-purpose sports development in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England used primarily by Barnsley Football Club for playing their home fixtures, and those of their reserves. While the name 'Oakwell' generally refers to the main s ...

at the end of the 2003–04 season.

Northwich Victoria

His next port of call was to make a move to Conference club

where he captained the Vics for two seasons before being released.

Hucknall Town

signed Handyside for the 2006–07 campaign. He remained at the club for one year before leaving the club on a free transfer. Handyside has played alongside his fellow Grimsby promotion winning teammate

at four different clubs: Grimsby, Barnsley, Northwich Victoria and Hucknall; the only team at which Peter has not played with Tony is Stoke City, ironically Gallimore's first senior club.

Personal life and death

After retiring from professional football Handyside worked as a delivery driver for Gilberts Furniture on the Fenton Industrial Estate in

Stoke on Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

. In December 2013 Handyside's daughter was diagnosed with

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

, and in 2014 she launched her own campaign named "Maia's Mission". Peter Handyside died on 9 February 2024, at the age of 49.

Career statistics

Honours

Grimsby Town *

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

play-off: 1997–98 *

: 1997–98 Stoke City *Second Division play-off: 2001–02

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Handyside, Peter 1974 births 2024 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Dumfries Men's association football central defenders Scotland men's under-21 international footballers English Football League players National League (English football) players Queen of the South F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Northwich Victoria F.C. players Hucknall Town F.C. players