Andrew Hunt (born 9 June 1970) is an English former

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 ...

who played as a striker.

Career

Born in

West Thurrock West Thurrock is an area, former civil parish and traditional Church of England parish in Thurrock, Essex, England, located 17.5 miles (28.1 km) east south-east of Charing Cross, London. In 1931 the parish had a population of 5,153. On 1 Apr ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, Hunt started his career in non-league football, whilst training in business and tourism management, with King's Lynn and Kettering Town before being signed by then manager Jim Smith for Newcastle United in early 1991. Smith departed soon after, and Hunt continued to play under his successor Ossie Ardiles. However, this was not a successful time for the Magpies, who had fallen into the Second Division in 1989 and failed to make even the playoffs in the 1990-91 season. Ardiles reshaped the side for the 1991–92 season by drafting in more young players and adopting a very attacking style of football, but things failed to improve and by the end of October in 1991 the Magpies were bottom of the Second Division. Ardiles was sacked on 5 February 1992 and replaced by Kevin Keegan, who chose David Kelly and

Micky Quinn Michael Quinn (born 2 May 1962) is an English former professional footballer and sports radio presenter for TalkSPORT. As a player he was a centre forward from 1979 until 1996. He most notably played in the Premier League for Coventry City, a ...

as his first choice attacking force. Hunt was on the sidelines for much of the next 12 months before departing to

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 pl ...

, where Ardiles was now the manager. Hunt scored a hat-trick on his home debut for Albion in March 1993 against Brighton. He scored the first goal in the

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 final in 1993 at

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 ...

as West Brom beat Port Vale 3–0 to gain promotion. Hunt was a regular over the next five seasons, creating an effective partnership with Bob Taylor, but West Brom failed to gain another promotion. In 1998, he joined

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

, who had just been promoted to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

, on a free transfer. Charlton were relegated in Hunt's first season with them, but in his second season Hunt scored twenty four goals as Charlton won Division One to win promotion back to the Premiership. However, he retired early from football during the 2000–01 season due to chronic fatigue syndrome. Hunt returned to Charlton briefly in 2003 to try to earn another contract, and played in three reserve games, but was not offered a contract. Hunt now runs the Belize Jungle Dome and Green Dragon Adventure Travel, a pair of adventure travel companies in

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

, with his wife, former MTV presenter Simone Angel. Hunt also maintains a

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...

which details how he became a professional footballer, and his thoughts on different football issues.

Honours

West Brom *

play-offs:

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

Charlton Athletic * First Division: 1999–2000 Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1999–2000 First Division

References

External links

*
Green Dragon Adventure TravelBelize Jungle DomeHunt's personal blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Andy Living people People with chronic fatigue syndrome 1970 births People from West Thurrock British people of Austrian descent English footballers Newcastle United F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Premier League players Kettering Town F.C. players Association football forwards