Tim Wooding

Tim Wooding (born 5th July 1973 in Wellingborough) is a footballer who has spent time playing in both the professional and semi-professional leagues. He is English but has yet to represent his country.

A lifelong fan of Liverpool, Wooding had never originally intended to pursue a career as a footballer but after missing a lot of school due to horrific injuries he suffered during the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 he performed poorly in his GCSE exams and his results restricted his future career choices.

He soon joined Norwich City as a trainee and adapted well into right back / central defender position but found his first-team opportunities very limited. He had little prospect of making a breakthrough at Carrow Road, and needed to make up for lost time, so he left the club in the summer of 1997. With few league teams willing to gamble on a 24-year-old who had never made a first-team appearance, Wooding found himself having to drop into non-league football.

He joined then non-league club Rushden & Diamonds and enjoyed arguably the best spell of his career, firmly establishing himself as the clubs first-choice right-back under manager Brian Talbot and becoming a popular figure amongst the fans. He gained a lot of confidence as Rushden were flying high and well on their way towards gaining promotion into the football league.

Ironically it was during Rushden's heroic giant-killing cup exploits in 1999/2000 that Wooding's Rushden career started to fall into decline. In high-profile games against big clubs like Leeds United and Sheffield Utd, Wooding was heavily criticised by the fans for a few costly blunders which resulted in goals for the opposition. He found himself torn to shreds by the likes of Harry Kewell and he struggled to get anywhere near the players he was supposed to be marking.

With the out-of-sorts defender's form jeopardising Rushden's promotion chances in the 1999/00 season, manager Brian Talbot felt the need to take action - in March 2000 he signed Darren Bullock to replace Wooding and dropped the player immediately. Tim Wooding would never make another appearance for Rushden as he found himself frozen out; towards the end of the season he didn't even make the bench.

He was shown the door in the summer of 2000 and promptly joined non-league Boston Utd but the ill-fated move produced just 11 first-team appearances before he was loaned to Dr. Marten's Premier League side Cambridge City, a move which was made permanent in February 2001.

Tim was transfer-listed by Cambridge City in December 2002, just 2 days after manager David Batch was sacked. The club announced that he and his teammate Darren Collins would be suspended from first team selection until a new manager was appointed. This suggested a rift with caretaker manager Jez George. Although Collins was transferred to Tamworth, Wooding appeared to have settled his differences and came off the list. Although he publicly stated he was looking forward to working with new manager Graham Roberts it appeared that he didn't figure in his long-term plans as he was shipped off to Grantham Town in August 2003 after 89 appearances and 4 goals.

Wooding found first-team football again with non-league Grantham, developing a good relationship with then-manager Roger Ashby. The highlight of his career there was when he captained the side to the inaugural Linconshire County Shield title, following the win against Gainsborough Trinity. Ironically Tim missed the opening penalty for Grantham in the shoot-out, however it didn't prove to be costly as the Gingerbreads scored their remaining four. In the 2004/05 season Tim was a virtual ever present in the Grantham side, having started all but 2 games that season. Ashby was sacked as manager at the end of the 2004/05 season however, and things again turned sour for Wooding as he was stripped of the club captaincy. In a shock move, Tim was released by Grantham in November 2005, having made 100 appearances for them. He joined fellow Southern Premier Division side Rugby Town and made his debut in December 2005 and quickly established himself as a key player in the first-team.

May 2006 saw Wooding leave Rugby to join newly promoted United Counties League Premier Division side Wellingborough Town. Wellingborough are now managed by Nick Ashby, the son of Roger Ashby, who Tim had enjoyed such a rapport with at Grantham.

External links

* [http://www.ex-canaries.co.uk/players/wooding.htm Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk] www.fatcooks.comwww.hitthechannel.co.uk