Lee Cartwright

Football player infobox
playername= Lee Cartwright


fullname = Lee Cartwright
nickname = Carts
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1972|09|19
cityofbirth = Rawtenstall
countryofbirth = England
height = 5'10"
currentclub = Hyde United
position = Midfield
youthyears = 1988-1990
youthclubs = Preston North End
years = 1990-2004
2004-2005
2005-2006
2006-2007
2007-
clubs = Preston North End
Stockport County
Rochdale
Scarborough
Hyde United
caps(goals) = 403 (26)cite web
title = Lee Cartwright
url = http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=1340
publisher = Soccerbase
accessdate = 2007-08-06]
034 0(1)
027 0(1)
041 0(4)cite web
title = Scarborough FC - Statistics
url = http://www.scarboroughfc.com/stats/appearances.php
publisher = Scarborough FC
accessdate = 2007-08-06]
022 0(1)
nationalyears =
nationalteam =
nationalcaps(goals) =
pcupdate =

Lee Cartwright (b.19 September 1972 ) is a footballer playing for Hyde United in the Conference North who made his mark as a midfielder with Preston North End.

Early years

Born in Rawtenstall, Rossendale,Lancashire Lee was signed from school as a trainee in 1989 by North End boss John McGrath. It was however under McGrath's successor Les Chapman that Lee made his first team debut at the age of 18 in a 1-0 home win against Shrewsbury Town in March 1991. Having broken into the first team Lee remained there for the rest of the season.

The following season (1991-92) Lee missed only a handful of matches as he picked up the club's player of the year award as reward for a string of consistently good displays. The 1992-93 season though was something of a disaster with Preston being relegated to the third division (now Football League Two) of the Football League. Lee's displays though were again impressive and interest from both Oldham Athletic and Blackpool nearly led to Lee moving on. He was however persuaded to stay by new manager John Beck and he remained at Deepdale for the next eleven years.

A Preston legend

In his thirteen years at the club Lee became a North End legend making a total of 472 appearances for the club scoring 30 goals.He was an important member of the Preston teams that won both the third division title in 1995-96 and the second division (now Football League One) title in 1999-2000. Lee also played in the play-off final defeats of 1993-94 and 2000-01 the latter when North End narrowly missed out on a place in the FA Premier League losing 3-0 to Bolton Wanderers at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

Leaving home

In January 2004 however Lee moved to Stockport County on a free transfer. His time at Edgeley Park though was disrupted by injury and after 18 months in which he played 38 games scoring just once he moved on to Rochdale for the start of the 2005-06 season. Again though injury ruined his season and after just 29 games and 1 goal he was released.

carborough

Without a club for the first time in his career Lee was contemplating retirement until Mark Patterson the new manager of Conference North side Scarborough offered him a contract for the 2006-07 season. He won the club's final ever Player of the Year award. cite web
title = Scarborough FC Player of the Year
url = http://www.scarboroughfc.com/club/poty.php
publisher = Scarborough FC
accessdate = 2007-08-06]

Hyde United

In May 2007, it was announced that Lee had signed for Conference North side Hyde United following Scarborough's relegation from the same division and subsequent liquidation. Hyde manager Steve Waywell called him the best player that the Tigers had played against the previous season. [cite web | title=nonleaguezone.com :: "View Topic - New Signing" | url=http://www.nonleaguezone.com/viewtopic.php?t=40905|accessdate= 2006-18-05]

Notes