Simon Baldry

Infobox Football biography
playername = Simon Baldry
fullname = Simon Jonathan Baldry
height = 5 ft 11 in (1.80m)
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1976|2|12
cityofbirth = Huddersfield
countryofbirth = England
position = Winger
years = 1994-2003
1998
2003-2004
clubs = Huddersfield Town
Bury (loan)
Notts County
caps(goals) = 201 (5)
005 (0)
040 (2)|

Simon Baldry (born February 12, 1976 in Huddersfield) was a Professional Footballer who played for Huddersfield Town, Bury and Notts County.

After displaying amazing natural talent as a youth player at Huddersfield clubs Stile Common and Deighton, Baldry was scouted and signed to the professional ranks at Huddersfield Town in 1994, aged just 17. Simon spent 9 years at the club where overall, he had a fairly decent career. He deservedly won the Reserve Team Pontins League Player Of The Year Award on numerous occasions, and is most hailed by dedicated Town fans for scoring the goal that saved the club from relegation, and sealed The Great Escape Campaign in the 1997/98 season.

Form / Setbacks / Article

When in good form Simon was arguably one of Huddersfield Town's better players, he was a very skillful player who was blessed with pace, agility and dazzling trickery, he was a real pleasure to watch, and as he matured and his confidence grew on the field he became a major asset to the team, particularly in the latter years prior to him leaving the club in 2003. But it's well known he was subject to a career filled with some quite serious injuries. This often knocked the player back just when he was at his best on the field. He missed some of the clubs biggest games through injury, most notably against Liverpool in the Worthington Cup Quater Finals back in January 2000.

Because Baldry had suffered a career hampered by injury, he had to spend a lot of time on the physio's table receiving treatment, and missed a lot of first team playing time. This meant he only managed to score a total of 5 first team goals in 201 appearances. Simon was criticized for this in an article written by Melvin Booth of The Huddersfield Daily Examiner in 2004. The article stated that according to facts, Baldry was the worst player in Huddersfield Town history. It also stated that Baldry was a player of supreme skill and potential, but was very lazy, and failed to realize he was one of the few players in the squad with bags of natural talent. The article was very one sided and rash on Baldry, it mentioned all the negative points of the players career, but very few of Baldry's countless personal achievements while playing for the club.

Town Administration / Relegation / Player Release

In the Summer of 2003, due to an ongoing financial debt saga, the club was forced to release 9 of it's players. Some of the players released were reserve players, but most of them made common appearances in the first team, including Thomas Heary, Kenny Irons and Simon Baldry. It is said that the club had no choice as again, it had just been relegated to a lower league after relegation and administration the previous year, and already owing every player in the squad at least a seasons wages, releasing half the players on the books with settlement pay was the only option.

Notts County

Baldry was a free agent for a very short while, training with Telford before being snapped up by Notts County. This deal would see Baldry been forced to accept a month to month contract, as like Huddersfield, County were a club finding themselves in trouble with money.

In the first half of Baldry's debut season at County, he produced some of the best football of his career and instantly became a fan favorite. Lining up on the right-wing of a pretty poor midfield, his first goal for the club came in the 2-1 demolition of Ipswich Town in the second round of the Carling Cup. He followed that performance up by giving experienced Chelsea left-back Celestine Babayaro the run-around in the third round of that competition.

Baldry followed that game at Stamford Bridge whith another top performance against Hartlepool, in which he scored the only goal of the game to give Notts County victory. This goal would prove Baldry's only leauge goal in Notts colours.

When the financial situation did improve at Notts County fellow squad members, former Huddersfield man Steve Jenkins, and Clive Platt departed to Peterborough. Many thought Baldry, who had been voted County's second best player of the season up to that point, would follow, but instead Baldry signed a permanent deal that would keep him at the club for the rest of the season. County employed a new manager by the name of Gary Mills during this time.

Injury / Loss of form / Trials

A short while after singing his contract Baldry suffered from thigh trouble, and was out injured for 2 months before playing his first game under new management in the 3-2 win over Brentford. Simon struggled to capture anything of his early season form, seemingly unable to beat his man or cross the ball. From there on Baldry was constantly over-shadowed by new partner on the right David Pipe.

In all he made 40 appearances for County, starting every game he was available for, and performing effectively well in almost all of them.

His last game for Notts County came when they played Oldham in a 1-1 draw on Saturday 8th May 2004. Baldry played well in the game but it wasn't enough to convince Mills he was worthy enough of another contract. Baldry was released, had a serious double hernia operation, started training with Motherwell, and then took part in an unsuccessful trial at Blackpool.

Ossett Town FC

It is now thought Simon is a first team player in the Ossett Town set-up, currently managed by former Huddersfield Town player Simon Collins.

References