Justin Whittle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Justin Whittle
Personal information
Full name	Justin Whittle
Date of birth	March 18, 1971
Place of birth	Derby, England
Height	6' 1" (1.85m)
Nickname	Sarge
Position	Centre Back
Club information
Current club	Grimsby Town
Number	6
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1993-94 1994 1994-98 1998-04 2004-present	Army Celtic Stoke City Hull City Grimsby Town	. 0 (0) 79 (1) 193 (2) 83 (1)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14:02, 24 October 2006 (UTC).

Justin Whittle is a professional football player and a former member of the Royal Army Pay Corps in the British Army. He is not considered a skillful player, but is hard working and influential, captaining both Hull City and Grimsby Town.

Contents 1 Hull City 2 Grimsby Town 2.1 The Alan Shearer Incident 3 Honours 3.1 Hull City 4 References and notes 5 External links

[edit] Hull City

Justin spent six seasons at Hull City and was a firm fans' favourite there. He was recruited by Warren Joyce in 1998 while City were battling relegation from the Football League and became an integral part of the "Great Escape" team. He left after captaining the promotion-winning 2003-04 side - he was offered a new contract at Hull, but with no guarantee of first-team football he chose to accept an offer from Grimsby Town instead. Due to his cult status at Hull, his departure led to widespread criticism of manager Peter Taylor from the fans. Taylor however delivered a second promotion the following season, but many fans still wished that Whittle had still been there to be a part of this success.

[edit] Grimsby Town

Whittle joined Grimsby in time for the start of the 2004-05 season after it became apparent that first team opportunities would be limited at Hull due to an influx of new players and that he would lose the captaincy as a result.

[edit] The Alan Shearer Incident

During a Carling Cup tie on 26 October 2005 in a game against Newcastle United game that was broadcast live on Sky television, Justin was involved in a series of incidents with former England captain Alan Shearer. Whittle was caught by Shearer's elbow when both were competing for a high ball and the opposite happened a few minutes later. Angry words were exchanged after the final whistle. Neither incident was deemed worthy of a caution from the referee. Not surprisingly, both sets of fans saw it differently with Newcastle fans backing Shearer ^[1] and Grimsby fans backing Whittle ^[2]. Although initially threatened by Newcastle, no action was taken after the game. British newspapers like The Guardian ^[3] and The Times ^[4] seem to favour Shearer because he offered an apology after he hurt Whittle.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Hull City

Division Three Runner-up: 2004

[edit] References and notes

1. ^ nufc.com match report
2. ^ codalmighty.com match report
3. ^ Guardian match report
4. ^ Times match report

[edit] External links

• Justin Whittle career stats at Soccerbase

Grimsby Town F.C. - Current Squad
1 Barnes | 2 McDermott | 3 Newey | 4 Harkins | 5 Fenton | 6 Whittle | 7 Rankin | 8 Bolland | 9 Reddy | 10 Toner | 11 Pulis | 12 Ravenhill | 13 Murray | 14 Paterson | 15 Cohen | 16 Boshell | 17 Till | 18 Bore | 19 Jones | 20 Croft | 22 North | 23 Hegarty | 26 Taylor | Manager: Buckley