Simon Tracey

Simon Tracey
Personal information
Full name Simon Peter Tracey
Date of birth 9 December 1967 (1967-12-09) (age 44)
Place of birth Woolwich, England
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing position Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club Barnsley
(Goalkeeping coach)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1985–1988 Wimbledon 1 (0)
1988–2003 Sheffield United 332 (0)
1994 Manchester City (loan) 3 (0)
1994 Norwich City (loan) 1 (0)
1995 Nottingham Forest (loan) 0 (0)
1995 Wimbledon (loan) 1 (0)
Total 338 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Simon Peter Tracey (born 9 December 1967 in Woolwich) is an English former professional football player who played as a goalkeeper. He is now goalkeeping coach at Barnsley.

Playing career

Tracey played most of his professional career at Sheffield United. He started out as a goalkeeper at Wimbledon in 1985. After only making one League appearance for the Wimbledon first team in 4 years at the club, he was sold on to Sheffield United in 1988 for £75,000. He was an ever-present in United's promotion season of 1989-90 and remained first-choice in Division One.

Tracey played 382 games for Sheffield United until 2003. His playing days came to an end when he suffered an injury during pre-season to the 2002-2003 season and once recovered, summer signing Paddy Kenny had cemented his place in the first team. This led to Tracey retiring from football. His games were limited by the arrival of Alan Kelly in the summer of 1992 for the first season of the new FA Premier League. During this time he had loan spells at several clubs, including Manchester City, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest and his old team Wimbledon.

One of his three appearances for Manchester City came in November 1994 in a 5-0 loss to rivals Manchester Utd, the worst losing margin for City in a Manchester Derby.

The loan spell that he spent at Norwich City during the 1994-95 season was a nightmare for Tracey. He made three appearances - in the first he ran mindlessly out of his area allowing Coventry to score an easy goal, in the second he was stretchered off with an injury and in the third he let in five goals in an FA Cup tie at Everton. In 2000 when he played at Norwich for Sheffield United he made a similar charge from his area that allowed Norwich striker Craig Bellamy to score.

Coaching career

Tracey began his goalkeeper coaching career in 2004 at Rotherham United F.C., replacing previous coach Graham Brown. His position lasted until October 2009, when he joined Mark Robins, John Breckin and Nick Daws at Barnsley F.C..

External links