Kyle Adrian Ross Critchell (born 18 January 1987) is a

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game be ...

who is first team manager of Portland United. Critchell progressed through the youth and reserve teams at

Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...

and had a

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

period at

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. He left for

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom *Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constituenc ...

and was released by them after half a season, when he moved to Weymouth. A move to

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; cy, Wrecsam; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Wrexham County Borough in Wales. It is located between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley, near the border with Cheshire in England. Historically in the county ...

followed and following an injury he was loaned out to

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

and Weymouth. He re-signed for Weymouth following their relegation to the

Conference South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the ...

and later joined league rivals

Dorchester Town Dorchester Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club, based in Dorchester, Dorset, England. They currently play in the . The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and is a FA chartered Standard club. They ...

in 2009. He returned to Weymouth in 2012. Critchell has represented Wales at various levels. He gained five

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

s for the under-17 team, before making three appearances for the under-21 team from 2005 to 2006. He has made four appearances for the semi-professional team, making his debut against

England C The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at non-league level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it f ...

in 2008.

Club career

Born in Dorchester, Dorset, Critchell joined

as a trainee in July 2003 after being spotted playing for Weymouth's reserve team. He played in both legs of the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. I ...

semi-final in 2005, and suffered from a broken ankle in the second leg, which Southampton won in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. In the 2005 pre-season he made his first appearance in the Southampton first team during pre-season and signed a professional contract with the club on 4 August 2005, but spent most of the 2005–06 season out with a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in a toy Jacob's ...

injury. He joined

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Le ...

side

on a two-month

in October 2006. He made his league debut on 28 October 2006 in Torquay's 0–0 draw at home to

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mov ...

and finished the loan period with 10 appearances. He moved to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

on a free transfer on 19 January 2007, signing a contract taking him to the end of the 2006–07 season. He made his debut in a 1–0 defeat to

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

on 20 January. During a game against

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

on 7 April he picked up a

groin In human anatomy, the groin (the adjective is ''inguinal'', as in inguinal canal) is the junctional area (also known as the inguinal region) between the abdomen and the thigh on either side of the pubic bone. This is also known as the medial co ...

strain, which resulted in him undergoing a scan. He also suffered from a virus while at the club and was released in May 2007, after making 10 appearances as Chesterfield were relegated to League Two. Critchell trained with

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profess ...

side Weymouth and signed a two-year contract on 20 June 2007. He made his debut on 11 August, the opening day of the 2007–08 season, in a 2–1 victory over

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration (law), administration in ...

. Following a 3–1 defeat to

Stafford Rangers Stafford Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional English football team from Stafford which plays in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. The team wear black and white stripes with black shorts. Stafford Rangers' rivals include T ...

for Weymouth, manager

Jason Tindall Jason James Tindall (born 15 November 1977) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is currently the assistant manager of Newcastle United. A defender during his playing days, Tindall spent the bulk of his career with ...

singled out Critchell for praise, saying; "The only one out there today who deserves any credit for their performance was Kyle Critchell but overall it was not good enough". He was sent off against

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

on the final day of the season after clashing with Gary Scott and he finished the season with 42 appearances. Kyle Critchell York City v

Critchell signed a two-year contract with newly relegated Conference Premier side

on 24 June 2008. He made his debut in a 2–0 victory over

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and ...

, where he played in right

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

. After making a further appearance for Wrexham he suffered from an ankle injury during a training session. He underwent surgery on this ankle in October, which had been delayed due to illness. After recovering from this injury four months later, he said he was looking to be loaned out to help improve his first-team chances at Wrexham. He eventually joined fellow Conference Premier side

on a one-month loan on 5 January 2009. He was due to make his debut a day later against former club Weymouth, but the match was postponed. He eventually made his first appearance after playing in the 2–1 victory over Oxford on 13 January in the second round of the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

. This was followed by his league debut on 17 January in a 3–0 victory over

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre ...

. The loan was extended for a second month on 4 February and finished his time at York with 11 appearances. He rejoined Weymouth on loan in March until 24 April and made his debut in a 2–0 defeat to

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts ...

. He finished the season with eight appearances for Weymouth, while the club was relegated to the

. After making two appearances for Wrexham, he was released on 8 June, after agreeing a deal for his contract to be cancelled. He then re-signed for Weymouth for the 2009–10 season on a permanent contract in June. Critchell left Weymouth in November to join local rivals and hometown club

. He finished the season with 20 appearances for Dorchester. Critchell made 40 appearances and scored three goals in the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

season. Critchell re-signed for Weymouth on a two-year contract for an undisclosed fee on 9 August 2012, with the club now in the Southern League Premier Division. He explained the transfer by saying "The biggest reason why I have come back is seeing everyone smiling and being positive again. The right atmosphere seems to be back at the club and that can only bode well for the future".

International career

Despite being born in England, he has represented Wales at under-17 level, with whom he gained five

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

. He made his debut for the Wales under-21 team in a 1–0 victory against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

on 25 March 2005. He was named in the squad to face

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in September 2006, which proved to be his final appearance for the team. He was forced into withdrawing from the squad in February 2007 for a friendly against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...

due to injury. He was called into the Wales Semi-Pro team for their match against

in February 2008 and made his debut in this match, with Wales being defeated 2–1. He was named in the squad for the Four Nations tournament in May.

Style of play

Described as "an extremely versatile player with boundless energy", Critchell has a preference for playing at

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, although he can also play on the left or in midfield. While in the Weymouth youth system, he played as a striker.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Critchell, Kyle 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Dorchester, Dorset Footballers from Dorset English men's footballers Welsh men's footballers Wales men's youth international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers Wales men's semi-pro international footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Men's association football utility players Weymouth F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Wrexham A.F.C. players York City F.C. players Dorchester Town F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Southern Football League players