Colin Heath (born 31 December 1983) is an English former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

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

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was wound-up after a High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially known as Macclesfield F.C., the club was formed in 1874 and ...

and for Belgian club

Royal Antwerp Royal Antwerp Football Club, often referred to as Royal Antwerp or simply Antwerp, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Antwerp. Founded around 1880 as ''Antwerp Cricket Club'' by English students residing in Antwerp, 15 years befor ...

Career

Heath was born in

, grew up in

Birchover Birchover is a village and civil parish in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire, England, five miles north-west of Matlock. At the 2001 Census, it had a population of 362. Eagle Tor is a small hamlet on the north western edge of th ...

, and played for Darley Dale as a boy. He joined

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

's youth system as an 11-year-old, and moved to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

at 14. He earned his professional contract at the end of 2000. He joined

of the

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

on loan in January 2003; he played 13 league games in the 2003–04 season, but saved his goalscoring for

friendly matches An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

. He then joined

Football 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 month's loan in late 2004, and made his English first-team debut on 7 December in a 2–1 defeat at home to

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

. He spent the first half of the 2005–06 season on loan to

, but scored only once, against Yeovil Town in his home league debut, and struggled to maintain a first-team place. He returned to Manchester United in January 2006 and was released, to join

until the end of the season. He moved on to

, linking up with former Manchester United colleague

Tommy Lee Thomas Lee Bass (born October 3, 1962) is an American musician and founding member of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. As well as being the band's long-term drummer, Lee founded rap metal band Methods of Mayhem and has pursued solo musical ...

, but was released by manager

Paul Ince Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince (; born 21 October 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of EFL Championship side Reading. A former midfielder, Ince played professionally from 1982 to 2007, sta ...

after just one season. In September 2007, after an extended trial with Chester City, he signed for

Farsley Celtic Farsley Celtic Football Club is a football club based in Farsley, West Yorkshire, England. The club was founded in 1908, but folded in 2010 and were reformed as Farsley AFC before returning to the name Farsley Celtic in 2015.

of the

Conference National 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-profes ...

. Heath struggled to hold down a first-team place due to the form of Damien Reeves. After a handful of appearances, including helping Farsley to reach the last 16 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 ...

for the first time, he left the club. Although no longer a professional, Heath still plays football in the Northern Counties East League Division 1 for Knaresborough Town. He is currently playing cricket for Heslington CC in York.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Colin 1983 births Living people Footballers from Chesterfield English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Manchester United F.C. players Royal Antwerp F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Macclesfield Town F.C. players Farsley Celtic F.C. players Knaresborough Town A.F.C. players Belgian Pro League players English Football League players National League (English football) players Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium People from Derbyshire Dales (district) Footballers from Derbyshire