Justin Philip Whittle (born 18 March 1971) is an English former professional

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 lea ...

who played as a defender from 1994 until 2011. As a player, he notably captained Humber derby clubs

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

and

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...

. He also appeared for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

where he started his career in 1994 before moving on to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

. Following his departure from Grimsby in 2008 he moved into the Non-League game playing for Harrogate Town and

North Ferriby United North Ferriby United Association Football Club was a semi-professional football club in North Ferriby, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. At the time of their demise they were members of the Northern Premier League and played at Grange Lane. F ...

before retiring in 2011, where he briefly managed the club in a caretaker role whilst previously serving as assistant manager.

Playing career

Stoke City

Whittle was born in

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

and began his career in the Army and was deployed to Germany where he served with the

British Army of the Rhine British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) was the name given to British Army occupation forces in the Rhineland, West Germany, after the First and Second World Wars, and during the Cold War, becoming part of NATO's Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) tasked ...

. Whilst in Germany he played football in an army tournament and was spotted by scouts from

and he joined them along with Gary Holt. After a season at Celtic both joined

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Kenn ...

and Whittle made his professional debut away at

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

in the 1995–96 season. He played in both of the club's play-off matches against

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

at the end of the season as Stoke lost 1–0. He made 40 appearances in 1996–97 as Stoke finished in a mid-table position of 12th. In 1997–98 Stoke suffered relegation to the Second Division, however Whittle did manage to win the

player of the year award Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

despite playing in just 20 league matches. Under

Brian Little Brian Little (born 25 November 1953) is an English football manager and former player. As a player, Little was a striker who spent his entire career for Aston Villa in a career that spanned from 1971 to 1980. He made 247 league appearances, ...

in 1998–99 he played in 15 matches scoring his only goal for Stoke against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

on 3 October 1998. After falling out with manager Little, Whittle was sold to

in November 1998.

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 The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

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 Peter Taylor may refer to: Arts * Peter Taylor (writer) (1917–1994), American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction * Peter Taylor (film editor) (1922–1997), English film editor, winner of an Academy Award for Film Editing Politic ...

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.

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. After an average first season with Grimsby, Whittle went from strength to strength, and provided a commanding force at the back for his club. His efforts in the 2005–06 season saw the club make an appearance at the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

in the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, and go on an impressive run in the League Cup where the club defeated

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

before making an exit at the hands of

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. After playing in the heart of defence with many different players at the club it was surprisingly his partnership with Nick Fenton in the 2006–07 season that caught the eyes of the club's supporters. Despite the club struggling in the league, Whittle was voted "Player of The Season" for his efforts and earned himself a 1-year contract extension. It was apparent from the start of the following season that Whittle was to play a smaller or less important role in the club's affairs. The number 6 shirt he had held since he arrived was stripped of him and he was listed as number 15 in the squad. Fitness and injury worries plagued Whittle and when fit, he was often named as a substitute playing second fiddle to the likes of Nick Fenton, Ryan Bennett and Rob Atkinson. As well as this Whittle was not used in the club's

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

appearance in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

final in March. In April 2008 it was decided by the club that they would not offer Justin Whittle an extension to his contract and he left on good terms in May after playing some of his best football with the Mariners.

Harrogate Town

In the summer of 2008 Whittle signed for

Conference North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 o ...

side Harrogate Town. Whittle went on to play in 23 games for Town before being released in March 2009.

North Ferriby United

Whittle signed for

in March 2009, slotting straight into his usual central defensive position. After two years with the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

side Whittle retired from playing in football in 2011.

Managerial & coaching career

Following his retirement Whittle became assistant manager at former club

in August 2011. Following the resignation of John Anderson on 11 September, Whittle took caretaker control of the first team alongside club captain Paul Foot. Whittle left the club in October following the appointment of manager Billy Heath and assistant Bobby Carroll.

Personal life

Whittle is a former member of the

Royal Army Pay Corps The Royal Army Pay Corps (RAPC) was the corps of the British Army responsible for administering all financial matters. It was amalgamated into the Adjutant General's Corps in 1992. History The first "paymasters" existed in the army before the fo ...

in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

where he served before embarking in his football career. Since retiring from football, Whittle has continued to reside in

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a historic maritime city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Est ...

where he often writes columns for local newspapers analysing his former club Hull City.

Career statistics

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

and

Football League play-offs The English Football League (EFL) play-offs are a series of play-offs, play-off matches contested by four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic Promotion and relegation, promotion places in the second, third and four ...

Honours

; Stoke City * Stoke City player of the year:

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

; Hull City *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 Football League, 1920–21 and again from 1958–59 Football League, 1958 until 1991–92 Football League, 1992. When the FA Premier League ...

runner-up: 2003–04 ; Grimsby Town *

Football League Two The English Football League Two, simply known as League Two and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet League Two, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League Two is the fourth division of the English Football League (EFL ...

play-off runner up: 2005–06 *

runner up: 2007–08 * Player of the Year: 2007

References

External links

*
Justin Whittle article
at Amber Nectar
Profile of Justin Whittle
at codalmighty.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Whittle, Justin 1971 births Living people Military personnel from Derby Footballers from Derby English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Celtic F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Harrogate Town A.F.C. players North Ferriby United A.F.C. players English Football League players Northern Premier League players English football managers North Ferriby United A.F.C. managers Royal Army Pay Corps soldiers 20th-century British Army personnel