Martin James Aldridge (6 December 1974 – 30 January 2000) was an English

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 ...

. A

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

, he scored 44 goals in 182 league appearances in a seven-year career in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

. He turned professional at

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

in August 1993. He was

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

ed out to

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club (), often known simply as Dagenham and abbreviated when written to Dag & Red, is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England that play in the , the sixth level of the En ...

in December 1995 and was

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies * ...

red to

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

later in the month. He helped the club to win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

out of the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in 1995–96. He later fell out of favour and was loaned out to

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 February 1998. He switched to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

in August 1998, where he enjoyed loan spells out to

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

and

Rushden & Diamonds Rushden & Diamonds Football Club was an association football club based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England. Nicknamed "The Diamonds", the club played at Nene Park. The club's main rivals were county neighbours Kettering Town F.C., Ket ...

. After a game at

Nene Park Nene Park was a sports stadium situated at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England, along the bank of the River Nene, which could accommodate 6,441 spectators, with 4,641 seated and 1,800 standing. It formerly hosted football matches but ...

, he was involved in a car crash on the A45 and died of his injuries, aged 25.

Career

Northampton Town

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

-born Aldridge joined

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

as a schoolboy but was released in 1990. As a 16-year-old, he then played for Ford Sports Daventry (UCL first division), and joined Sunday League side Braunston Rangers on to play with his brother Pete. He began his professional career as a trainee with his local side,

, joining them from Braunston leaving school in the summer of 1991, and turning professional in August 1993. The "Cobblers" finished bottom of the

in 1993–94. On 15 October 1994, he scored the first-ever competitive goal at Northampton's new

Sixfields Stadium Sixfields Stadium is an 8,203-capacity all-seater sports stadium in the Sixfields area on the west side of Northampton, England. It has been the home ground of Northampton Town F.C., Northampton Town Football Club following their move from the ...

in a 1–1 draw with

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) *Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; anc ...

. Northampton rose to 17th in the Third Division in 1994–95 under

Ian Atkins Ian Leslie Atkins (born 16 January 1957) is an English football manager, scout, and former player. Atkins amassed over 300 appearances for Shrewsbury Town, the club where he began his career. He also made appearances in the Football League for ...

's stewardship. He moved to

in December 1995. Later that month, he moved to

on a free transfer, where he was intended to replace

Wayne Biggins Wayne Biggins (born 20 November 1961) is an English former professional footballer born in Sheffield who made more than 450 appearances in the Football League and also played in the Scottish Football League. He was a striker and was nicknamed ...

Oxford United

Oxford won

as runners-up of the

in 1995–96, with Aldridge scoring nine goals in 18 Division Two games before missing the final few games of the season with injury. He scored nine goals in 38 appearances in 1996–97, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in a 4–1 win over

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

at the Manor Ground on 14 December. Aldridge, along with the goals of fellow strikers Nigel Jemson and Paul Moody, helped the "U's" to retain their Division One status with a 17th-place finish. However, they had been in the playoff places earlier in the season before a dismal second half of the campaign put paid to any chances of a place in the FA

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. He scored four goals in 29 games in 1997–98, but lost his first-team place after

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Denis Smith was replaced by Malcolm Shotton in December 1997. In February 1998, Aldridge joined

on loan, playing eleven times for

Alvin Martin Alvin Edward Martin (born 29 July 1958) is an English football manager, former professional footballer and pundit. As a player, he was a defender, playing most of his footballing career for West Ham United he appeared in 598 games for them, sc ...

's struggling Division Two side, before returning to Oxford, who released him at the end of the season.

Blackpool

In August 1998, he joined Second Division

and was the club's top scorer in 1998–99 with ten goals. However, he then fell out with manager

Nigel Worthington Nigel Worthington (born 4 November 1961) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who was most recently the manager of York City. He played a defender and a midfielder, playing his club football for Ballymena United, Notts County ...

, and in September 1999, he joined

on loan and made three goalless appearances for

Brian Horton Brian "Nobby" Horton (born 4 February 1949) is an English former footballer and manager. He spent 16 years as a professional player and 22 years as a manager, making 689 appearances and managing 1,098 matches. In addition to this, he spent four ...

's First Division "Valiants" in 1999–2000. In January 2000, he joined

Conference A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...

club

, also on loan, and scored sixty seconds into his debut in an

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

victory at

Bath City Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. Nicknamed the "R ...

Death

On 30 January 2000, at the age of 25, Aldridge died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash after leaving Rushden's 6–0 Conference win against

Northwich Victoria Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers River Weaver, Weaver and River Dane, Dane, east of Chester, south of Warr ...

, for which he had been an unused substitute. He was travelling home towards Northampton on the westbound A45 after the game when his

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French automobile brand owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was established in 1810, making it the oldest car company in the world. On 20 November 1858, Émile Peugeot applie ...

was involved in a collision with a

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

travelling in the opposite direction. After being cut free from his car, he was taken to Northampton General Hospital with serious injuries. He was later transferred to Radcliffe Infirmary in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

, where he died early the following morning. An inquest found that Aldridge had hit traffic cones and lost control of his car; four contractors were charged with failing to comply with highways regulations after it was concluded that roadwork signs had not been properly lit.

Career statistics

Honours

Oxford United *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

second-place promotion: 1995–96

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aldridge, Martin 1974 births 2000 deaths Footballers from Northampton English men's footballers Men's association football forwards Northampton Town F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Rushden & Diamonds F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Road incident deaths in England 20th-century English sportsmen