Ronald Peter 'Percy' Freeman (4 July 1945 – 5 January 2016) was an English footballer who played as 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 ...

Early career

Freeman commenced his career with local non-league clubs around

Redditch Redditch is a town and non-metropolitan district with borough status in Worcestershire, England. It is located south of Birmingham, east of Bromsgrove, north-west of Alcester and north-east of Worcester. In 2021, the town had a population of ...

where he was brought up, playing for junior sides Headless Cross Youth, Alcester Boys Club and Clent Rovers as a teenager and then senior sides Alcester Town,

Alvechurch Alvechurch ( ) is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Bromsgrove (district), Bromsgrove district in northeastern Worcestershire, England, in the valley of the River Arrow, Worcestershire, River Arrow. The Lickey H ...

, Astwood Bank, and

Stourbridge Stourbridge () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Situated on the River Stour, Worcestershire, River Stour, the town lies around west of Birmingham, at the southwester ...

coupled with Sunday league teams AFC, Black Horse and the Redditch Wednesday shopkeepers team. He joined

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

in 1969. After only making three appearances with

The Hawthorns The Hawthorns is an All-seater stadium, all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F.C. ...

club, Freeman signed for Lincoln City where he was best known with 152 league appearances and 64 goals. Freeman also played for

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 ...

and

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. The club is known as 'the ...

, and later managed Boston Town. Freeman died on 5 January 2016 at the age of 70 after a long period of ill-health.Tributes for Lincoln City 'legend' Percy Freeman
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeman, Percy 1945 births 2016 deaths English men's footballers Alcester Town F.C. players Alvechurch F.C. players Stourbridge F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Reading F.C. players Boston United F.C. players English football managers Boston Town F.C. managers Footballers from Newark-on-Trent Men's association football forwards English Football League players 20th-century English sportsmen