Shaun Reay (born 20 May 1989) is 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

for

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

Early life

Born in Boldon Colliery,

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

, Reay attended Boldon School from 2000 to 2005. In 2008, he enrolled on a three-year

Association of Accounting Technicians The Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) is a UK-headquartered, global professional body for accounting technicians and bookkeepers, as well as a major provider of finance and accounting qualifications in the UK. In 2023, AAT confirme ...

course at

South Tyneside College South Tyneside College is a large further education college in South Tyneside in North East England. Its main site is in the town of South Shields. The college offers part-time and full-time courses for young students and adults. It was formed i ...

. Reay's involvement in junior

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

included spells at Boldon Colts and Redheugh Boys. Redheugh have produced notable footballers including

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and one of the best English footballers of ...

and

Don Hutchison Donald Hutchison (born 9 May 1971) is a former professional footballer. Hutchison is a football television pundit and commentator for ESPN FC. As a player, Hutchison was a midfielder, who played in the Premier League for Liverpool, West Ham Un ...

. He cites his favourite moment at Redheugh as scoring the winning goal in the final of the Sage Tournament at

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...

in 2004 against Redby Town. This was his last touch of the ball for the club before signing for

. Reay has some advice for Redheugh's up-and-coming players: "Keep trying and never give up. Winners never quit and quitters never win, this club is the best it gets". He scored a number of goals for Redheugh 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 ...

against Leam Rangers and two against South Moor. These goalscoring exploits set Reay on the way to signing for

. As well as his footballing exploits he also represented his school in the South Tyneside Schools Cross Country Championships, finishing in fourth place.

Career

Darlington

Reay started his career with

on a YTS contract and impressed so much so that he was given his first professional contract on 13 October 2006, an 18-month contract which would expire at the end of the 2007–08 season. Darlington's youth development director

Mick Tait Michael Paul Tait (born 30 September 1956) is an English former footballer and later a manager at the end of his playing career. His 760 league games puts him 13th in the list of English footballers. His clubs were Oxford United, Carlisle Unite ...

described him as "a lively striker who has been causing defenders all sorts of problems with his movement and pace". Reay was given

squad number In team sports, the number, often referred to as the uniform number, squad number, jersey number, shirt number, sweater number, or similar (with such naming differences varying by sport and region) is the number worn on a player's uniform, to id ...

24 for the 2007–08 season. Whilst at Darlington Reay studied for a BTEC in Sports Science at East Durham & Houghall Community College in

Peterlee Peterlee is a town in County Durham, England. It is located south of Sunderland, north of Hartlepool, west of the Durham Coast and east of Durham. It gained town status in 1948 under the New Towns Act 1946 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 68). The act als ...

, and was nominated for a

Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Ma ...

award by his club for continuing his studies at the same time that his football career was starting. He was also involved in a local road safety initiative, supported by Darlington F.C. Although Reay played at junior and reserve level, he made only four appearances for Darlington's

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

. In the 2006–07 season he started one game and came on as a substitute twice, and the following season made only one substitute appearance. On 22 May 2008, Reay was released from his Darlington contract by manager

Dave Penney David Mark Penney (born 17 August 1964) is an English football manager and former player. Born in Wakefield, West Riding of Yorkshire, Penney entered professional football at the relatively late age of 21. He had been working as a bricklayer an ...

. On 11 July 2008, after being released by the club a few weeks earlier, manager Penney announced that the club had in fact retained the young striker and handed him another chance, with the intention of sending him out on loan to gain experience.

Harrogate Town

Reay 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 ...

club Harrogate Town on loan for the 2008–09 season. Whilst with the CNG Stadium club he made eight appearances, starting one game and coming on as a substitute in the other seven. In part due to his limited opportunities with Harrogate Town, he left the club to join fellow Conference North side

Blyth Spartans Blyth Spartans Association Football Club is an association football club based in Blyth, Northumberland. They are currently members of and play at Croft Park. They were founded in September 1899 by Fred Stoker, who was the club's first secre ...

Blyth Spartans

Blyth Spartans signed Reay on 22 October 2008 on a two-year contract, after becoming frustrated at the lack of first-team opportunities at Darlington. On 25 October, in a Fourth Qualifying Round tie in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

against

Sheffield F.C. Sheffield Football Club is an English association football, football club, currently based in Dronfield, Derbyshire. They compete in the , on the eighth level of the English football league system, English football pyramid. Founded in October ...

, Reay came off the substitutes' bench at half time to make his debut with Blyth 1–0 down. He made a big impact, setting up the equaliser and then putting Blyth 2–1 up with an instinctive first time angled drive. Blyth went on to win the tie 3–1, and Reay's cameo earned him the

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

award. He was also nominated as

the FA The Football Association (the FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world and is responsibl ...

's player of the round for his performance. In the First Round Proper of the FA Cup, Reay scored twice as Blyth upset League Two side

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

3–1, the first coming after just 31 seconds. This performance again earned him a nomination for the FA's player of the round. At the end of the 2008–09 season, his first season with Spartans, Reay had made 36 appearances, starting 27, and scored 12 goals. He was rewarded for his efforts with the Young Player of The Season Award.

Shildon

Shildon Shildon is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, in England. The population taken at the 2011 Census was 9,976. The town has the Locomotion Museum, due to it having the first , built in 1825, and locomotive works on ...

signed Reay on 4 September 2009, with Blyth Spartans retaining his Conference North registration for the season. Reay made his debut for Shildon on 5 September in a home game against

Consett Consett is a town in the County Durham (district), County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of County Durham, Durham, England, about south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 27,394 in 2001 and an estimate of 25,812 in ...

. Shildon lost the game 2–1, but after the match manager Gary Forest promised supporters that Reay would score goals.

Whitby Town

In October 2009 he signed for Unibond Premier Division side Whitby Town. Reay made his Whitby debut on 31 October 2009 against

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

in a 2–0 defeat in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the

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 ...

. After struggling to fit into the side Reay's time at The Turnbull Ground turned out to be a short one and he was released by mutual consent.

Jarrow Roofing

After leaving Whitby, Reay began training with Jarrow Roofing, and signed for the club on Christmas Eve 2009. His debut was on 23 January 2010 in the Northern League Second Division match at home to Birtley Town, which Jarrow Roofing won 2–1, Reay making an assist for the winning goal. Reay's first goals for the club came in a 5–0 win away to Crook Town on 13 February, Reay netting a hat-trick. Jarrow Roofing were promoted to the Northern League First Division at the end of the season, finishing in third place.

Bedlington Terriers

On 2 June 2010, Reay signed forms with Bedlington Terriers. Reay scored two goals in three pre-season outings but was used primarily as a substitute following the arrival of Alex Benjamin at the start of the season and Wayne Gredziak into the season. To date Reay has started one competitive game and come on as a substitute in six other games. He netted his first goal against Ryton.

Boldon Community Association

After Reay was made available for transfer in October 2010 he signed for Boldon Community Association where his father and uncle had recently taken over. In a struggling side in the 2010–11 season, although Reay missed the start of the season with Boldon he made 29 appearances (27 in the league) and netted 26 times (24 in league), giving him a goals per game ratio of 0.9. Reay was voted man of the match five times and, although he missed the first 11 league games, finished third in the Top Goalscorer list.

Darlington

In June 2012 he rejoined

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reay, Shaun 1989 births Living people People from The Boldons Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of South Tyneside 21st-century English sportsmen English men's footballers Footballers from Tyne and Wear Men's association football forwards Darlington F.C. players Harrogate Town A.F.C. players Blyth Spartans A.F.C. players Shildon A.F.C. players Whitby Town F.C. players Bedlington Terriers F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Jarrow Roofing Boldon Community Association F.C. players Boldon Community Association F.C. players