Peter David Handyside (31 July 1974 – 9 February 2024) was a Scottish 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

from 1992 until 2007. Despite being Scottish, Handyside played his entire career in England, having initially came through the youth ranks at Heston Rovers he was scouted by

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 ...

who signed him as a junior before promoting him to the first team in 1992. Handyside went on to make over 200 appearances for Grimsby in all competitions and was in the team that won the

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 ...

play-offs and

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 ...

during the 1997–98 season. In 2001 after nine years at

Blundell Park Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9,05 ...

, Handyside joined

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 ...

who he went on to captain and eventually earning promotion out of the Second Division like he had previously done at Grimsby. In 2003, he signed with

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

where he remained for a year before dropping into non-league football with

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 ...

. In 2006, he signed with

Hucknall Town Hucknall Town Football Club is a football club based in the town of Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, England. The club is a member of the and plays at the RM Stadium. History Hucknall Town were renamed from Hucknall Colliery Welfare in 1987 and for ...

before retiring at the end of the 2006–07 season at the age of 33.

Career

Early career

Handyside was a product of the youth system at Heston Rovers a local side from his home town of

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

. He also had a spell on the books of the youth team of Queen of the South including playing in a BP Youth Cup second round tie against Celtic on 31 October 1990.

Grimsby Town

Handyside was trialled by

and was signed by the club's youth team in 1990. He took his step up into the first team in 1992 and was eventually the club's long-term replacement for veteran centre back Paul Futcher and made an excellent pairing with Mark Lever. Handyside's maturity grew and he became an integral part of Grimsby's defensive setup, and along with Lever, John McDermott, Tony Gallimore, Graham Rodger, Kevin Jobling and Richard Smith was part of arguably Grimsby's best ever defence. The 1997–1998 Handyside continued to be the nucleus of Town's strong defence that helped achieve a promotion back to the First Division via the play-offs, and victory in the

. He bowed out at Grimsby after the 2000–01 season. An injury-troubled campaign, he was often replaced by loan-signing Zhang Enhua. At the end of the season, he rejected the chance to stay on with Grimsby and moved to Second Division Stoke City.

Stoke City

Handyside joined

in the summer of 2001 on a free-transfer and was made club captain. He played in 41 matches in 2001–02 including the 2002 Football League Second Division play-off final which saw Stoke beat

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

to gain promotion. That season he also scored his first and only goal for Stoke in an

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 ...

tie against

Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. The town is the administrative centre of the wider Lewes (district), district of the same name. It lies on the River Ouse, Sussex, River Ouse at the point where the river cuts through the Sou ...

. He missed only three matches in 2002–03 as Stoke narrowly avoided relegation and at the end of the campaign he was released by

Tony Pulis Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh former professional football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 2 ...

Barnsley

In 2003, he made a move to

but after a season hit with fitness and injury problems he departed

Oakwell Oakwell is a multi-purpose sports ground in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England used by Barnsley Football Club for home fixtures, and those of their reserves. As of 2023, the Barnsley F.C. Women's team also play at the stadium. While the na ...

at the end of the 2003–04 season.

Northwich Victoria

His next port of call was to make a move to Conference club

where he captained the Vics for two seasons before being released.

Hucknall Town

signed Handyside for the 2006–07 campaign. He remained at the club for one year before leaving the club on a free transfer. Handyside has played alongside his fellow Grimsby promotion winning teammate Tony Gallimore at four different clubs: Grimsby, Barnsley, Northwich Victoria and Hucknall; the only team at which Peter has not played with Tony is Stoke City, ironically Gallimore's first senior club.

Personal life and death

After retiring from professional football Handyside worked as a delivery driver for Gilberts Furniture on the Fenton Industrial Estate in

Stoke on Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire and one of the largest cities of ...

. In December 2013 Handyside's daughter was diagnosed with

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

, and in 2014 she launched her own campaign named "Maia's Mission". Peter Handyside died on 9 February 2024, at the age of 49 of sepsis.

Legacy

In June 2024 it was announced that Grimsby Town and Stoke City's academy teams will play each other in annual pre-season friendlies in memory of Peter Handyside.

Career statistics

Honours

Grimsby Town * Second Division play-off: 1997–98 *

: 1997–98 Stoke City *Second Division play-off: 2001–02

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Handyside, Peter 1974 births 2024 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Dumfries Men's association football central defenders Scotland men's under-21 international footballers English Football League players National League (English football) players Queen of the South F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Northwich Victoria F.C. players Hucknall Town F.C. players