Lee Ashcroft
Personal information
Full name	Lee Ashcroft
Date of birth	7 September 1972 (1972-09-07) (age 37)
Place of birth	Preston, Lancashire, England
Height	5' 10" (1.78m)
Playing position	Winger / Striker
Club information
Current club	Kendal Town
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1987–1993 1993–1996 1995 1996 1996–1998 1998–2000 2000–2002 2002 2002 2003–2004 2004 2004–	Preston North End West Bromwich Albion → Notts County (loan) → Preston North End (loan) Preston North End Grimsby Town Wigan Athletic → Port Vale (loan) → Huddersfield Town (loan) Southport → Chorley (loan) Kendal Town	91 (13) 90 (17) 06 0(0) 07 0(3) 57 (19) 61 (15) 46 0(8) 03 0(0) 04 0(0) 22 0(8) 0? 0(?)
National team
1992	England U21	01 (0)
Teams managed
2006–	Kendal Town
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Lee Ashcroft (born 7 September 1972) is a former England under-21 professional footballer who now plays as a striker and manages Kendal Town of the Northern Premier League premier division.

[edit] Club career

He made his Football League debut aged 18 in 1990 for Preston North End. He played for England U-21s whilst at Preston. In August 1993 he moved to West Bromwich Albion for £250,000. He scored a vital headed goal on the final day of the 1993-94 season, in a 1-0 win at Portsmouth, to keep Albion in Division One.^[1] Ashcroft was loaned out to Notts County in 1995. He was loaned out again in 1996, this time to his former club Preston North End, whom he then re-joined on a permanent deal.

After Preston, Ashcroft moved to Grimsby Town for £500,000. He was not a particularly popular figure at Grimsby, due mainly to a poor first season during which he was frequently injured, and did no justice to his large transfer fee, which is still the Grimsby record.^[2] In his second season, he found form and started scoring goals, but a falling out with his manager, Alan Buckley, led to a cut-price transfer at the end of the season, when he moved to Wigan Athletic for £350,000.^[3]

While at Wigan, Ashcroft was loaned out to Port Vale in October 2002,^[4] followed by another loan move, to Huddersfield Town in December of the same year.^[5] Huddersfield were so short of funds at the time that the loan could only go through when a wealthy supporter agreed to pay Ashcroft's wages.^[6] Wigan eventually released Ashcroft on 6 February 2003, signalling the end of a professional career in which he had scored a total of 75 league goals.^[7] Later in the month he moved down to non-league Southport, taking up the role of player-coach at the age of 30.^[8] A year later he moved to Kendal where he scored 23 goals in the 2004-05 season. In November 2006, Ashcroft, the club captain, was appointed manager.^[9]

[edit] England Under 21s

On 12 May 1992 in Budapest, Lee came on as a substitute for his only Under-21 cap against Hungary in a 2-2 draw. He played alongside several future full internationals including Ian Walker and Andy Cole.^[10]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Lee Ashcroft career stats at Soccerbase