Martin James Cranie (born 23 September 1986 in Yeovil, South West England) is an English footballer, currently playing for Championship club Coventry City. He began his career with the famous Southampton youth academy playing alongside Theo Walcott and Gareth Bale before moving to local rivals Portsmouth and later to Coventry City after several loan spells. He is a versatile defender who can play all across the back four, though his main position is usually centre or right back.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Southampton

Cranie attended Buckler's Mead Community School in Yeovil, Somerset between the years 1998 and 2003 after completing his primary school education at Birchfield Community School.

He was a member of Southampton's youth team that reached the final of the FA Youth Cup in 2005, losing on aggregate to Ipswich Town.

In 2005, Cranie spent time on loan at Bournemouth, making three appearances for the club.

On 7 November 2006, he joined Yeovil Town on loan until January. ^[1] After spending 2 months back with Southampton, on 2 March 2007 he returned to Yeovil on loan until Easter.^[2] He made his first and only 2006–07 appearance for Saints in the second leg of the play-off semi-final against Derby County where he acquitted himself well although his side were defeated on penalties.

[edit] Portsmouth

Cranie signed for Portsmouth on 26 June 2007, where he rejoined his former manager Harry Redknapp.^[3]

He made his Portsmouth debut in the first home game of the 2007–08 season against Manchester United on 15 August 2007 where he had a solid performance at right back.

On 6 October, after three appearances for Portsmouth, Cranie agreed to join Queens Park Rangers on a three month loan. QPR, bottom of the Championship, were interested in Cranie when he was with the Saints.^[4] His loan was ended, however, due to suffering a broken leg after just six appearances for the London side.^[5] In September 2008 he joined Charlton Athletic on loan until the end of the year.^[6]

Cranie returned to Portsmouth in January 2009 and made appearances in two FA Cup matches.

On 12 August 2009, Portsmouth agreed to sell Cranie to Coventry City for an undisclosed fee.^[7]

[edit] Coventry City

On 13 August 2009, Cranie completed his transfer to Coventry City for an undisclosed fee, signing a three-year contract with the Championship club.^[8]

Cranie scored his first career goal in Coventry's 3-2 home win against Sheffield United on 15 September 2009. The goal was a flicked header at the near post from a corner and turned out to be the match winner as he gave Coventry a 3-1 lead.^[9]

[edit] International career

Cranie was called up to the U-20's for the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship alongside James Milner, Andrew Taylor and Steven Taylor as the youngest players in the squad. He made only one appearance as England crashed out after finishing at the bottom of their group. On 16 August 2007 Cranie was called up for the England U-21 squad and made his debut against Romania.^[10] During the 2009 European Championship qualifying he mostly played at right back as Nedum Onuoha and captain Steven Taylor were preferred in central defence. He scored his first U-21 international goal in a 3-3 draw against Sweden in the semi finals of the 2009 U21 European Championship, finishing off Milner's inswinging corner barely a minute after kick-off.^[11]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Martin Cranie career stats at Soccerbase

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