Tony Gallimore

Anthony Mark Gallimore^[2] (born 21 February 1972) is an English former professional footballer who played as a left back from 1990 to 2007.^[1]

He began his career with Stoke City in 1990 and subsequently spent two separate loan spells with Carlisle United in 1991 and 1992. He joined United on a permanent deal a year later and went on to spend three years at Brunton Park before joining Grimsby Town in 1996. It was at Grimsby where he arguably played some of his best football, during the 1997–98 season the club earned promotion via the play-offs as well as a few weeks earlier being victorious in the Football League Trophy. He departed Grimsby in 2003 after spending seven seasons at Blundell Park, his next port of call was league rivals Barnsley where he remained for a year before joining Rochdale. Having spent two seasons with Dale, Gallimore dropped out of professional football and signed with non-league Northwich Victoria in 2006. He finished his seventeen-year career whilst on loan with Hucknall Town in 2007. During his career he made more than 500 appearances in the Football League.

After retiring Gallimore returned to live in Grimsby where he works as a scaffolder.

Gallimore joined Stoke City as a youngster and progressed into the club's first team setup in 1990 after several seasons in the youth system.^[1] He made his debut as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers towards the end of the 1989–90 season.^[1] He made seven appearances in 1990–91 and struggled to establish himself under Lou Macari in 1991–92 making just three appearances and was twice loaned out to Carlisle United in 1991 and again in 1992, making 8 appearances for Carlisle each time round.^[1]

In March 1993, Carlisle paid £15,000 for Gallimore to register the left back as a permanent player at Brunton Park. He went on to make over 150 appearances in all competitions for United and was an integral part of the first team. This in turn would sound the alerts of bigger teams, and in March 1996, he made a £125,000 move to Grimsby Town who at the time were playing their football in the First Division.

At Blundell Park he would turn out to be the club's long-term replacement for departing left back Gary Croft who had left Grimsby in a multimillion-pound deal to join Blackburn Rovers. After playing out the last few games of the 1995–96 campaign, Gallimore would prepare himself for a tough first full season, with The Mariners losing their first division status, and suffering a relegation, this spelled the end of an era at the club and important key players such as John Oster and Clive Mendonca moved on to new clubs. In the 1997–98 season, Gallimore would play an important role in the club's sudden return to the first division, whilst beating Northampton Town at Wembley Stadium in the play-offs, the club also defeated AFC Bournemouth in the Football League Trophy at the same venue. Gallimore along with fellow defenders John McDermott, Peter Handyside and Mark Lever as well as goalkeeper Aidan Davison were noted as the strongest defensive line up in the Second Division that year, and one of the strongest in the whole country. Gallimore went on to play the next five seasons at Grimsby and featured as the club's main choice left back until his departure at the end of the 2002–03 season, when Grimsby were to lose their first division status once more. Injury had troubled Gallimore in parts of his last couple of seasons with Grimsby, and his place had been contested by youngster Ben Chapman and also with the arrival of Darren Barnard in 2002, Gallimore had struggled to hold his place down in the team. With the club relegated, Grimsby opted not to renew his contract and he left the club after featuring in seven different seasons for The Mariners.

In August 2003 he signed a one-year deal with Grimsby's rivals Barnsley along with former teammate Peter Handyside. He went on to feature in just over 20 games for the club as yet again, injury blighted his season.^[3] At the end of the season, Gallimore was released again and dropped down another league to join Rochdale in August 2004.^[4]

Dale at that time were managed by Steve Parkin, who previously managed Gallimore at Barnsley. He featured regularly for the club before being released at the end of the 2005–06 season.

Gallimore joined Conference side Northwich Victoria in June 2006,^[5] but found it hard to break into the side and was transfer listed a few months later. He then made a loan move to Conference North side Hucknall Town in January 2007,^[6] where he spent two months before being recalled by Northwich in March 2007.^[7] Gallimore retired from professional football in May 2007 following the close of the 2006–07 campaign.

After retiring from Football in 2007, Gallimore went on to work for a scaffolding firm based in Grimsby.^[8] In December 2009, Gallimore signed for Grimsby and Cleethorpes Sunday League side Aston Estates.^[9]

His son, Dan Gallimore plays for Cleethorpes Town.^[10]

Source:^[11]

Carlisle United

• Football League Trophy runner-up: 1994–95^[12]

Grimsby Town

• Football League Second Division play-offs: 1998^[8]
• Football League Trophy: 1997–98

Individual

• PFA Team of the Year: 1994–95 Third Division^[13]

Tony Gallimore at Soccerbase