Gary Childs

Last updated : 24 February 2005 By Gtm
Gary for Grimsby!
Hard working winger who joined West Bromwich Albion as a Professional back in 1982. Childs made 3 apperances in 8 months before Albions local rivals Walsall snapped him up for £15,000.

Childs had an decent 4 year spell at Walsall ending with around 180 apperance sin total spanning a few impressive seasons.

A the start of the 1987/1988 season Walsall let Gary go to there even larger local rivals Birmingham City for a fee of £50,000. Gary was a regular in the two seasons he played at St Andrews and kept a cool head playing in some tough seasons.

Gary was released in 1989 and joined Grimsby Town on a free transfer where he was to spend the best and most years of his career. Childs was a typical Alan Buckley signing and guarded his teritory well in midfield with threats coming from Tommy Watson amongst others.

Childs made around just under 300 apperances in total for The Mariners. He started to bow out of the regular starting batch in the 1996/1997 season and at the end of the season the player was released.

With options and new offers coming his way, Childs chose a strange option and despite intrest coming in from Hull City and Scunthorpe United amongst others he moved to lowly non league club Wisbech Town as the clubs Player-
Gary for Boston!
Manager.

Childs managed to get Wisbech into an FA Cup 1st Round tie in 1998 but his joy at the Norfolk amateurs lasted short as he was sacked in Marxh 1999. Childs returned to playing but chose Boston United(Unibond Premier Division, at the time)and made only a handful of games for The Pilgrims in his 18 month stay.

In May 2000 Childs retired from playing football and vanished for a few seasons until emerging as Grimsby Towns new Football In The Community Officer after Graham Rodger had stepped up to coach, Childs also sometimes commentates on Town games for BBC Radio Humberside.