Dave Kitson

David Barry Kitson (born 21 January 1980) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward.

He made 420 appearances in the Premier League and Football League, including 145 for Reading.

Kitson began his career with non-league Hitchin Town and Arlesey Town before he joined Cambridge United in 2001 and became one of the brightest prospects in the Third Division, which led to him being signed by Reading in 2003 for a fee of £150,000.

Kitson joined Cambridge United, then in Division Two, in 2001 after being recommended by agent Barry Silkman to U's manager John Beck.

He made his debut in 3–2 victory away over Stoke City on 17 March 2001.

On the final day of the same season, Kitson notched his first goal for the club in a 1–1 draw at Swansea City.

The following season saw the club relegated from League One but Kitson scored 10 goals, finishing as the club's second-top goalscorer, one behind Tom Youngs.

It was in the 2002–03 campaign that Kitson really found his feet.

He scored 25 goals in a prolific campaign which saw him hot on the heels of David Crown's club record of 27 goals in a season.

After 11 goals in 19 appearances at the start of the 2003–04 season, Kitson left Cambridge to join second-tier outfit Reading.

His return of 47 goals in 123 appearances in all competitions ensured Kitson's place among the club's all-time legends.

Kitson was sold to Reading on 26 December 2003, for a fee of £150,000.

At Reading, he scored five goals in 10 starts in his first season.

In the 2005–06 season, despite injury he went on to record an impressive goals-to-game ratio, and continued to do so as Reading won the Championship title with a record 106 points.

He enjoyed great success with Reading, forming a formidable strike partnership with Kevin Doyle as Reading won the Championship title with a record 106 points and gained promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 2006.

After two seasons in the top flight Reading were relegated and Kitson signed for Stoke City for a club record fee of £5.5 million.

He had loan spells with Reading and Middlesbrough then joined Portsmouth as part of a swap deal for Marc Wilson.

Following promotion with Reading, Kitson scored the club's first Premier League goal in their 3–2 home win against Middlesbrough on the opening day of the 2006–07 season, but was then badly injured later in the same match.

The injury kept him out of the game until Reading's FA Cup victory over Birmingham City on 27 January 2007.

At the start of 2007–08, he was sent off less than a minute after coming on as a substitute for Reading against Manchester United, for a late challenge on Patrice Evra.

On 18 July 2008, Kitson moved in a £5.5m move from Reading to Stoke City, breaking Stoke's record transfer fee.

Speculation soon arose as to whether Kitson was settled at Stoke, as he struggled to adapt to the side's style of play after being played out of position by manager Tony Pulis.

As a result, he failed to score any goals in any of the 18 competitive games he played for Stoke City in the 2008–09 season.

Chairman Peter Coates and Pulis denied any rumour that he might be leaving the Britannia Stadium.

He rejoined Reading on loan until the end of the 2008–09 season on 10 March 2009.

Kitson later revealed that he made the "wrong decision" in joining Stoke, adding that he and his family were happy at Reading and that "I threw all of that away for what I thought was going to be a new challenge... I hold my hands up – it was my fault. I made the decision to go to Stoke, I didn't have to, no-one forced me to go, and it was a bad decision."

Addressing his lack of goals for Stoke, he said "I'd been bought for a lot of money but I wasn't sure I was being utilised in the way I thought I was going to be... You do have some days at training when you go back in and wonder what you're doing there."

However, Reading failed to gain promotion, meaning that Kitson returned to Stoke.

Kitson stated that he would "start his Stoke career again".

His first competitive goal for Stoke came in a 1–0 League Cup win at Leyton Orient on 26 August 2009.

He scored his first league goal for Stoke on 29 August 2009, which proved to be the winning goal against Sunderland and then scored again with a goal against Bolton Wanderers.

However Kitson lost his place to James Beattie and joined Middlesbrough on a two-month loan.

He scored his first goals for Middlesbrough when he scored a brace against Peterborough United on 28 November 2009.

On 27 March, he committed his future to Reading, signing a new deal that would expire in June 2010.

He returned to Stoke on 1 January 2010.

He scored in the FA Cup against Manchester City and Bolton.

Kitson joined Portsmouth with Liam Lawrence on deadline day as part of a deal which saw Marc Wilson join Stoke City.

Kitson made his Portsmouth debut on 11 September 2010 in a 0–0 draw with Ipswich at Fratton Park.

He spent two seasons at Fratton Park but agreed to cancel his contract with Portsmouth in August 2012 with the club in danger of being liquidated, and subsequently joined Sheffield United on a short-term deal, before signing a two year contract at Oxford United in June 2013.

Born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, Kitson spent the early part of his football career in non-league with Hitchin Town and Arlesey Town and worked for Sainsbury's as a shelf stacker.