Simon Ferry

Simon William Ferry (born 11 January 1988) is a Scottish semi-professional footballer and coach who is assistant manager for Lowland League club East Kilbride.

Ferry started his career with Scottish Premier League club Celtic but did not play a competitive match for the first team.

Ferry has played for the Scotland national under-19 football team and featured for them at the 2006 European Under-19 Championship.

Having played for the Celtic youth teams, Ferry signed a four-and-a-half-year professional contract with the club in January 2006.

He was part of the team that won the Under-19 League and Cup double in 2006 and was among a number of players named, by coach Willie McStay, as likely to progress to the first team.

A few months later Ferry made his first-team debut on a pre-season tour of Poland, playing against Wisła Kraków and Legia Warsaw.

His professional development was curtailed by injury problems sustained in the 2006–07 season, which resulted in his missing almost three years of club football.

He spent the 2009–10 season on loan at Swindon Town who then signed him permanently at the end of the season.

He then moved to Portsmouth.

He returned to the Celtic first-team squad in February 2009, and featured in a Wembley Cup match against Tottenham Hotspur on 26 July 2009.

Ferry later told BBC Wiltshire that he feared the ongoing ankle injury would end his career.

On 27 August 2009, Ferry joined Swindon Town on loan until January 2010 along with Celtic teammate Ben Hutchinson.

He made his debut for Swindon on 29 August, receiving the club's Man of the Match award in a 2–1 victory against Southend United.

Two months later he scored his first goal for the club, on 31 October 2009, in a 4–1 win over Tranmere Rovers.

A week after scoring his first goal, on 26 November 2009, it was announced that a deal had been agreed with parent club Celtic to extend the loan until the end of the season.

Ferry stated he would like to stay at the club and revealed he had adapted easily to life on and off the pitch at Swindon Town.

On 23 February 2010, Ferry scored in a 4–1 win over Stockport County.

After the match, he said he 'blacked out' when he scored and didn't remember the goal.

Ferry scored an own goal in Swindon's play-off semi-final win over Charlton Athletic in May 2010.

Swindon would lose to Millwall in the play-off final, missing out on promotion to the Championship (Ferry started in the final).

Despite the loss, Ferry stated playing at Wembley was a good stage in his career, describing as "need to jump one way or the other" At the end of the season, Ferry was recalled by parent club Celtic, according to the club's chairman Andrew Fitton.

On 2 August 2010, Ferry signed a permanent deal with Swindon, along with Celtic teammate, defender Paul Caddis.

Ferry previously stated his wanted his move to Swindon Town turned to a permanent deal.

Shortly after the permanent move, Ferry stated that moving to Swindon permanently was a relief after the move was described as "deed in the water".

Ferry's first game after signing for the club on a permanent basis came in the opening game of the season, coming on as a substitute for David Prutton, in a 2–1 loss against Brighton & Hove Albion.

A month later Ferry went on the sidelines, having suffered an ankle injury in training which left him out for two weeks.

He returned from injury on 28 September 2010, coming on as a substitute for Thomas Dossevi, in a 3–2 loss against Plymouth Argyle.

Since then, Ferry featured on the bench, being unused, as he made 21 appearances.

The club was relegated after losing 3–1 against Sheffield Wednesday.

This incident led to Ferry and Hart falling out and it was revealed that Ferry considered quitting the club.

The next season, with the appointment of Paolo Di Canio as Swindon manager, Ferry believed he could look forward to life at the club.

Soon after, Di Canio revealed that Ferry almost left the club about three weeks after being behind Oliver Risser, Jonathan Smith and Alan McCormack in the pecking order for a place in the centre of midfield.

He also said on Ferry that "I was not happy with the way he behaved, not that he was lazy because he always trained well but he did not show me the real desire to do something more and try to put the opponent under pressure. But he has shown to me in the last 10 days though that he has improved and I told him that he deserves to play on occasion."

Eventually, Di Canio insists Ferry will stay at the club, having featured him in the first team this season.

Having featured in eight out of nine games for Swindon Town, Ferry overly praised Di Canio's squad selection and was then immediately dropped from his first team plan.

Di Canio praised Ferry on his home form, describing him as the main player that pressed everywhere and challenged every ball.

Ferry scored his first goal on his return and first since moving to Swindon permanently, in a 3–3 draw against Hereford United on 8 October 2011.

A month later he scored his first FA Cup goal, during a 4–1 defeat of Huddersfield Town of League One.

In a 2–1 win over Wigan in the third round of the FA Cup, Ferry and the rest of the team were awarded the Ronnie Radford Award.

In June 2014, he joined Dundee and spent just over one year at the club before joining Peterhead.