TonyBradley

Former player

About Tony

When Tony Bradley was a little lad, 11 years old, he was already shining with football promise. For at that age, young Tony was playing centre-forward for his school team.

He stayed at the school – Cippenham – until he was 15 and all that time Tony was Cippenham’s first choice leader.

Now, over 10 years later, Tony is playing regularly with Slough Centre, and proving that football promise is a talent he hasn’t left idle.

At 21, this smiling plumber is a youngster by Delphian League standards. But he is already a seasoned battler in senior amateur soccer.

He was picked at 13 to play for Slough schoolboys in the English Schools Shield competition.

The same year he played for the Berks, Bucks and Oxon schoolboys. When he left school, Tony played for Cippenham Youth Club until he was 17, when he joined the Centre.

After a season in the reserves, he went to Aldershot to do his National Service. There he had his finest experience in football.

For a whole season Tony played in the Aldershot Reserve team – at left back. With him at the time were Brian Nicholas and Frank Blunstone, who are now both with Chelsea.

When the time came for him to leave the Army and come back to Slough, Tony was offered a professional contract with Aldershot. He decided against it, came back to Slough and has proved a great asset to the Centre club.

There is a peculiarity this likeable lad has when playing that you can’t miss. He always clenches his fist and sticks his thumbs in the air. Which is symbolic, perhaps, of his never-say-die optimism.