Simon Royce

Simon Royce

London born Simon started his footballing journey in non league with Essex based Heybridge Swifts, and after impressing, it convinced Southend United to make a move, bringing the teenager to Roots Hall in 1991. After 7 years with Southend, his shot stopping abilities led to a move to Charlton Athletic, where after a strong start, including setting a post war record for top flight clean sheets, injury led to the number 1 jersey being taken by another former Hatter, Dean Kiely. He moved to Leicester before a flurry of loan moves including; Brighton, Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers, before eventually ending up back at Charlton, where once more he was down the pecking order, before accepting an emergency loan move to Luton Town in October 2004. He would play two games, against Bradford City and Wrexham, where he had very little to do, with the majority of the action taking place at the other end of the pitch with the Hatters smashing in 9 goals in those two matches. 

A loan move to Queens Park Rangers followed, which became permanent. Followed by moves to Gillingham and then Brentford, where he moved into coaching, before moving back to Gillingham as a coach, although during an injury crisis Simon needed to pull the gloves back on to sit on the bench against Oxford for the Gills, which gave him the honour of being the oldest player to appear in FIFA 20. He left Gillingham, but stayed in coaching, staying relatively local to be the goalkeeping coach at Leyton Orient.