Freddy Eastwood-The Daily Ledger

Freddy Eastwood (born 29 October 1983) is a former professional footballer. He started his career with West Ham United and also played for Southend United, Grays Athletic, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Coventry City. He played eleven times in his international career for Wales.

Club career

West Ham United

Eastwood began his career as a West Ham United Academy player after turning down a scholarship offer at Southend where he had been a promising youth player. At West Ham, Eastwood played in the same youth team as Jermain Defoe, Anton Ferdinand, and Glen Johnson but was not considered good enough by manager Glenn Roeder and was released by the Hammers in May 2003. After being released, he considered quitting football altogether and worked briefly as a car salesman.

Freddy Eastwood

Grays Athletic

Eastwood joined Conference South side Grays Athletic in August 2003. He scored 37 league and cup goals in his first season, winning the Grays' Golden Boot and prompting attention from a number of professional clubs including Northampton Town, Swindon Town and Charlton Athletic as well as Southend United.

Freddy Eastwood

Southend United

Eastwood joined Southend United in October 2004, initially on loan. On his debut, he scored the opener after 7.7 seconds, an English league record for a debut, and went on to score two more to record his first of three hat-tricks for the club as Southend beat top-of-the-table Swansea City 4–2. Eastwood joined Southend on a permanent basis in November 2004 for an undisclosed fee in a three-year deal from Grays. He finished the 2004–05 season with 24 goals from 42 appearances in all competitions and scored the opening goal in his club's 2–0 win over Lincoln City in the League Two Play-off Final at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in May 2005 that resulted in promotion for Southend United.

Freddy Eastwood

Eastwood scored Southend United's 5,000th League goal on 2 January 2006 when he smashed home the late winner against Blackpool at Bloomfield Road as the Shrimpers went to the top of League One. He scored twice at Swansea City on 29 April 2006 to earn Southend United a 2–2 draw, a result which sealed promotion to the Football League Championship. By the end of the 2005–06 season, Eastwood was joint 18th in Southend's all-time leading goalscorers list with 49 goals, 45 of which were in the league, two in the FA Cup and two in the Football League Trophy. He was also joint top scorer with Billy Sharp in League One in 2005–06 with 23 goals.

The following season, Eastwood scored his 50th goal for the club in the Championship opener game against Stoke City. It would prove to be a difficult season for the striker and despite scoring 11 goal in the Championship, Eastwood was unable to prevent relegation back to League One, however the highlight of the Shrimpers season came when Eastwood scored the only goal, a spectacular 30-yard free kick in front of the away fans in the North Stand, during the Football League Cup fourth round win against Manchester United on 7 November 2006 to put the holders out of the competition.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Eastwood signed a four-year deal with Wolverhampton Wanderers in July 2007 after completing a £1.5m move from Southend. The striker started the 2007–08 season impressively, scoring his first goal for Wolves on his full debut in the League Cup first round win over Bradford City, and finishing the month with 4 goals to his name, earning him the Championship Player of the Month Award for August. However, his goals dried up in the following months and he was often on the substitutes' bench or left out of the squad completely, with Andy Keogh, Jay Bothroyd, Kevin Kyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake now ahead of him in the pecking order.

He was close to a move away from Molineux to Coventry City in March 2008, but this collapsed at the last minute. He remained popular with many Wolves fans, who believed he had not been given a fair run of games, which caused a split between the fans towards the end of the season. He finished the campaign with just 3 goals in 10 league starts (35 appearances in total), prompting him to leave the club, with manager Mick McCarthy explaining, "It's nothing personal, but it hasn't worked out how either of us would have liked. He hasn't fitted into my team but he wants to play and will do well elsewhere. We wish him luck."