| As an introduction into league football the 1996/97 season could not
have been any more turbulent for 18-year old Lee Crooks, serving under
no fewer than five different managers by the turn of the year as
newly-relegated Manchester City found life in Division One far from
comfortable. After representing England at youth level the
Wakefield-born defender was given his debut by caretaker boss Asa
Hartford when he was brought on as a substitute in a 2-0 away win at
Port Vale on September 10th 1996, going on to make 15 league appearances
as the Blues finished in a disappointing mid-table position as a
succession of managers came and went in a topsy-turvy season. Things
went from bad to worse a year later when the club were relegated into
the third tier of English football, with Lee making only five starts as
he looked to cement a place in a side that was in freefall.
Crooks
was finally given a decent run in the side in mid-October 1998 when he
replaced Richard Edghill at right-back in a 1-0 win at Wigan Athletic,
and from then on he was a virtual ever-present for the rest of the
season with Edghill reverting to an unfamiliar left-back role on his
return. Lee then picked an opportune moment to claim his first senior
goal for the club, crashing in a spectacular long-range effort to grab
the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Chesterfield at the end of February, a
point which kept the team in the Division Two play-off spots where they
remained for the rest of the season. After disposing of Wigan Athletic
in a 2-1 aggregate win the Blues moved on to Wembley for the play-off
final against Gillingham, eventually winning a dramatic encounter on
penalties (3-1) after a 2-2 extra-time stalemate as they returned to
Division One at the first attempt. Lee had made a total of 34 league
appearances with the one goal and had seemingly made the right-back
position his own.
At the start of the 1999/2000 season the loan
signing of left-back Danny Granville from Leeds United meant that
Edghill gave up the temporary left-back position he had been filling,
and was now in competition with Crooks for the right-back slot. As a
result Lee fell out of favour with manager Joe Royle and had to be
content with a place on the substitute's bench and the occasional
outing, scoring on one of his rare starts when he got the opening goal
in a 1-1 draw with Crewe Alexandra at the turn of the year. He
subsequently started only one more game until the end of the season (a
1-0 defeat at Sheffield United) as he suffered a number of recurring
injuries, and had to be content with only 9 first-team starts in his 20
league appearances as City achieved promotion to the Premiership on the
last day of the season with a 4-1 win at Blackburn Rovers.
The
return to the top-flight saw Crooks unable to break into manager Royle's
first eleven once again, making only two substitute appearances at the
end of September in games against Tottenham Hotspur (0-0) and Newcastle
United (0-1). With his opportunities at the club now appearing to be
limited he was sent out on loan to Northampton Town in December, and on
his return it was decided he was surplus to requirements and the club
accepted a bid of £190, 000 for him from Barnsley in March 2001. In his
time at City Lee had made a total of 91 league and cup appearances (26
as a substitute), scoring 2 goals, but never quite established himself
in the side despite helping the club to two successive promotions.
After
his spell at Barnsley Crooks later went on to play for Bradford City
and Notts County (loan) before moving to Rochdale, where he played until
March 2008 when he left the club by mutual consent to ready himself for
climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with a friend in aid of Macmillan Cancer
Support. (David Redshaw)
After retiring from football, Crooks chose a new career in the British Armed Forces. He signed up as an enlisted member (gunner) of the RAF Regiment, the infantry unit of the Royal Air Force, whose role is to provide force protection of RAF airfields and bases.
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