| Dave Simmons was born on 24 October 1948 in Ryde on the Isle of Wight. In 1966 he joined Arsenal and was part of a young Arsenal eleven that played against Cambridge United in Bill Leivers first official match at the club in the Playing Fields Association Cup. Although a prolific scorer in youth and reserve matches for Arsenal he never played any first team matches other than friendlies. During his time at Arsenal, Dave spent a period of time out on loan at Bournemouth and was a member of Arsenal FA Youth Cup winning side which beat Sunderland 5-3 on aggregate in 1965/66 season. In February 1969, he was transferred to Aston Villa, where he only played sporadically despite having a good goal scoring return for them in the matches he played . In December 1970, he moved onto Colchester, where on the 13th February 1971, Simmons scored one of the goals as the Fourth Division side won 3–2 against Don Revie's Leeds to qualify for the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in one of biggest FA Cup shocks of all time. During March 1973, Simmons moved to Cambridge United for a £3,000 fee. Leivers described him as big and brave in the penalty area and like Ian Hutchinson would collect his fair share injuries in there. It was only a year later that he was on the move again this time to Brentford returning before returning to the Abbey for a second spell in November 1975 signed this time by Ron Atkinson for a fee of £2000. Simmons left Cambridge at the end of the 1975–76 season, and retired from the professional game due to arthritis. Simmons sadly died in July 2007, following a long battle with cancer, aged 58. Both in life and on the football pitch he showed both strength and bravery |  Dave Simmons Testimonial was held on the 24 May 1977 Score -- Cambridge United 1 Ipswich 3 Goalscorers United -- Biley 10 Ipswich-- Osborne 54, Kitchen 84, Whymark 85 Cambridge United -- Webster, Batson, Harper, Stringer, Fallon, Howard, Watson, Spriggs, Lyon, Finney, Biley Eades, Atkinson Ipswich -- Cooper, Burley, Tibbit, Sharkey, Roberts, Wark, Osborne, Gates, Kitchen, Whymark, Woods, Turner, Viljoen, Butcher, Attendance --- 2,568 He later played for several non-league clubs locally including Cambridge City, Newmarket Town, Ely City and Soham Town Rangers. |
RSS Feed