Steve Cherry

Derby County

Cherry started his career with a five-day trial at Derby County, having been scouted by Ernie Roberts playing for Calverton Youth Wing in a 7–1 defeat to Ilkeston U16s. Having impressed during the trial he was placed in the club's youth team on wages of £12.50-a-week and in 1976 he signed a two-year apprenticeship contract. He was on the bench for the first round of the UEFA Cup against Irish club Finn Harps in the 1976–77 season due to Colin Boulton being out on loan and Steve Bowtell being illegible. He represented the Midland Intermediate League, though had his reserve team opportunities limited until Boulton left the club. He was given his first professional contract in 1978, still with six months left to run of his apprenticeship contract. He was called up to the England Youth Team later in the year and won four caps: two playing against Las Palmas Select' team, one against the USSR and one against Italy. He was dropped in favour of John Lukic after a 2–1 defeat to Italy. Cherry started his first competitive game for Derby as John Middleton was ruled unfit due to a shoulder injury for a First Division fixture against Southampton at the Baseball Ground on 16 February 1980. The match finished 2–2, with David Watson and Graham Baker scoring for the visitors. He kept his first-team place for the following game at home to Tottenham Hotspur, which Derby won 2–1; however, he was then sidelined after injuring his ankle slipping on the pavement outside his…

Steve Reginald Cherry was born at Nottingham General Hospital on 5 August 1960 and grew up in Calverton, Nottinghamshire. He was born into a mining family: his parents were Harold and Lonorah Cherry, a colliery electrician and housewife respectively. As a teenager, he attended a brief goalkeeping course at Nottingham Forest and had an unsuccessful trial with Notts County, though turned down the opportunity to play for Clifton All Whites after feeling dejected from his failed trial with Notts County. In 1975, at the age of 15, he played in goal for local village teams Calverton Colliery and Calverton United, as well as for Calverton Youth Wing. He had the opportunity to follow his father into the mines should his fledging football career not work out.

He married Julie, a secretary, on 22 December 1979. They had two children - Jonathan (1985) and Emma (1987). They divorced in 2012, and he later married Fiona. He began working as a forklift driver at Imperial Tobacco in Nottingham in 1999. His son, Jon (born 1985), played semi-professional football for Arnold Town and Kidsgrove Athletic after being released from Notts County as a teenager. He published his autobiography, Cherry Picking, in 2019. The book was written by Jonathan Nicholas, who in his former career had patrolled around the Meadow Lane pitch as a policeman when Cherry played as a goalkeeper at Notts County. The book was launched in Nottingham, with proceeds of the launch going towards a Myelodysplastic syndrome charity.

Notts County

Football League Second Division play-offs: 1991 Football League Third Division play-offs: 1990 Anglo-Italian Cup: 1994–95; runner-up: 1993–94 Plymouth Argyle

Football League Third Division play-offs: 1996 Kidsgrove Athletic

Staffordshire Senior Cup: 2003–04 Individual

Derby County Player of the Year: 1983 Walsall Player of the Season: 1984–85 Plymouth Argyle Player of the Year: 1988 Notts County Player of the Year: 1992