Irish striker previewed here
Name: Terry Dixon Date of Birth: 15/01/1990 Position: Striker Club: None Previous clubs: Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, Stevenage (Trial) International caps: Republic of Ireland U-16 - 1 (1) Republic of Ireland U-17 - 5 (3) Republic of Ireland U-21 - 2 (0) Born in London, Dixon's mother is Irish and his father is a former Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur youth player. Dixon joined Tottenham's youth set up himself after being invited to play for local children's team Alexandra Palace by former Tottenham player Garry Brooks. Dixon quickly rose through the ranks and soon found himself in the clubs junior sides before suffering a serious knee injury at just 14 years of age. The injury took Dixon a year to recover from, at which point he was introduced to the Tottenham U-18 team, where he made 11 appearances in the 2005-2006. Dixon began his apprenticeship at Tottenham in July 2006 but quickly suffered a dislocated knee which ruled him out for almost the entire 2006-2007 season. In January 2007 Dixon signed his first professional contract at Tottenham and returned to training following his knee injury, After fully recovering from the injury Dixon was close to completing a move to Charlton Athletic on loan, but was cruelly sidelined by another dislocated knee cap which required surgery and intensive rehabilitation. Dixon was released by Tottenham in 2008. Dixon signed for West Ham in February 2009, although the deal nearly collapsed over concerns about his fitness. "I'm pleased to have signed the contract and I'm glad to have got it sorted. I'm back in training next week and hopefully I want to push on to the first team towards the end of the season. I'm so relieved to be back to fitness as it's just so annoying to have those niggles because you have been out for so long. My aims for this season are to get matches under my belt for the reserves and if I do well there, hopefully I can get into the first-team squad. I want to repay the faith the club have shown in me, if not this season then the season after." Dixon's first competitive game for West Ham came in October 2009, in a reserve game against Chelsea. He then went on to make his first reserve start a few weeks later against Fulham and by the end of November 2009 Dixon played a full 90 minutes for the first time in nearly 2 years, scoring and providing an assist in a 5-2 win over Stoke reserves (personally, I blame Dave Kitson for the defeat). Dixon went on to make 8 appearances for West Ham's reserves and got back to full fitness, however he found fist team chances extremely limited and in April 2010 Dixon's contract was terminated by mutual consent. Dixon has technically been a free agent since that day, however he joined Stevenage on trial and has stayed on 'non-contract terms' since. Dixon has played for Stevenage's reserves as well as first team appearances in both the FA Cup and Football League. Recently, Stevenage manager Graham Westley has said that Dixon "clearly has an enormous amount of talent, but needs to carry on working to gradually shed the pounds and get fitter". Dixon is still at Stevenage attempting to prove himself worthy of a full contract, wearing the number 26 shirt.





