Editing Martin Grainger (section)

==Playing career==
An experienced player, his career started in 1989 at [[Colchester United F.C.|Colchester United]], where he made 37 league starts between July 1992 and October 1993, before moving on to [[Brentford F.C.|Brentford]] on 21 October for a fee of £60,000. He was a first-team regular throughout his time at the club, making 100 league starts and scoring 12 goals. He joined Birmingham City on 25 March 1996, and quickly became an inspirational player due to his continued consistency and ability from set-pieces.

He picked up the Player of the Season award for 1999–2000,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bcfc-archive.freeserve.co.uk/poty.htm |title=Player of the Year |website=The Birmingham City FC Archive |date=13 December 2002 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20041228133811/http://www.bcfc-archive.freeserve.co.uk/poty.htm |archivedate=28 December 2004 |access-date=29 October 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and played for Birmingham in the [[2001 Football League Cup Final]] loss to Liverpool, missing one of the spot kicks in the shootout. As Birmingham continued to improve in the First Division, and eventually earned promotion into the Premiership, Grainger's playing time became limited. He failed to appear for Birmingham due to injury during the first half of the 2003–04 season, and in February he was loaned to [[Coventry City F.C.|Coventry City]], for whom he made seven league appearances. On 18 March 2004, he was recalled to Birmingham's team due to an injury crisis, and got on the scoresheet in a 2–1 defeat to [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]], but was himself injured and failed to appear in any matches for the rest of the season.

Grainger retired from football on 1 January 2005, having spent 13 years as a player. His goal-scoring appearance against Manchester United, on 10 April 2004, proved to be his final professional fixture. In the years following his retirement, Grainger has continued to be a popular figure amongst supporters of Birmingham City.<ref name=BluesLegend>{{cite news |url=http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/martin-grainger-57238 |title=Martin Grainger |first=Colin |last=Tattum |newspaper=Birmingham Mail |date=22 January 2008 |accessdate=12 June 2015}}</ref>