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Gary eased himself in at Blundell Park and dominated games from the back along side Lever,McDermott,Handyside and others. Gary sticked out like a sore thumb at Town and it was soon that a big money deal would come in and Croft would exit the club.
It came in March 1996 when Premiership Title holders Blackburn Rovers offered Grimsby boss Brian Laws £1million for the defender. Grimsby accepted and Croft moved to the Premiership opening the door aswell for the arrival of Tony Gallimore at Grimsby.
Croft made just under 50 apperances for Rovers and scoring once. In 1999 Division 1 promotion pushing side Ipswich Town signed Croft for £540,000 and Croft became a regular playing Division 1 and Premiership football again for the Tractor Boys.
Croft established himself as a regular for the first time since playing for Grmsby after often being used as a sub at Ewood Park.
While at Ipswich Croft was jailed for speeding offences and this effectivly ended his career at Ipswich.
On return to Portman Road he was farmed out on loan to Wigan Athletic and Cardiff City before he was released in May 2002.
Croft was a linked up to Grimsby but neither party made any comment on the matter, and that rumour was put to sleep when he signed permanently for his former loan club Cardiff City.
The former Town centre back never made it at Cardiff as well as he hoped and after a short space in time he was no longer a regular giving way for Tony Vidmar and Rhys Weston to command from the central defensive postions.
In July 2005 he did what he was threatening to do for years, and signed a contract for The Mariners again, joining on a free transfer following his release from Cardiff.
CAREER STATISTICS!
2006/2007 GRIMSBY TOWN 22 APPS 0 GOALS
2005/2006 GRIMSBY TOWN 37 APPS 0 GOALS
2004/2005 CARDIFF CITY 1 APPS 0 GOALS
2003/2004 CARDIFF CITY 28 APPS 1 GOALS
2002/2003 CARDIFF CITY 54 APPS 1 GOALS
2001/2002 CARDIFF CITY(LOAN) 8 APPS 1 GOALS
2001/2002 WIGAN ATHLETIC(LOAN) 6 APPS 0 GOALS
2001/2002 IPSWICH TOWN 0 APPS 0 GOALS
2000/2001 IPSWICH TOWN 14 APPS 0 GOALS
1999/2000 IPSWICH TOWN 26 APPS 1 GOALS
1998/1999 BLACKBURN ROVERS 19 APPS 0 GOALS
1997/1998 BLACKBURN ROVERS 28 APPS 1 GOALS
1996/1997 BLACKBURN ROVERS 7 APPS 0 GOALS
1995/1996 BLACKBURN ROVERS NO DATA AVAILBLE
1995/1996 GRIMSBY TOWN NO DATA AVAILBLE
1994/1995 GRIMSBY TOWN NO DATA AVAILBLE
1993/1994 GRIMSBY TOWN NO DATA AVAILBLE
1992/1993 GRIMSBY TOWN NO DATA AVAILBLE