Drury: Adam James (Adam)

2012-2014 (Leeds Player Details) (Player Details)

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Born: Cottenham, Cambridgeshire: 29-08-1978

Debut: Peterborough United (a): 25-08-2012

5’11” 11st 7lb (2011)

Drury was a young schoolboy player with the Norwich City Academy before starting at Peterborough United while still only fifteen. Then a central midfielder, he became an apprentice at Peterborough, signing professional on 1st August 1995. He was converted to a left-back and, after playing for the England Under-Eighteens against a Football League XI, got his first chance in the final game of his first season at London Road, as a seventy-sixth minute substitute in the 0-4 away defeat by Oxford United on 4th May 1996. He made his starting debut for Posh in a 0-0 away draw with Watford on 21st September 1996 early in the following season and his first goal came in his sixth and final appearance of that season on 3rd May 1997 with the only goal of the game at Brentford two minutes from time. Drury grew in stature and started twenty-four League games and came off the bench six times in the 1997-98 season followed by thirty-nine starts and one game from the bench in 1998-99. He signed a five year contract with the London Road club in May 1999 and played over forty League games and scored his second League goal on 22nd February 2000 with the first goal in the fifty-fourth minute in a 2-1 home win over Hull City, as Posh reached the play-offs with a fifth place finish. On 26th May 2000 Peterborough beat Darlington 1-0 at Wembley to gain promotion to Division Two. In July 2000 Gillingham made an offer for Drury but it was rejected and Drury went on to make almost thity starts in the League before Peterborough received an offer of £500,000, which they accepted 21st March 2001. He had played one hundred and fity League games of which nine had been as a substitute and he had scored twice. He had also started nine F.A. Cup ties and eight League Cup ties as well as seven starts and one substitute appearance in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy and three starts in the Play-offs. He made his Norwich debut on 31st March 2001 in a 2-1 win over Grimsby Town at Carrow Road and after eight League starts before the end of the season he became a Canaries regular in their promotion challange in the 2001-02 season when they finished sixth, but beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 on aggregate before going down to Birmingham City on penalties at the Millenium Stadium Cardiff on 12th May 2002. He made thirty-five starts in the League and three in the play-off games. Drury was in excellent form during the 2002-03 season and this led to interest from EPL side Southampton but their January 2003 transfer window bid never eventuated. He started all but one of the forty-six League games that season, scoring twice the first at Stoke City on 26th August 2002 when he opened the scoring after forty-seven minutes in a 1-1 draw and the second on 15th March 2003 when he scored the second goal in the final minute of a 2-0 home win over Coventry City. He was named Norwich "Player of the Year". Manager Nigel Worthington appointed Drury team captain at the start of the 2003-04 season and he led the team to the Division One Championship. He missed only four of forty six League games in the season. Norwich City Signed Simon Charlton from Bolton Wanderers as competition for Drury but he still managed thirty-one starts an two games from the bench of a maximum of thirty-eight games and he scored once with a final minute equalizer in a 4-4 draw with Middlesbrough at Carrow Road on 22nd January 2005, but Norwich finished nineteenth and were relegated. Loss of form during the 2004–05 Premier League season did lead to Drury being dropped for a short time and he was relieved of the captaincy, but was back to form as Norwich beat Manchester United at Carrow Road on 9th April 2005. He remained a key player as the Canaries finished ninth in the Championship in 2005-06, and started thirty-nine of the forty-six League games. Nigel Worthington reinstated him as captain for the 2006-07 season and while he again started thirty-nine League games they slipped to sixteenth on the ladder. Peter Grant took over as Manager from Nigel Worthington and he gave the captaincy to Jason Shackell for the 2007-08 season. In May 2007, Drury signed a new four year contract with Norwich. Unfortunately, he suffered a serious knee injury in the home game against Bristol City on 21st October 2007, which required surgery and saw him make just nine League starts in the 2007–08, when Norwich came seventeenth and ten starts and one game from the bench in the 2008–09 season when they finished twenty-second and were relegated to League One. He came back to play a key role in the Canaries' League One Championship win in 2009-10, when he started thirty-five of the forty-six League games. In 2010-11 Norwich finished second in the Championship and won automatic promotion to the EPL. Drury scored Norwich's third goal in the sixty-second minute as they beat Leicester City 4-3 at Carrow Road on 28th September 2010. On 23rd December 2010 he signed a one year extension to his contract which took him to 30th June 2012 and it was agreed that he would receive a Testimonial for his ten years service. He scored once in nineteen League starts and one game as a substitute, but that was restricted by a calf strain, sustained in the 0-0 draw at Queens Park Rangers on 16th October 2010, which kept him out for over two months. After the return to the EPL Drury's appearances were restricted by the good form of Marc Tierney, but after the ex-Colchester defender was injured Drury returned to the team on 27th December 2011 for the 0-2 home defeat by Tottenham Hotspur and made twelve League starts as Norwich finished twelfth. On 20th March 2012 he was inducted into the Norwich City "Hall of Fame" and on 2nd May 2012 Norwich played Celtic in a Testimonial in his honour and won 2-0. On 19th June 2012 it was announced that Drury was joining Leeds on a two year contract on a free transfer from 1st July 2012. He had scored four League goals in three hundred and twenty-two starts and four games from the bench. He had also started eighteen F.A. Cup ties, thirteen League Cup ties one Johnstone's Paint Trophy and three in the Play-offs. He was not able to hold down a regular spot in the Leeds team due partly to injury and partly to competition from younger players. He did, however, have a loan spell with League One side Bradford City from 7th March 2014 until the end of the season. He made his debut the following day in a 0-2 defeat at Brentford when he came on as an eighty-fourth minute replacement for Carl McHugh. He made his starting debut three days later in a 2-0 win at Colchester United, going on to complete eleven starts and one substitute appearance in League games for the Valley Paraders. He returned to Leeds at the end of the season but was not retained when his contract expired. He retired on 22nd September 2014, but came back to play non-League football with his hometown team, Cottenham United, in the In the Cambridgeshire County League.