Peterborough United struck gold from Birmingham City scrapheap - he helped Posh write Wembley Stadium history | OneFootball

Midfielder Steve Castle's career seemed to have run aground at Birmingham City, but a move to Peterborough turned it around.

Midfielder Steve Castle had just had the first bad move of his career when Barry Fry picked him up for Peterborough United in 1997, and the result was an Indian summer for his playing career.

By the time that Castle was picked up by Barry Fry and Peterborough United in 1997, he was in need of a new club. Castle had already been a professional for 13 years, and had become a bit of a fan favourite at both Leyton Orient and Plymouth Argyle over that time.

Castle started his career at Orient in 1984, and made well over 200 appearances for them before transferring to Plymouth Argyle in 1992. A hard-working, tenacious midfielder with a keen eye for goal, Castle was popular at both clubs, and he ran up just over 100 appearances in Devon too. In 1993-94 Plymouth finished third in the Second Division - now League One - before losing in the play-offs semi-finals to Burnley.

Castle's move to Birmingham had come with the player under a cloud. He was stripped of the captaincy at Plymouth after requesting a transfer, and then missed five months of the 1994-95 season with a particularly severe bout of jaundice. He was, according to the Plymouth historical website Greens on Screen "a shadow of his once formidable former self; the jaundice having wreaked havoc on his strength and stamina levels" upon his return later in the season.

Barry Fry rescued Castle after two disastrous years at Birmingham

But a move to Birmingham in 1995 hadn't worked out. Castle had been picked up by Barry Fry at Birmingham but was unable to hold down a place in the first team, but Fry was sacked at the end of the 1995-96 season after a disappointing 15th-placed finish.

Castle, meanwhile, was sent out on loan to Gillingham and back to Orient, but to little effect. But in the summer of 1997, a fresh opportunity came his way. Fry had been appointed as both the chairman and manager of Peterborough, and he took Castle to London Road on a free transfer in a player-coaching role.

Fry and Castle engineered a tiny bit of Wembley history

At the time of Castle's arrival, Peterborough had just been relegated into Division Three - now League Two - of the Football League, their second relegation in four years. What followed were two years of mid-table security. Posh finished 10th and ninth in his first two seasons with the club, seldom looking likely to trouble the top of the table.

Peterborough were improved throughout the 1999-2000 season, but were unable to find the required consistency to challenge at the very top of the table. When they were good, they could be excellent, and Castle had a habit of scoring at important times. When playing against his former club Plymouth at the end of January 2000, for example, with the score still 0-0 and with eight minutes to play, Castle popped up to score and seal a 2-0 win for Peterborough.

Peterborough finished the season fifth in the table, which resulted in a particularly significant play-off semi-final for Barry Fry. Posh would be playing Barnet, the club at which he'd made his name as a manager in the 1980s, over two legs for a place at Wembley.

There was good cause for Barnet to feel nervous about this fixture. Two years earlier, Posh had beaten them 9-1 at Underhill in a League match, a game in which Castle hadn't taken part. And despite the cramped enclosure and steep hill of Underhill, Peterborough won the first leg 2-1, with a Farrell hat-trick in the second enough to send them to Wembley to play Darlington for promotion with a 5-1 aggregate win.

With so much at stake, it was a tight, tense game, and the score was still tied at 0-0 with 16 minutes to play when Andy Clarke broke through, saw his first shot saved, and then scored from the rebound for what turned out to be the winning goal in the last Third Division play-off final to be played at the old Wembley before it was demolished later in the same year.

Castle returned to Orient for a third spell there, but retired from playing after 13 appearances for them, and moved into coaching instead. Castle was 34 by this time and ready to reflect.

It was, his move to Peterborough in 1997, that proved to be an Indian summer for a playing career that saw him idolised at three of the clubs for whom he played.