Joshua William Wright (born 6 November 1989) is an English manager and former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
He began his career at Charlton Athletic at the age of 17 in 2007, but spent the majority of his two years there on loan at Barnet, Brentford and Gillingham.
Born in Bethnal Green, London,[2] Wright started his football career at Charlton Athletic, with whom he signed a two-year professional contract in April 2007 at the age of 17 alongside close friend Harry Arter.
Fellow professionals Lee Sawyer and Billy Lumley also attended Roding Valley High School, while Jordan Spence was in the same year group as Wright at Chigwell.
[6] After a successful spell, which saw him score his first ever goal against Stockport County[7] and be named Barnet's player of the month for November,[8] he returned to Charlton.
[10] The loan was extended but soon after Alan Pardew decided to call Wright back due to an injury crisis at the club, where he made an impressive display for Brentford under the management of Andy Scott.
[11] Following his return from a loan spell at Brentford, he made his debut for Charlton in a 1–1 draw against Burnley on 25 October 2008, where he was started for the match.
[19] Wright made his debut for the club, where he came on as a substitute for Gary Hooper in the 49th minute, in a 4–0 loss against Cardiff City in the opening game of the season.
[20] Since his debut, Wright quickly made an impact for the club and established himself in the starting eleven "as the holding player in United's four-man midfield.
[34] After leaving Scunthorpe, Wright suffered a foot injury ahead of the 2011–12 season, which prevented him from joining a new club.
[49] During a second loan spell with Leyton Orient, Wright's contract with Millwall was cancelled on 5 January 2015 to enable him to negotiate a permanent move to another club.
[55] However, after Edinburgh was sacked and Adrian Pennock became manager,[56] defender Max Ehmer was named captain.
[57] On 11 March 2017 in a League One fixture Wright scored a 9-minute hat trick of penalties against his former side Scunthorpe United.
In doing so he became the first player to score a hat trick of penalties in an English (top four tiers) league game since Alan Slough for Peterborough United in a 4–3 loss at Chester on 29 April 1978.
[64] He was later stripped of the captaincy, and dropped from the first-team, not making a start for five months until 13 March 2019, after which his attitude was praised by new manager Gary Bowyer.
[67] In January 2021, he returned to Crawley Town on a two-and-a-half-year deal to play alongside brother Mark.