Luke O’Reilly was a Spurs Academy goalkeeper, who was at the club for one season – 2017/18. The London born former professional footballer had previously represented West Ham United and Peterborough United, as a youth team player, before joining the Nike Academy. O’Reilly joined Cardiff City as an Academy player in 2015, from the Nike Academy. He would play for Cardiff at Academy level, before joining non-League side Redditch on loan, for a while during his time at Cardiff. Not long after returning to Cardiff from Redditch, Luke left Cardiff City. After some time without a club he joined Spurs on a one year contract, joining their then Under 23 side. Luke O’Reilly made the bench for Wayne Burnett’s side on occasions during that 2017/18 season, a season where he competed with Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman for a starting place in the side. However, Luke’s one and only competitive appearance for the Spurs Under 23 side, came in a quite remarkable Premier League 2 match at the Lamex Stadium, in Stevenage. He started in goal for Wayne Burnett’s side, up against a Liverpool Under 23 side that had Dominic Solanke and Danny Ings playing as the two centre-forwards in that game. Adam Lallana was also playing for Liverpool in that game.

O’Reilly had a really solid game in goal for the Spurs Under 23 side against Liverpool, as he kept a clean-sheet, in a 1-0 win for Spurs. The goalkeeper didn’t play for Spurs again at Under 23 level, during the remainder of that 2017/18 season. He left Spurs after his contract came to an end at the end of that season, but he joined Carlisle United during that summer. O’Reilly made the bench on six occasions for the Carlisle United first team, during his relatively short time at the club during the 2018/19 season. A commanding goalkeeper with good reflexes, Luke would later spend some time in the non-League, with Chelmsford City, Beaconsfield Town and Maldon & Tiptree, before calling time on his playing career, in the summer of 2020. The now 26 year old former professional footballer, has since started a really promising coaching career, as a goalkeeping coach. During and after his playing career, Luke has so far coached Academy goalkeepers at Colchester United, become the first team goalkeeping coach at Stevenage and later the head of Academy goalkeeping at the League Two club. 

Later becoming a goalkeeping coach at Ebbsfleet United, Luke is impressively now the first team goalkeeping coach at League Two side Crawley Town. He is clearly a talented and promising coach, and I wish him all the very best for the new season, and for his future in the game as a goalkeeping coach.