Sunderland While at school, Gray had trials with
Manchester United and signed schoolboy forms, but decided against signing a contract at
Old Trafford and continued playing for Fatfield Juniors F.C. in the Hetton Youth League. After 18 months he signed, as an apprentice, with
Sunderland. He broke into the Sunderland first team shortly after his 18th birthday, at the beginning of the
1992–93 season. He made his senior debut on 21 November 1992 in a 1–0 win at
Derby County in
Division One (the first season after the creation of the new
Premier League). He played in various positions, including as a striker, left winger and left back before fading slightly from first team affairs. It was not until 1995–96 that he came to the fore, starting every game for Sunderland, invariably on the left side of midfield, as the team won promotion to the
Premier League as Division One champions. Gray was also the scorer of their first Premier League goal, scoring the seventh-minute opener in a 4–1 win over
Nottingham Forest at the
City Ground on 21 August 1996. Gray continued to be a regular in the side in
1996–97, but the club was relegated after just one year in the top flight. Gray gained unwanted attention a year later, in May 1998, when he missed the decisive penalty during a shoot-out in the First Division
playoff final after a 4–4 draw with
Charlton Athletic, which could have taken Sunderland back into the
Premier League. Sunderland finished first in Division One the following season and won promotion to the Premiership, with Gray an ever-present for the campaign. As a First Division player, he was picked by
Kevin Keegan to make his international debut for
England as a substitute in the match against
Hungary on 28 April 1999. In June 1999, he also played for England against
Sweden and started the match against
Bulgaria. He was the last outfield player from outside of the English top-flight to appear for England until
David Nugent in 2007 (goalkeeper
David James played for England in 2003 whilst playing for
West Ham in the First Division). However, he failed to make the England squad for
Euro 2000. This did not affect his domestic team's form, however, as they finished in seventh place in the Premiership, a feat repeated in
2000–01. In the
2001–02 season, Sunderland struggled, and with their dip in form came a dip in form for Gray, and for the next two seasons, he was constantly rumoured to be moving elsewhere including to arch-rivals
Newcastle United. Relegation came for Sunderland at the end of the
2002–03 season, and two games into the
2003–04 season Gray finally left, joining
Celtic on 1 September 2003, on a four-month loan. However, having failed to make an impact, and generally finding himself out of the team, he moved to
Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer on 1 January 2004. Following Sunderland's relegation from the Premier League in 2003, Gray was fined two weeks' wages and stripped of the captaincy by
Mick McCarthy after Gray turned up to training in a new
Ferrari. McCarthy viewed Gray's actions as insensitive due to the fact a number of club staff could potentially be made redundant following relegation.
Celtic Gray had a loan spell in 2003 where he appeared 7 times in the green and white of Celtic.
Blackburn Rovers Gray made his
Blackburn Rovers debut against
Chelsea in a 3–2 defeat, but constantly performed well for the team as they avoided relegation. In February 2005, he joined
Leeds United on loan until the season's end. He then returned to Blackburn and in his first season back there he helped them qualify for the
UEFA Cup, having established himself as a first-team regular. He later rejoined
Leeds United for a second loan spell in a bid to save them from relegation, which ultimately failed as the club plunged into the third tier in 2007.
Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers completed the signing of Gray on an initial 12-month contract in July 2007, reuniting him with his former Sunderland manager
Mick McCarthy. After spending the early part of the season in his more traditional left-back role, he was switched to left midfield in February 2008, which immediately saw him score his first goal in almost six years, and led to a run of three goals in five games. He signed a further one-year deal to keep him at the club for the
2008–09 season, but featured only sporadically for the first team during a campaign that would end in promotion for them.
Sheffield Wednesday Largely out of Wolves' first team plans, he joined fellow
Championship side
Sheffield Wednesday on a 30-day emergency loan on 9 January 2009. This was made into a permanent deal on 2 February 2009, when he signed a contract until the end of the season. On the same day, he was also voted Wednesday's player of the month for January. He scored his first goal for Wednesday in a 2–2 draw with Barnsley on 8 August 2009. The 2009–10 season ended with relegation to
League One after the club could only draw 2–2 in their final fixture with relegation rivals
Crystal Palace. Three days later it was announced he would not be offered a new contract,{{cite news |url=http://www.swfc.co.uk/page/News/0,,10304~2044277,00.html |publisher=swfc.co.uk |title=Irvine reveals retained list |date=5 May 2010 |url-status=dead ==International career==