Neil Anthony Cutler (born 3 September 1976) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Cutler started playing football with West Bromwich Albion and after loan spells at Coventry City, Tamworth and Chester City he moved on to Crewe Alexandra in 1996. Further loan spells with Chester, Leek Town, Cheltenham Town and Stalybridge Celtic followed until he moved permanently to Chester City. After a season at the Deva Stadium, Cutler earned a move to Aston Villa. With first team opportunities limited at Villa Cutler played on loan with Oxford United and then joined Stoke City in July 2001. He enjoyed his most successful period of the career at Stoke helping them gain promotion in the 2002 Football League Second Division play-off Final. He went on to play for Swansea City, Stockport County and Rotherham United until retiring in 2007 and moving into coaching. Playing career Cutler was born in Perton, started his career as a seventeen-year-old at West Bromwich Albion having progressed through the FA National School of Excellence at Lilleshall. Cutler made an appearance for The English FA Schoolboys team which lost 1–0 to Italy at Wembley. During his time at West Brom, he went out on loan to gain experience at Coventry City, Tamworth and Chester City where he made his professional debut on 20 April 1996 in a 1–1 draw away at Torquay United. Cutler was sold to Crewe Alexandra in the summer of 1996 without playing a game for West Brom. He spent his entire spell at Crewe as understudy to Jason Kearton heading out on loan to Chester City, Cheltenham Town, Leek Town and Stalybridge Celtic. He then played for Chester City in 1998–99, after two previous loan spells with the club. During his time at Chester Cutler made 26 appearances under Kevin Ratcliffe and earned himself a move to Premier League side Aston Villa in October 1999. Cutler only made one appearance for Villa which came as a late substitute for the injured David James on 14 February 2000 against Middlesbrough with Villa winning 4–0. He spent time during the 2000–01 season on loan at Oxford United, making 11 appearances before being recalled in February 2001. He joined Stoke City in July 2001 and was initially going to be back-up to Gavin Ward but took his place in the team from September 2001. Cutler played 43 times in 2001–02 helping the team