Gary has been a writer for more than 20 years, writing for Sky Sports and newspapers such as the Lincolnshire Echo. After writing his first book, Suited and Booted, he went full-time in 2016, starting out with the local Lincoln news site, The Lincolnite. He started his Lincoln City blog, The Stacey West, in the same year and has been writing ever since.
He founded The Real EFL in 2018, tired of seeing sites that claimed to be EFL-centric but often omitted to cover the teams in League One and League Two. Originally, that was the site’s focus, but as it has grown, the Championship also became a key component. Through several strategic moves, The Real EFL has gone from being a bedroom project to a major news outlet.
Gary also created, published and distributed a football magazine called A City United in 2017/18, delivering local football news from the Lincolnshire area. That involved covering everything from Sunday League games to local women’s teams, as well as planning distribution and logistics.
As well as penning for sports sites and founding The Real EFL, Gary also has a background in working with iGaming clients. While working for a major marketing and SEO company, he held the position of Senior Content Strategist, constructing articles for several major iGaming clients, managing their accounts, developing topics and editing others’ work.
He now runs his website, The Stacey West, and is focused on his role at The Deck. Gary also runs an alternative media course for Year Nine students within the Lincoln area, teaching alternative journalism in the current marketplace.
