Aidan Thomas Stone (born 20 July 1999) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for club

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

. He began his career at Sporting Khalsa and Brocton, before being signed by

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

, from where he was

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

ed out to

Lancaster City Lancaster City Football Club is an English semi-professional non-League football club based in the northern city of Lancaster, Lancashire. They currently compete in and play at Giant Axe. They are full members of the Lancashire County Footb ...

. He joined

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

in June 2019 and made his

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

debut in February 2020. He signed with

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

in June 2021 and helped the club to win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

out of

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

via the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

. He joined Notts County on a free transfer in June 2023.

Early and personal life

Aidan Thomas Stone was born in

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

on 20 July 1999. He grew up in

Hednesford Hednesford (pronounced ) is a historic market town in the Cannock Chase (district), Cannock Chase district of Staffordshire, England. Cannock Chase is to the north, the town of Cannock to the south and Rugeley to the southwest.The population ...

and attended Kingsmead School and

Wolgarston High School Wolgarston High School is a coeducational upper school and sixth form located in Penkridge, Staffordshire, England. Wolgarston High School is an age 13 to 18 school, with Year 9 as the main year of entry. The school is smaller than most second ...

. He is a

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

supporter.

Career

Early career

Stone played as a

centre-half In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

in his youth until he put on extra weight at the age of 14 and decided to concentrate on

goalkeeping In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He played for Sporting Khalsa. Having failed a three-month trial spell at

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

at the age of 16, he joined

Midland League The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid. History Th ...

side Brocton in February 2016, winning the club's young player and players' Player of the Year awards during the 2016–17 Premier Division

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

campaign. He won a total of six caps for the England Schoolboys U18s team in 2017, playing against Northern Ireland and Australia in England's victorious Centenary Shield campaign.

Burnley

Stone was signed by

to a one-year

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

with the option of a further 12 months in June 2017. He signed a new one-year contract in April 2018. He joined

in July 2018 in a

deal to run the first half of the 2018–19 season. He made one

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

appearance at Lancaster. He played for Burnley U23s in the 2019

Lancashire Senior Cup The Lancashire County Football Association Cup (commonly known as the Lancashire Senior Cup) is a football knockout tournament involving teams from Lancashire, England. It is a County Cup competition of the Lancashire County Football Association ...

final, which ended in a 2–0 defeat to

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

. He credited Nick Pope,

Joe Hart Charles Joseph John Hart (born 19 April 1987) known professionally simply as Joe Hart is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Scottish Premiership club Celtic. He began his career at his hometown club Shrewsbury T ...

and

Tom Heaton Thomas David Heaton (born 15 April 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Manchester United. Heaton began his career in the Manchester United academy but was unable to break into the first team and sp ...

for having a positive influence on his career, saying "it's nice to have them as colleagues but also as friends".

Mansfield Town

Stone signed for

on 24 June 2019 after impressing

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

John Dempster on trial, and was expected to provide competition for first-choice goalkeeper

Conrad Logan Conrad Joseph Logan (born 18 April 1986) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Anstey Nomads. Logan joined the Leicester City academy in 2001, making his professional debut in 2005. He largely served Leicester as a ...

whilst

Bobby Olejnik Robert Olejnik (born 26 November 1986) is an Austrian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Olejnik came through the youth teams of Austria Wien and Aston Villa and has played professionally for Falkirk, Torquay United, ...

recovered from a knee injury. He made his senior debut at

Field Mill Field Mill, currently known as One Call Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a Football pitch, football ground in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, and the home of Mansfield Town F.C., Mansfield Town Football Club. It is the oldest ground in ...

on 27 August in a

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

game against Everton U21; the match finished 1–1 with Everton winning the resulting

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

4–1. On 1 December, he joined

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

Division One North West club

Widnes Widnes ( ) is an Industrial city, industrial town in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England, which at the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 census had a population of 61,464. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it is on t ...

on a one-month loan deal, having been recommended to the club by Mansfield's Head of Recruitment Andy Burgess. He played five games for the "Whites". In January 2020, Mansfield manager

Graham Coughlan Graham Coughlan (born 18 November 1974) is an Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a centre back. He is currently manager of EFL League Two club Newport County. Coughlan began his career in his native Ireland wi ...

said he was hoping to give Stone some more first-team experience before the end of the 2019–20 season. He made his

debut on 15 February, in a 1–0 home win over Newport County. He made 24 appearances in the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season and was praised by manager

Nigel Clough Nigel Howard Clough (born 19 March 1966) is an English professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of Mansfield Town. Playing predominantly as a forward, but later in his career used as a midfielder, Clough was c ...

in April for recovering from a costly error in a 1–1 draw with Newport County to pick up the

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award for his performance in a 1–0 win at

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

. The following month he was named as the club's Football in the Community's PFA Community Champion for his championing of a healthy eating campaign with Wynndale Primary School. However, the club confirmed that Stone would not be offered a new contract. Stone described the decision as "a bit of a shock" as "I thought I'd done enough to earn a new contract".

Port Vale

On 25 June 2021,

announced that they had signed Stone on a one-year deal to start on 1 July, with the option of a further 12 months; manager

Darrell Clarke Darrell James Clarke (born 16 December 1977) is an English professional football manager and former player who played in the English Football League. He is the manager of club Port Vale. A box-to-box midfielder, Clarke began his career with ...

said that "we are pleased to have secured Aidan's future at

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It has been the home ground of Port Vale F.C. since 1950. The ground has seen its capacity go up and down, its peak being 42,000 in 1954 against Blackpool, although a club record 49, ...

and expect to have a healthy dose of competition now in the goalkeeping positions, following

Lucas Covolan Lucas Covolan Cavagnari (born 6 June 1991) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Maidstone United. A Brazil under-20 international, he began his career with Trieste, before turning professional at Vasco d ...

's arrival earlier in the week." He was given the chance to secure a starting place after Covolan was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

on the opening day of the 2021–22 season. Covolan was returned to the starting eleven upon serving his suspension, only to be sent off yet again in January; Stone had to then sit on the bench behind new loan signing

Tomáš Holý Tomáš Holý (; born 10 December 1991) is a Czech professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Carlisle United. Holý started his professional career at Sparta Prague, having previously being part of the Hradec Králové youth s ...

until giving an impressive performance upon being given his first league start in two months on 12 March. He remained in goal for the rest of the season and saved three

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

in the penalty shoot-out victory over

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

in the play-off semi-final. He started in the

play-off final The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

as Vale secured

with a 3–0 victory over

; Michael Baggaley of '' The Sentinel'' wrote that "'' tone had anearly mix up with

Gibbons Gibbons may refer to: * The plural of gibbon, an ape in the family Hylobatidae * Gibbons (surname) * Gibbons, Alberta * Gibbons (automobile), a British light car of the 1920s * Gibbons P.C., a leading American law firm headquartered in New Jersey ...

but retrieved the situation with a save from

Murphy Murphy () ( ga, Ua Murchadha) is an Irish surname and the most common surname in the Republic of Ireland. Origins and variants The surname is a variant of two Irish surnames: "Ó Murchadha"/"Ó Murchadh" (descendant of "Murchadh"), and "Mac ...

... spilled a ball into the area but

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

cleared off the line.... tonehas played a huge part in getting Vale this far"''. The club named him as Young Player of the Year and invoked their option to extend his contract by a further 12 months in June 2022. The club then gave Stone a new deal to run until 2024. He lost his first-team spot to loan signing

Jack Stevens Major General Sir Jack Edwin Stawell Stevens, (7 September 1896 – 20 May 1969) was a senior officer in the Australian Army during the Second World War. He was best known as the commanding officer of the 6th Division from 1943 to 1945. Earl ...

early in the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

campaign, with Clarke claiming that further work with

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Carlo Nash Carlo James Nash (born 13 September 1973) is an English former professional Association football, footballer who played as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper; he is now the goalkeeping coach at club Port Vale F.C., Port Vale. Nash ...

would bring out Stone's potential as a "top half of League One goalie". Stevens remained first-choice goalkeeper for much of the campaign, though Stone was returned to the

first XI The First XI (or, less commonly, First 11) are the eleven primary players in an organisation's leading team, particularly a football or cricket team. A player who is considered a core part of the starting line-up in a First XI team is often the ...

in February, at which stage Clarke said that there was little to choose between the two. Stone ended the campaign with 26 appearances, twenty of which were in the league. He was permitted to leave the club on a free transfer after Port Vale signed

Connor Ripley Connor James Ripley (born 13 February 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Port Vale. Ripley turned professional at his local team Middlesbrough – where his father, Stuart, had played – in January ...

from

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

Notts County

On 23 June 2023, Stone signed a two-year deal with League Two club

, where he would compete with

Sam Slocombe Sam Oliver Slocombe (born 5 June 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Notts County. He began his career with Bottesford Town in the Northern Counties East Football League. In 2008, he moved to his hometown ...

for a first-team place. He was

on his debut for the club as County were beaten 5–1 at

Sutton United Sutton United Football Club is a professional football club in Sutton, South London, England, who play in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They play home games at Gander Green Lane in Sutton about 11 miles sout ...

on the opening day of the 2023–24 season; he had brought down

Scott Kashket Scott Connor Kashket (born 25 February 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for League Two club Gillingham. He has also played in his youth career for Spanish B side club Hércules, Wingate & Finchley, and Leyto ...

following a poor back-pass. He was transfer-listed at the end of the season by new head coach Stuart Maynard.

Style of play

Stone is a very vocal

with good distribution skills.

Career statistics

Honours

Burnley *

runner-up: 2019 Port Vale *

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Aidan 1999 births Living people Footballers from Stafford English men's footballers England men's schools international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Sporting Khalsa F.C. players Brocton F.C. players Burnley F.C. players Lancaster City F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Widnes F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Notts County F.C. players English Football League players