Ben Hedley (born 18 October 1998) 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

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for club

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

. He previously played in the

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 Engla ...

for

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 ...

, as well as in

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for

Witton Albion Witton may refer to one of several places in England: *Witton, historic name of an area of Northwich, Cheshire **Witton Albion F.C. *Witton Gilbert, County Durham *Witton-le-Wear, County Durham *Witton, an area of Blackburn, Lancashire * Witton, B ...

and

Bradford (Park Avenue) Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club is an association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in , at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The name derived from their former hom ...

Playing career

Hedley came through the

Academy to make his first-team debut on 6 May 2017, coming on as an 88th-minute substitute for Aaron Wildig in a 3–1 defeat at Luton Town. He signed his first professional contract with the club the following month. On 15 August 2017, 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 ...

Premier Division club

on an initial one-month loan; "Shrimps" manager

Jim Bentley James Graham Bentley (born 11 June 1976) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre back. He is currently manager of EFL League Two club Rochdale. Career Bentley, who debuted for Telford United in 1997 ...

said that "he'll be in good hands at Witton with the management (Carl MacCauley and Gary Martindale) who are both good football people that I trust to do right by Ben". His loan spell was extended into a second month after he impressed in his first eight starts for the club, and was extended a second time. He scored his first senior goal on 14 October in a 5–2 victory over Coalville Town at

Wincham Park Wincham Park is a football stadium in Wincham, a parish on the edge of Northwich, England. The home ground of Witton Albion, it first opened in 1989, after the club left their former Central Ground. Capacity is 4,813, with 600 covered seats ...

, and finished the loan spell with 19 appearances in all competitions. Hedley was named Morecambe's Reserve Team Player of the Year for 2017–18. In 2018–19, he featured twice in the

EFL 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 Le ...

, and made his first

start on 23 October 2018 in a 1–0 defeat at home to

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 ...

; the ''

Lancashire Post The ''Lancashire Evening Post'' is a daily newspaper based in Fulwood, a suburb of the city of Preston, Lancashire, England. According to the British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of th ...

'' described it as a "solid debut". Despite being named as a substitute on 38 occasions, he made no more league appearances and was released at the end of the season. On 7 June 2019, Hedley joined

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

club

, managed by Garry Thompson with whom he had played at Morecambe. Thompson was dismissed just two matches into the season, and Hedley played in seven before leaving for another National League North club,

, in early September.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hedley, Ben 1998 births Living people Footballers from Gateshead English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Morecambe F.C. players Witton Albion F.C. players Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C. players Darlington F.C. players English Football League players Northern Premier League players National League (English football) players