Josh Doherty is a Northern Irish 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 ...

currently playing for Hyde United. Doherty started his senior career at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

before joining Leyton Orient in 2016. After a loan spell at

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

, he left by mutual consent in January 2017 and joined Ards. He joined

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 ...

club Crawley Town in September 2017 and made 94 appearances in four years at the club before being released in summer 2021, having spent the second half of the 2020–21 season on loan at Colchester United. He signed for

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

in July 2021. He has also played for Northern Ireland at under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels.

Early life

Doherty was born in

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...

, Northern Ireland.

Club career

Early career

After playing youth football for Ards, Doherty signed a two-year scholarship with

in April 2012. Doherty made his debut on 3 May 2014, coming on as a substitute in the 80th minute in the 4–1 defeat against Huddersfield Town. On 14 May 2014, Doherty signed his first professional contract after completing his scholarship. However, his first team chances was soon limited, as well as, the club's reserve no longer available. On 3 June 2016, it was announced that Doherty would leave Watford upon his contract expiry.

Leyton Orient and return to Ards

On 6 June 2016, Doherty joined

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 ...

side Leyton Orient on a one-year deal. On 13 September, Doherty 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 ...

side

on a month's loan. By mutual consent he left Orient on 3 January 2017. Orient went on to be relegated to the national league at the end of the 2016/17 season. Doherty returned to his home club Ards. After leaving Leyton Orient, Doherty returned to Northern Ireland to sign for hometown club Ards on a short-term deal. A month later, he made his debut during their 3–0 away victory over Portadown, featuring for 64 minutes before being replaced by David McCullough. Doherty went onto feature seven more times before leaving at the end of his contract in June 2017.

Crawley Town

On 5 September 2017, it was announced that Doherty had joined

side Crawley Town. Four days later, he made his debut during Crawley's 3–1 away defeat against Colchester United, replacing Mark Randall in the 64th minute. In Crawley's following fixture, against

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 ...

, Doherty was rewarded with his first start under manager,

Harry Kewell Harry Kewell (born 22 September 1978) is an Australian association football coach, manager and former player. His most recent role as a club manager was at English National League side Barnet, and he is currently a first team coach at Celtic F.C ...

and went onto feature for 60 minutes in the 1–1 draw. On 2 May 2018, after an impressive debut season, Doherty was rewarded with a new two-year deal running until 2020. Doherty made 18 appearances across the 2018–19 season, whilst he made 31 appearances for the club during 2019–20. In June 2020, Doherty signed a one-year contract extension with the club. Doherty joined Colchester United on loan until the end of the season on 1 February 2021. Doherty made 5 appearances on loan at the club but was released by Crawley Town upon the expiry of his contract at the end of the season.

Barnet

On 2 July 2021, Doherty signed for

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

club

on an initial one-year deal under new manager Harry Kewell. Doherty was sent off on his debut against Notts County and two games later was sent off again against Grimsby Town.

South Shields

Doherty returned to his native Northern Ireland in January 2022 for a short stint with

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

club Portadown, helping the club in their battle to stay in the NIFL premiership and making appearances during the premiership playoffs. Doherty returned to England in June 2022 to sign for

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

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

. He went on to make 22 appearances for the side, helping them secure promotion to the National League North at the end of the 2022/23 season.

International career

Doherty has represented

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

at under-17, under-19 and under-21 level.

Career statistics

Honours

South Shields *

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 ...

References

External links

Northern Ireland profile
at NIFG {{DEFAULTSORT:Doherty, Josh 1996 births Living people Sportspeople from Newtownards Association footballers from County Down Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Men's association football midfielders Watford F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players Ards F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Portadown F.C. players South Shields F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players NIFL Premiership players