Lee Anthony Nicholls (born 5 October 1992) 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

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

Early life

Lee Nicholls was born in

Huyton Huyton ( ) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England. Part of the Liverpool Urban Area, it borders the Liverpool suburbs of Dovecot, Knotty Ash and Belle Vale, and the neighbouring village of Roby, with which it f ...

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

Club career

Wigan Athletic

Nicholls signed scholarship forms with

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

in the summer of 2009. After a series of impressive performances for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

, he appeared for the first-team as a substitute for the first time on 2 January 2010 in a 4–1 FA Cup third round victory over

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

. Later in the month, he signed a two and a half-year professional contract with the club. In January 2012, Nicholls extended his contract at Wigan until 2014. In between loan spells, Nicholls made his league debut on 27 October 2013 in a goalless draw away to

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

Loan spells

Between November 2010 and May 2011, Nicholls was sent out on loan to

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

, but failed to make a single appearance. On 24 February 2012, he joined

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete history ...

on an initial one-month loan deal. Nicholls later made nine appearances for the club. On 6 August 2012, Nicholls signed on loan for

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

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

until the end of October 2012, and later re-signed on 6 November 2012 until the end of the 2012–13 season. On 5 May 2013, Nicholls competed for Northampton Town in the

play-off semi-final second leg against

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

. In total, Nicholls made 51 appearances for Northampton Town, achieving 20 clean sheets before returning to Wigan. On 11 September 2015, Nicholls joined

side

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

on a three-month loan.

Milton Keynes Dons F.C

On 3 August 2016, following the expiry of his contract with Wigan, Nicholls joined

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

, signing a two-year deal. Nicholls made his debut for the club on 9 August 2016, featuring in a 2–3 EFL Cup first round victory over Newport County. In his first season for the club, Nicholls' made a total of sixteen appearances in all competitions, achieving two clean sheets. Following the departure of first choice goalkeeper

David Martin David or Dave Martin may refer to: Entertainment *David Martin (artist) (1737–1797), Scottish painter and engraver *David Stone Martin (1913–1992), American artist *David Martin (poet) (1915–1997), Hungarian-Australian poet and novelist *Dav ...

, Nicholls took over the number one shirt for the 2017–18 season. On 29 December 2017, Nicholls signed a contract extension keeping him at the club until June 2020. On 6 May 2021, the club announced Nicholls was one of four players to be released at the end of 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, ending his almost five-year association with MK Dons in which he made over 150 appearances.

Huddersfield Town

On 26 May 2021, Nicholls signed for

club

on a two-year deal following the expiry of his contract with Milton Keynes Dons on 1 July 2021. He made his debut on 1 August 2021, keeping a

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

in a goalless

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

first round draw with

, with Huddersfield progressing to the next round following Nicholls' two

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 ...

saves. He went on to have a successful debut season with the club, achieving 19 clean sheets and playing a key role in Huddersfield reaching the 2022 EFL Championship play-off final. Nicholls was later named in both the EFL Championship Team of the Season and

Professional Footballers' Association The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) is the trade union for professional association footballers in England and Wales. Founded in 1907, it is the world's oldest professional sport trade union, and has over 5,000 members. The aims of ...

Team of the Year.

International career

In 2010, Nicholls was named in the England U19 squad that reached the semi-finals of the

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply UEFA Under-19 Championship or the UEFA Euro U-19, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain and England ...

s, but did not make an appearance in the tournament. He made his debut for the team in February 2011 in a 1–0 defeat against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Career statistics

Honours

Bristol Rovers *

Football 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 ...

third-place promotion: 2015–16 Milton Keynes Dons *

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 ...

third-place promotion: 2018–19
Individual *

: Hargreaves Memorial Trophy (Player of the Season) 2021–22 *

: Blue & White Player of the Season 2021–22 * EFL Championship Team of the Season: 2021–22 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2021–22 Championship

References

External links

*
Profile
at TheFA.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholls, Lee 1992 births Living people Footballers from Huyton English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Wigan Athletic F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players English Football League players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players