Martin Hicks (born 27 February 1957) is a former

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 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 ...

as a defender for

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

and

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 ...

. He made 500 League appearances for Reading. Hicks holds the record for the highest number of first team appearances by a Reading player, making a total of 603 first team appearances. In a 2005 fans' vote to compile

's best-ever eleven, Hicks was voted on the team as one of the centre backs. Between March and August 1979, Hicks was one of the Reading back five that kept a clean sheet for 1,103 minutes – a record that stood until broken by

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

. After leaving Reading he joined

, and was their Player of the Year for 1992.

References

1957 births Living people Sportspeople from Stratford-upon-Avon English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Stratford Town F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Reading F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Newbury Town F.C. players Footballers from Warwickshire English Football League players {{England-footy-defender-1950s-stub