Matthew Bell (born 3 January 1992) is a British Virgin Islands international

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 for English side Hanley Town. He came through the youth team at

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 ...

, and has played for

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 ...

Stafford Rangers Stafford Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional English football team from Stafford which plays in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. The team wear black and white stripes with black shorts. Stafford Rangers' rivals include T ...

Leek Town Leek Town Football Club is an English association football, football club based in Leek, Staffordshire, Leek, Staffordshire, currently playing in the . The team, nicknamed "The Blues", play their home games at Harrison Park. The club was found ...

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

Kidsgrove Athletic Kidsgrove Athletic F.C. is an English football club based in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, England currently playing in the Northern Premier League Division One West. The team, nicknamed "The Grove", play their home games at Hollinwood Road, Clough ...

, Nantwich Town and Hanley Town.

Club career

Bell came through the youth team at

and turned professional with the

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club under Micky Adams in April 2010. However, he failed to make a first team appearance at Vale Park and was released in May 2011. He signed a one-year contract with

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

club

in June 2011.

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Paul Cox stated that "He has a lovely left foot, is tenacious, has high fitness levels and can play at left-back, left-midfield and even in central midfield". He was loaned out to

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 ...

side

in December 2011 and

in March 2012. He signed with

in February 2015. He joined Nantwich Town in May 2015. He helped the "Dabbers" to reach the semi-finals of the

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 ...

in 2015–16, scoring 12 goals in all competitions, and then to qualify for the

play-offs the following season, scoring eight goals from 51 appearances. This season also saw him collect the Players Player of the Year award for his performances. He lifted the Cheshire Senior Cup after scoring in a 3–0 win over Stockport Town in the 2018 final. He also played and scored in the 2019 final, a 5–2 victory over Cammell Laird 1907. He also helped the "Dabbers" to reach the 2018–19 play-offs, where they were beaten by Warrington Town in the semi-finals. Bell re-joined Leek Town in October 2019, ending his Nantwich Town record with 31 goals from 199 competitive appearances. As a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic in England The COVID-19 pandemic was first confirmed to have spread to England with two cases among Chinese nationals staying in a hotel in York on 31 January 2020. The two main public bodies responsible for health in England are NHS England and Public ...

, the 2019–20 Northern Premier League Division One South East season was formally abandoned on 26 March 2020, with all results from the season being expunged. He scored five goals from eleven games 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, which was also curtailed early due to the pandemic on 24 February 2021. He made 13 appearances at the start of the 2021–22 season, scoring one goal, before he re-signed with Nantwich Town on 12 December. He played 18 times for Nantwich in the second half of the season. He joined Hanley Town in 2023.

International career

Bell was called up to the British Virgin Islands squad and made his debut on 26 March 2015, in a 3–2 defeat to

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

at Windsor Park in the

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for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

. He played in the reverse fixture three days later, a 0–0 draw which eliminated the British Virgin Islands from the competition.

Career statistics

Honours

Nantwich Town * Cheshire Senior Cup: 2018, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Matthew 1992 births Living people Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent British Virgin Islands men's footballers British Virgin Islands men's international footballers Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders Men's association football utility players Port Vale F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Leek Town F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Solihull Moors F.C. players Kidsgrove Athletic F.C. players Nantwich Town F.C. players Hanley Town F.C. players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players