Michael Edward Doughty (born 20 November 1992) is a former 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 played 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 ...

Early life

Doughty was born

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, Greater London, the son of the late

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

owner

Nigel Doughty Nigel Edward Doughty (10 June 1957 – 4 February 2012) was a British investor and football club owner, who was co-chairman and co-founder of Doughty Hanson & Co, a European private equity firm based in London. Doughty was born in Newark, Notti ...

. He was educated at

Harrow School (The Faithful Dispensation of the Gifts of God) , established = (Royal Charter) , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent schoolBoarding school , religion = Church of E ...

, obtaining 14 A grades.

Club career

QPR

Doughty joined the youth set-up at QPR as a schoolboy at the age of 14, after five years in the academy at Chelsea. He made his debut for QPR in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

defeat against Blackburn Rovers, after coming off the bench in the 88th minute. Doughty's

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

debut for QPR came on 10 February 2015 at the age of 22, under caretaker managers Chris Ramsey and Kevin Bond, coming on as an 85th-minute substitute against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Stadium of Light The Stadium of Light is an all-seater football stadium in Sunderland, England, and the eighth and current home to Sunderland A.F.C. With space for 49,000 spectators, the Stadium of Light is the ninth largest football stadium in England. ...

in what was QPR's first away victory (in fact their first away points) of the season.

Crawley Town (Loan)

In August 2011 he signed a six-month loan deal with Crawley Town.

Aldershot Town (Loan)

On 5 March 2012, Doughty 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 Aldershot Town on a one-month loan deal.

St Johnstone (Loan)

On 29 January 2013 Doughty joined

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

side

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

on loan.

Stevenage F.C (Loan)

Two weeks into the 2013–14 season, Doughty joined League One side

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 ...

on loan until January 2014. He made his debut a day after signing, on 17 August, playing the whole game in a 1–0 home defeat to Leyton Orient. On 26 October 2013, Doughty scored a 90th-minute goal, his first goal in professional football, a left-footed angled shot from the left flank into the far corner, during Stevenage's home match against Crawley Town.

Gillingham (Loan)

On 24 October 2014 Doughty joined League One side Gillingham on an initial one-month loan deal, which was later extended for a further two months. He was recalled by QPR on 9 January 2015.

Swindon Town (Loan)

In January 2016 Doughty joined League One side Swindon Town until the end of the 2015–16 season. Doughty rejoined the club following season on a season long loan.

Peterborough United

On 29 June 2017 Doughty signed for Peterborough United of League One on three-year contract.

Return to Swindon Town

On 23 July 2018, following a spell at Peterborough United, Doughty returned to Swindon Town on a two-year deal. On 4 August 2018, Doughty started against

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional association football, football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was liquidation, wound-up after a High Court of Justice, High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially kno ...

on the opening day of the

season. Swindon won two penalties in the 96th and the 98th minute meaning Swindon won the game 3–2, with Doughty scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

as he scored both the penalties. Doughty finished August with five goals to his name and was nominated for the League Two player of the month award. In July 2019 he signed a new contract with Swindon until 2022. On 12 September 2020 Doughty left Swindon Town due to personal reasons.

Retirement

Doughty retired from football at the end of the 2019–20 season.

International career

He has been capped at under-19 level internationally for Wales, playing in a friendly against Liechtenstein. In August 2012 Doughty was selected in the Wales Under-21 squad for the

2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification The 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification was a series of parallel association football competitions held over 2011 and 2012 to decide the qualifiers for 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, to be held in Israel. The draw fo ...

match against

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

on 10 September 2012.

Career statistics

Honours

Swindon Town *

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 ...

: 2019–20

References

External links

Player profile at qpr.co.uk
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Doughty, Michael 1992 births Living people Footballers from Westminster English footballers Welsh footballers Wales youth international footballers Wales under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Woking F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players Premier League players English people of Welsh descent People educated at Harrow School