Nicky Lee Featherstone (born 22 September 1988) 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 ...

who plays as

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 ...

for club

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

. He is also capable of playing as a winger and has previously played for

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, Scunthorpe United and

Harrogate Town Harrogate Town A.F.C. is a professional association football club in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the Sulphurites, due to the ...

Career

Hull City

Born in

Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. According to the 2011 UK census, Goole parish had a population of 19,518, an increa ...

, Humberside, Featherstone came through

's youth structure. He joined the

Centre of Excellence A center of excellence (COE or CoE ), also called excellence center, is a team, a shared facility or an entity that provides leadership, best practices, research, support or training for a focus area. Due to its broad usage and vague legal prec ...

at the age of eight and, along with

Will Atkinson William Henry Atkinson (born 14 October 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder. Having begun his professional career with Hull City in 2006, Atkinson spent time on loan with Port Vale, Mansfield Town, Rochdale (t ...

, James Bennett and Matty Plummer, penned a two-and-a-half-year professional deal with the club in December 2006. After starring for the youth and reserve teams, he made his first team debut against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

on 30 December 2006, coming on as a late substitute. He was one of the nominees for the 'Wickes Young Apprentice Trophy' in 2007. In September 2007 he signed a new contract to keep him at the club until June 2010, after a clause in his old contract stated that he would be offered a new one after making five first team appearances. During the 2007–08 season, Featherstone featured as a second-half substitute for Hull City against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in the third round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. He played in the third round tie in the 2009–10 League Cup against

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

. On 19 November 2009 Featherstone 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 ...

outfit

on an initial month's

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that ...

. He made his debut in a 0–0 draw with Lincoln City on 21 November. He eventually made seven appearances for Grimsby, and eventually returned to Hull on 3 January 2010. He re-signed for Grimsby for a second loan spell on 11 January 2010. On 1 February 2010, Featherstone returned to Hull early having asked to have his loan contract cut short, down to the fact he had fallen out of contention at Grimsby, having made only one appearance for The Mariners in his second loan spell. During the 2010–11 season, despite being kept on at the club, Featherstone did not receive a squad number and eventually departed the club permanently in January 2011.

Hereford United

Featherstone joined League Two side

on an initial one-month loan on 4 November and signed a permanent deal to stay at Edgar Street in January. In May 2011 he signed a new one-year contract with the club. Following the conclusion of the 2011–12 season which saw Hereford relegated to the Conference National division, Featherstone seemingly departed United having failed to respond to the club's offer of a new contract.

Walsall

Featherstone signed with Football League One side

on a one-year deal. He signed with The Saddlers on 6 August after impressing on trial with the West Midlands club.

Scunthorpe United

On 19 August 2014, it was announced that Featherstone had joined Football League One side Scunthorpe United on a "week to week" deal. He left the club on 2 September after his non-contract terms were cancelled.

Harrogate Town

On 3 October 2014, it was announced that Featherstone had joined

Conference 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 Syst ...

side

Hartlepool United

On 31 October 2014, Featherstone returned to the Football League by signing with

on a short-term deal. The following day, Featherstone made his debut in a 2–2 draw with Newport County. On 2 February 2015, Featherstone extended his contract until the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

. On 25 June 2015, Featherstone signed a new deal with Hartlepool. On 27 August 2016, he scored his first goal for Hartlepool in another 2–2 draw with Newport County. On 7 March 2020, he made his 250th appearance for Hartlepool in a 0–1 defeat to

Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the club competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1946 fr ...

. Featherstone signed a new contract at the end of the 2019–20 season after an impressive campaign. 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 ...

campaign, Featherstone played an integral role in central midfield and formed a strong relationship with Mark Shelton and

Gavan Holohan Gavan Holohan (born 15 December 1991) is an Irish professional footballer who plays for EFL League Two club Grimsby Town. Beginning his career as a youngster with Hull City, Holohan returned to his native Ireland where he featured for League of ...

in midfield as Hartlepool qualified for the play-offs in 4th place. In the play-off eliminator against

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

, Featherstone played an excellent long ball through to

Rhys Oates Rhys Derek Oates (born 4 December 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for League Two club Mansfield Town. Career Barnsley Oates began his career at Barnsley after joining them at the age of six and in May 2013, ...

to open the scoring for Pools in a 3–2 win. In the 2021 National League play-off Final, Featherstone started in the final but missed a penalty in the shootout. However, Hartlepool prevailed 5–4 on penalties and were promoted back to the Football League. Featherstone lifted the play-off trophy alongside club captain Ryan Donaldson. Following Hartlepool's promotion back to

, Featherstone was announced as Hartlepool's new club captain and signed a new two year contract. In the 2022–23 season, he moved into the top ten most appearances list for Hartlepool United.

Career statistics

Honours

Hartlepool United *

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 ...

play-offs:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

References

External links

Nicky Featherstone profile
at the Hull City website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Featherstone, Nicky 1988 births Living people People from Goole English footballers Association football midfielders Hull City A.F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Harrogate Town A.F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players