Thomas Edward Pugh (born 27 September 2000) is a 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

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

FC Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

Club career

Born in

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

, Pugh joined the academy of

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

in February 2017 after previously being at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

. He signed his first professional contract with Scunthorpe in March 2019. Pugh made his first-team debut for Scunthorpe United as an 86th-minute substitute for

Clayton Lewis Clayton Scott Lewis (March 15, 1915 – September 15, 1995) was an American artist known primarily for his work as an envelope artist and jewelry designer. Life and career Clayton Lewis began his professional life as a furniture designer in t ...

in a 3–2 defeat at

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 ...

in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

on 13 November 2018. He made his first appearance at

Glanford Park Glanford Park is a football stadium in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, and is the current home of team Scunthorpe United. Opened in 1988 at a construction cost of £2.5 million, it was the first new purpose-built Football League st ...

in the same competition on 12 November 2019, coming on as an 89-minute substitute for

Matty Lund Matthew Charles Lund (born 21 November 1990) is an professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Salford City. Lund began his career with English club Stoke City in the Premier League, where he failed to make his debut. He instead made ...

in a 3–0 win over

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 ...

. In May 2021, Pugh signed a new one-year contract with Scunthorpe. On 8 February 2022, Pugh picked up a knee injury in a win against

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

which ruled him out for the rest of the 2021–22 season. At the end of the 2021–22 season, Pugh was released by Scunthorpe. On 8 September 2022, Pugh signed for

National League 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 Sy ...

club

Scarborough Athletic Scarborough Athletic Football Club is an association football club based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. The club was formed on 25 June 2007 as a phoenix club following the winding up of Scarborough Football Club. After spending thei ...

on a non-contract basis. On 22 September 2022, having featured twice for Scarborough Athletic, Pugh returned to former club Scunthorpe United. On 7 November 2023, Pugh joined fellow National League North club Hereford on a one-month loan. The loan was extended by a further month on 8 December. After he was due to return to Scunthorpe, it was announced that Pugh would stay at Hereford until the end of the season. On 23 January, less than two weeks into his loan extension, he was recalled from his loan. At the end of the 2023–24 season, Scunthorpe announced he was to be released upon expiry of his contract. On 30 May 2024, Pugh joined

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 s ...

club

, signing a two-year contract.

International career

Pugh was called up by

Rob Page Robert John Page (born 3 September 1974) is a Welsh football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of the Wales national team. In an 18-year career in the Premier League and the English Football League, he made 550 competitive ...

for the Wales under-21 team in May 2019, having been eligible due to his Welsh father. He scored on his debut after coming on as a 60th-minute substitute in what finished as a 2–1 defeat to

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

Career statistics

References

2000 births Living people Footballers from Doncaster English men's footballers English people of Welsh descent Welsh men's footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Scunthorpe United F.C. players Scarborough Athletic F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Hereford F.C. players FC Halifax Town players {{England-footy-midfielder-2000s-stub