Ryan Anthony Brown (born 15 March 1985) is an English 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 lea ...

who played as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. Starting his professional career with

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

in 2003, he played 44 first-team games before being released shortly after his 20th birthday. He spent a season with Leek Town before he switched to

Northwich Victoria Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers River Weaver, Weaver and River Dane, Dane, east of Chester, south of Warr ...

. He spent four years with Victoria before switching to

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester, southwest of Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2021 United Kingdom ce ...

in 2010. He switched to

Stafford Rangers Stafford Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional English football team from Stafford which plays in the Northern Premier League Division One West. The team wear black and white stripes with black shorts. Stafford Rangers' rivals include ...

in January 2012 before returning to Leek Town in November 2013. He signed with Kidsgrove Athletic in October 2014.

Career

Signed up to the

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or Sports league, league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team (a ...

since age nine, he made his senior debut for the club against

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

on 3 May 2003. He turned professional at

Vale Park Vale Park is a football stadium in the area of Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, and it has been the home ground of Port Vale Football Club since its opening in 1950. It has a current capacity of 15,695, and was renovated durin ...

under

Brian Horton Brian "Nobby" Horton (born 4 February 1949) is an English former footballer and manager. He spent 16 years as a professional player and 22 years as a manager, making 689 appearances and managing 1,098 matches. In addition to this, he spent four ...

three months later. After a further 41 appearances in league and cup games, he was released by

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Martin Foyle Martin John Foyle (born 2 May 1963) is an English former professional footballer and manager who is the Head of Recruitment at club Carlisle United. In his 20-year playing career, he played 533 League games, scoring 155 goals. As a manager, h ...

in May 2005 after slipping below Craig James in the first-team pecking order. Following a season in the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

Premier Division with Leek Town, he was signed by

Conference National The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National League (English football), National Le ...

newcomers

in June 2006. In April 2008 he signed a two-year extension to his

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

. However, he was soon

transfer Transfer may refer to: Arts and media * ''Transfer'' (2010 film), a German science-fiction movie directed by Damir Lukacevic and starring Zana Marjanović * ''Transfer'' (1966 film), a short film * ''Transfer'' (journal), in management studies * ...

listed and told he had no future at the club, though in October 2008 the club's leadership changed their mind on this matter. At the end of the season Victoria were

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

back into the

Conference North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 o ...

. With Northwich facing expulsion to the Northern Premier League, in February 2010, Brown joined Conference club

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

, and the switch was made permanent in the summer. He suffered relegation with the club at the end of the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season, which left both he and the club in the Conference North for the 2011–12 campaign. Outside of football, he worked as an

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

in his native Stoke. In January 2012, he left Altrincham to sign for

of the Northern Premier League Premier Division. Rangers finished 16th in 2011–12 and 15th in

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. He re-signed with Leek Town, now in the Northern Premier League Division One South, in November 2013. He helped the "Blues" to a third-place finish in 2013–14, securing a place in the play-offs, where they were knocked out by

Belper Town Belper Town Football Club is a football club based in Belper, Derbyshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Christchurch Meadow. The club are nicknamed the "Nailers" due to the town's nail-making industry. History The club ...

Harrison Park Harrison Park may refer to: * Harrison Park (Leek), a stadium in Leek, Staffordshire * Harrison Park (New Jersey), a former baseball ground in Harrison, New Jersey * Municipality of Harrison Park, a rural municipality in Manitoba * Harrison Park, ...

. He joined league rivals Kidsgrove Athletic in October 2014. The "Grove" finished 20th in the Northern Premier League Division One South in the 2014–15 campaign, 15th in the 2015–16 season, 12th in the 2016–17 season and 18th in the 2017–18 season.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Ryan 1985 births Living people Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent English engineers English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Port Vale F.C. players Leek Town F.C. players Northwich Victoria F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Kidsgrove Athletic F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players 21st-century English sportsmen