Adrian Lewis Clifton (born 12 December 1988) is an English and Montserratian

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 plays as a forward for Hayes & Yeading United and the Montserrat national team.

Club career

Isthmian League

Clifton started his career in the youth ranks of

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, developing with the club from the ages of 11 to 15, followed by spells with

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. He served three prison sentences as a youngster before heading into non-league football. During his last prison sentence he featured on

Ian Wright Ian Edward Wright (born 3 November 1963) is an English media personality and former professional footballer. Wright enjoyed success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal as a forward, spending six years with the former and seven year ...

's TV show Football Behind Bars. The midfielder joined Isthmian League Division One North side

Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...

ahead of the 2011–12 season, having impressed in a pre-season trial. After a short stint playing in the non-

pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

TTFF League for Yalova, Clifton returned and scored on his debut in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

. Unable to reproduce the form he displayed in the summer, he left the club at the end of the season. Clifton joined

Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is an outer London borough formed in 1965 from the merger of the municipal boroughs of Leyton, Walthamstow and Chingford. The borough's administrative headquarters are at Waltham Forest Town Hall, wh ...

in August 2012, and took the captain's armband and while featuring regularly for the first team. In April 2013, Clifton left Waltham Forest to join East Thurrock United. Having declined several offers from teams in the Isthmian Division One North, he finally left in order to climb the ranks to the Isthmian Premier Division. His final game for Forest saw him score a hat-trick against

Ilford Ilford is a large List of areas of London, town in East London, England, northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Redbridge, Ilford is within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. It had a po ...

National League

Clifton featured nine times for East Thurrock United in the final month of the season, recording seven wins and two draws. However, in May 2015 he was snapped up by

National League South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National League (English football), National Leagues and step ...

side

Maidenhead United Maidenhead United Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. Affiliated to the Berks & Bucks FA, they are currently members of the . The club were established in October 1870 and have played at ...

, who had been previously watching the midfielder. He won the Manager's Player of the Season award in 2013/14, and was nicknamed 'Yaya' after comparisons with

Yaya Touré Gnégnéri Yaya Touré (born 13 May 1983) is an Ivorian professional football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently an assistant coach for the Saudi Arabia national team. Touré aspired to be a striker during h ...

. At the end of his second season with the Magpies, he helped the club lift their first Berks & Bucks Senior Cup in four years, scoring in the 4–0 final win over Aylesbury United. After two seasons at York Road, Clifton became Lee Bradbury's first signing at Havant & Waterlooville, joining in the summer of 2015 on a two-year contract. After suffering an injury that ruled him out for four months, Clifton joined

Isthmian League Premier Division The Isthmian League () is a regional football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 88 teams in fo ...

side Staines Town on a one-month loan in February 2016. He made four appearances in his time with the club before returning to Havant. He joined Staines permanently for the 2016–17 season. On 22 July 2017,

's official Twitter account announced that Clifton had once again signed for them. Clifton scored a brace against

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is southeast of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 88,000 as of 2023. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, charte ...

on 24 October 2017, though many sources incorrectly stated that he scored a hat-trick. At the end of the 2018–19 season, Clifton won all five awards at the Magpies' end of season awards, winning the Player of the Season awards from each of the players, manager and supporters, the Golden Boot award with 15 goals in all competitions, and the Goal of the Season award. On 3 May 2019, it was announced that Clifton would join

for the 2019–20 season.Adrian Clifton signs for Bromley
/ref> On 18 September 2020, Clifton signed for Dagenham & Redbridge. He was released by Dagenham along with five others in June 2021 following the expiration of his contract. On 3 September 2021, Clifton signed for Boreham Wood. After coming on as a substitute to score in Wood's FA Cup second round tie with St Albans City, Clifton then repeated the trick against AFC Wimbledon in round three to set up a clash with Championship high-flyers AFC Bournemouth. Clifton came on as a late substitute as Boreham Wood exited the competition in front of a 38,836 crowd at Goodison Park in the fifth round. On 27 June 2022, Maidenhead United announced that Clifton had re-joined the club for a third spell. On 17 February 2023, he joined Hampton & Richmond Borough on loan. On 22 May, he announced that he was leaving the Magpies. On 4 June 2023, Dulwich Hamlet announced that Clifton had joined the club ahead of the 2023-24 season.

International career

Clifton made his international debut for

Montserrat Montserrat ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, wit ...

on 31 March 2015, featuring in a 2–2 draw with

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

during 2018 World Cup qualification.

Personal life

Clifton works as a gas engineer.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Montserrat's goal tally first.''

Honours

;Maidenhead United * Berks & Bucks Senior Cup: 2014–15, 2016–17 (final played in 2017–18 pre-season)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Adrian 1988 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Hackney Montserratian men's footballers Montserrat men's international footballers English men's footballers English people of Montserratian descent Romford F.C. players Waltham Forest F.C. players East Thurrock United F.C. players Maidenhead United F.C. players Havant & Waterlooville F.C. players Staines Town F.C. players Bromley F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Boreham Wood F.C. players Hampton & Richmond Borough F.C. players National League (English football) players Isthmian League players Men's association football forwards Black British sportsmen 21st-century Black British people 21st-century English sportsmen