Christopher James Slater (born 14 January 1984) is an English 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 lea ...

who played as a defender. Slater had given up on becoming a professional footballer in 2005 after being released by

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

. He joined

non-League Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

Chasetown Chasetown is a village in the town of Burntwood in Staffordshire, England. It is split between the civil parishes of Burntwood and Hammerwich. History Chasetown developed in the mid 19th century as a coal mining village. At first the village ...

, where he won the

Midland Football Alliance The Midland Football Alliance was an English association football league for semi-professional teams. It covered Leicestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and also southern parts of Derbyshire and No ...

title in 2005–06. However, after victory over

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 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 ...

in December 2007, 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 ...

. He spent eleven months in the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

before returning to Chasetown. He helped the club to win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and went on to beat the club's all-time appearance record. He joined

Walsall Wood Walsall Wood is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands county, England. It is located middway between the towns of Aldridge and Brownhills, as well as Walsall and Lichfield. History In the late-18th century and ...

in June 2017 and helped the club to win the

Midland League The Midland Football League, officially known as the Capelli Sport Midland Football League since January 2025 for sponsorship reasons, is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midl ...

Division One title during the 2017–18 season. He returned to Chasetown as a player-

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

for the 2020–21 season.

Career

Chasetown

Released from

in 2005 without a first-team appearance to his name, Slater joined

. Helping the "Chase" take

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...

to a replay at

Boundary Park Boundary Park is a football stadium in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. Its name originates from the fact that it lies at the northwestern extremity of Oldham, with Royton and Chadderton lying immediately north and west respectively. Bound ...

in the first round of the

in November 2005 was just the beginning of Slater's and Chasetown's cup adventures. By April 2006, he had won a trial with

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

and was also being looked at by

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

and

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, England. Its first team competes in League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' ...

, all

clubs. He helped Chasetown to win the

title at the end of the 2005–06 season. He was at The Scholar Ground for the first season of the new

Southern League Division One Midlands The Southern League is a football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from East Anglia, the South and Midlands of England, and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and e ...

tier ( 2006–07). He came to prominence when playing in Chasetown's 1–0 FA Cup victory over

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

in December 2007. In doing this, he helped Chasetown become the lowest-ever ranked club to reach as far as the third round (proper) of the FA Cup. Vale was the eighth club Chasetown had vanquished in their campaign that season. He had played 146 league games for the "Scholars" in his three years at the club, scoring one goal.

Port Vale

He was signed by Lee Sinnott's

, along with Chasetown teammate Kyle Perry, in January 2008 for a nominal fee and gave up his day job as a block paver. He made his League One debut as a 70th minute substitute in a 2–0 defeat to

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

on 19 January 2008. He played four further league games that season, all of them defeats as the Vale 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 ...

into League Two. After appearing in six league and two cup games for the "Valiants" in 2008–09, Slater was released from 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 ...

in mid-November, and subsequently re-joined Chasetown.

Return to Chasetown

Slater was once again a key member of the Chasetown team, playing 33 games in the 2008–09 season, as they reached the play-off final, only to lose out 1–0 to

Nuneaton Town Nuneaton Town Football Club is an English football club that was based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. It withdrew from Southern League Premier Division Central on 18 January 2024 due to financial problems and faces liquidation. In 1889, Nuneaton S ...

. He played another 35 league games in 2009–10, helping the club gain promotion out of 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 ...

Division One South via the play-offs with a 1–0 win over

Glapwell Glapwell is a rural village and civil parish on the A617 road in the Bolsover District of north-east Derbyshire, The village is at the top of a steep hill at an elevation of 176m, on the western edge of the Southern Magnesian Limestone, overloo ...

. He remained at the club throughout

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 ...

, as the club competed at the seventh level of the

English football league pyramid The English football league system, also known as the football pyramid, is a series of interconnected leagues for men's association football clubs in England, with five teams from Wales, one from Guernsey, one from Jersey and one from the ...

for the first time in its history. However, the "Scholars" could not survive at such a high level and were relegated in 2011–12. They reached the Division One South play-off final 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 ...

, where they were beaten 2–1 by Stamford. The club finished 12th in 2013–14 and 13th in 2014–15, and Slater exceeded 500 appearances for the club in April 2015. He left the club at the end of the 2016–17 season having broken the club's all-time appearance record.

Walsall Wood

Slater joined

side

after being signed by Gary Birch in June 2017. He helped the "Prims" to win the Division One title at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Third spell at Chasetown

Slater returned again to Chasetown as a player-

for 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 ...

season. He made five appearances in cup competitions in the 2021–22 season. He was still a player-coach at the club in October 2023 and noted that he was now coaching his son.

Career statistics

Honours

Chasetown *

: 2005–06 *

Division One South play-offs:

Walsall Wood *

Division One: 2017–18

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Chris 1984 births Living people People from Burntwood Footballers from Staffordshire English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Chasetown F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Walsall Wood F.C. players Midland Football Alliance players Southern Football League players English Football League players Northern Premier League players 21st-century English sportsmen