Matthew Mark Thornhill (born 11 October 1988) is an English

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 for club Ilkeston Town. He has previously played for

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1887, ...

Hibernian Hibernian may refer to: * Of Hibernia, Latin name for Ireland; hence ** Irish (disambiguation) Hibernian, Hibernians or The Hibernian may refer to: Sports clubs * Hibernian F.C., a Scottish football club, founded 1875 * Hibernian W.F.C., a Sc ...

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the High Peak, Derbyshire, Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.Alston, Cumbria also claims this, but lacks a regu ...

, Shaw Lane Aquaforce and

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a Association football, football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the English Football League, Football League i ...

. His career has been disrupted by a medial knee ligament injury.

Career

Nottingham Forest

Thornhill made his professional debut for

as a substitute at Chester City in the first round of the League Cup, which Forest won 4–2 on penalties after the game finished goalless after normal and extra time. He made his

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

debut five days later, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Kris Commons Kristian Arran Commons (born 30 August 1983) is a professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Born in England, he represented the Scotland national team. Commons started his career at Stoke City and made his debut in 2000 ...

against

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 12 January 2008, the youngster came on as a late substitute against

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

to score his first professional goal for The Reds, the last of Forest's goals in a 4–0 victory. Thornhill started his first Forest game when he stepped in at the last minute to replace

Chris Cohen Christopher or Chris Cohen may refer to: * Christopher A. Cohen, American producer, stage manager and director * Christopher B. Cohen, Chicago politician * Chris Cohen (footballer) * Chris Cohen (musician) {{hndis, Cohen, Christopher ...

in the heart of midfield. He scored his second goal of the season in a 1–1 draw at

Southend Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

. He helped The Reds finish second in the 2007–08 season in

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 ...

, gaining promotion to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

. With The Reds gaining promotion, manager

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. As a player, he was a centre-back who played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa and in the Football League for Mansfi ...

commented that Thornhill would be given the chance to impress the following season. On 21 July 2009, Thornhill joined

side

on loan as part of the transfer deal which saw

Joel Lynch Joel John Lynch (born 3 October 1987) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for UAE Second Division League club Precision. He previously played for Brighton & Hove Albion, Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield Town and Queens Park Ran ...

join

. After making seven appearances for Brighton, Thornhill returned to Nottingham Forest in December. Thornhill then joined League Two side

on a one-month loan deal in January 2010. His debut for Cheltenham came against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

, and shortly after that his loan deal was extended to the end of the season. Thornhill was released by Forest in January 2011, with manager

Billy Davies William McIntosh Davies (born 31 May 1964) is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager. He won the 2007 Play-offs with Derby County, finished as runners-up in 2005 with Preston North End, and reached the semi-finals in 2006 (Prest ...

alluding to "good young players here who need to move on; who need to go and have a fresh start".

Hibernian

On 21 January 2011, Thornhill agreed a deal to sign for

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

club

until the summer of 2013, subject to a medical. Hibernian confirmed the transfer a few days later, assigning the player squad number 26. His 2010–11 season was ended prematurely by a medial knee ligament injury. Thornhill was released from his contract in January 2012. He had made just 15 appearances for Hibs in his year with the club.

Into the National League System

Thornhill signed for

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 ...

club

in November 2012. He signed for Shaw Lane Aquaforce, then of the

Northern Counties East Football League The Northern Counties East Football League is a semi-professional English football league. It has two divisions – Premier Division and Division One – which stand at the ninth and tenth levels of the English football pyramid respectively. ...

, in July 2014. He won promotion with the team to the

Northern Premier League Division One South The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English football league system. Geographically, the league c ...

at the end of the 2014–15 season. Thornhill was

club captain The captain of a football/soccer team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavily influ ...

at Aquaforce the following season as they reached the play-off final, which the Barnsley club lost to Coalville Town. On 6 June 2016 Thornhill signed a one-year contract with

National League 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 League (English footb ...

side

. On 11 March 2017 Thornhill signed for

side

Basford United Basford United Football Club is a football club based in Basford, a suburb of Nottingham, England. They are currently members of the and play at Greenwich Avenue. History Basford United was formed in 1900 at the Old Pear Tree Inn.

. In May 2025, Thornhill joined Northern Premier League Premier Division side Ilkeston Town.

Career statistics

Honours

;Nottingham Forest: *

Runner-up:

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornhill, Matt 1988 births Living people Footballers from Nottingham English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Nottingham Forest F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Buxton F.C. players Shaw Lane A.F.C. players Gainsborough Trinity F.C. players Basford United F.C. players Ilkeston Town F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players 21st-century English sportsmen