Nicky Featherstone
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Nicky Lee Featherstone (born 22 September 1988) is an English 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 plays as a
midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...
for club
Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...
. He is also a player-coach at Hartlepool. Born in
Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...
, he signed for
Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...
at the age of 8. He signed his first professional contract in December 2006 and made his first team debut that same month. Featherstone spent loans with
North Ferriby United North Ferriby United Association Football Club was a semi-professional football club in North Ferriby, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. At the time of their demise they were members of the Northern Premier League and played at Grange Lane. F ...
,
Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...
and
Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...
. He was released by Hull in January 2011, signing for League Two club Hereford on a permanent deal. Ahead of the 2012–13 season, he signed for
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 ...
club
Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...
after Hereford were relegated. He spent two seasons with Walsall but left in 2014. Featherstone had brief spells with
Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was formed in ...
and
Harrogate Town Harrogate Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Harrogate Hotspurs were fou ...
at the beginning of the 2014–15 season. He was given a short-term deal with League Two club
Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...
in October 2014 which was later extended. He spent nine seasons with Hartlepool and was a member of the promotion-winning side in 2021 as well as suffering two relegations to non-League with the club. After initially leaving the club at the end of the 2022–23 season, he later re-joined the club in October 2023. He is currently Hartlepool's third highest all-time appearance maker.


Career


Hull City

Born in
Goole Goole is a port town and civil parish on the River Ouse, Yorkshire, River Ouse in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The town's Historic counties of England, historic county is the West Riding of Yorkshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom censu ...
, Humberside, Featherstone came through
Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...
's youth structure. He joined the Centre of Excellence at the age of eight and, along with Will Atkinson, James Bennett and Matty Plummer, penned a two-and-a-half-year professional deal with the club in December 2006. After starring for the youth and reserve teams, he made his
first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...
debut against
Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...
on 30 December 2006, coming on as a late substitute. He was one of the nominees for the 'Wickes Young Apprentice Trophy' in 2007. In September 2007 he signed a new contract to keep him at the club until June 2010, after a clause in his old contract stated that he would be offered a new one after making five first team appearances. During the 2007–08 season, Featherstone featured as a second-half substitute for Hull City against Chelsea in the third round of the League Cup. He played in the third round tie in the 2009–10 League Cup against
Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...
. On 19 November 2009 Featherstone joined League Two outfit
Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...
on an initial month's
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 ...
. He made his debut in a 0–0 draw with Lincoln City on 21 November. He eventually made seven appearances for Grimsby, and eventually returned to Hull on 3 January 2010. He re-signed for Grimsby for a second loan spell on 11 January 2010. On 1 February 2010, Featherstone returned to Hull early having asked to have his loan contract cut short, down to the fact he had fallen out of contention at Grimsby, having made only one appearance for The Mariners in his second loan spell. During the 2010–11 season, despite being kept on at the club, Featherstone did not receive a squad number and eventually departed the club permanently in January 2011.


Hereford United

Featherstone joined League Two side
Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...
on an initial one-month loan on 4 November and signed a permanent deal to stay at Edgar Street in January. In May 2011 he signed a new one-year contract with the club. Following the conclusion of the 2011–12 season which saw Hereford relegated to the
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 ...
division, Featherstone seemingly departed United having failed to respond to the club's offer of a new contract.


Walsall

Featherstone signed with
Football League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...
side
Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...
on a one-year deal. He signed with The Saddlers on 6 August after impressing on trial with the West Midlands club.


Scunthorpe United

On 19 August 2014, it was announced that Featherstone had joined
Football League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...
side
Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was formed in ...
on a "week to week" deal. He left the club on 2 September after his non-contract terms were cancelled.


Harrogate Town

On 3 October 2014, it was announced that Featherstone had joined
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 ...
side
Harrogate Town Harrogate Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Harrogate Hotspurs were fou ...
.


Hartlepool United

On 31 October 2014, Featherstone returned to the
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 ...
by signing with
Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...
on a short-term deal. The following day, Featherstone made his debut in a 2–2 draw with Newport County. On 2 February 2015, Featherstone extended his contract until the end of the
season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
. On 25 June 2015, Featherstone signed a new deal with Hartlepool. On 27 August 2016, he scored his first goal for Hartlepool in another 2–2 draw with Newport County. On 7 March 2020, he made his 250th appearance for Hartlepool in a 1–0 home defeat to
Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. The club compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1946 from the merger ...
. Featherstone signed a new contract at the end of the 2019–20 season after an impressive campaign. In 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 ...
campaign, Featherstone played an integral role in central midfield and formed a strong relationship with Mark Shelton and
Gavan Holohan Gavan Holohan (born 15 December 1991) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Crawley Town. Beginning his career as a youngster with Hull City, Holohan returned to his native Ireland where he featured for League ...
in midfield as Hartlepool qualified for the play-offs in 4th place. In the play-off eliminator 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 ...
, Featherstone played an excellent long ball through to Rhys Oates to open the scoring for Pools in a 3–2 win. In the 2021 National League play-off final, Featherstone started in the final but missed a penalty in the shootout. However, Hartlepool prevailed 5–4 on penalties and were promoted back to the Football League. Featherstone lifted the play-off trophy alongside club captain
Ryan Donaldson Ryan Mark Donaldson (born 1 May 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ashington. Club career Newcastle United Donaldson joined his hometown club at aged 9. He made his way through the academy to the u18s wher ...
. Following Hartlepool's promotion back to League Two, Featherstone was announced as Hartlepool's new club captain and signed a new two-year contract. In the 2022–23 season, he moved into the top ten most appearances list for Hartlepool United. Following Hartlepool's relegation to the National League at the end of the season, Featherstone left the club on 28 July 2023 having made 380 appearances. Following Featherstone's departure, manager
John Askey John Colin Askey (born 4 November 1964) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Truro City. Able to play as a winger or as a striker, Askey had pace and intelligence. A former youth team play ...
said: "I may have only worked with Nicky for a few months but I know he will remembered as a club legend. A great player who offered me great support during last season and I can't thank him enough for his contributions." On 2 October 2023, Featherstone re-joined Hartlepool United on a one month contract. On 3 November 2023, Featherstone extended his contract until the end of the 2023–24 season; he was also granted a testimonial match to celebrate his ten seasons of service to the club. During the season, he regained the captaincy from David Ferguson. At the end of the season, he was offered a new deal with the club. On 9 May 2024, Featherstone signed a dual contract as a player-coach at Hartlepool. Early in the 2024–25 season, Featherstone entered the top five appearance makers for Hartlepool describing it as "a very proud achievement". On 7 September 2024, Featherstone made his 400th start for the club in a 0–0 home draw with
FC Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in the National League (division), National League, the fifth level of English football league system. They replac ...
. On 14 December 2024, he made his 600th career appearance in a 0–0 away draw with
Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...
. On 26 July 2025, Featherstone's testimonial took place with Hartlepool defeating a Leeds United XI 3–0 at Victoria Park.


Career statistics


Honours

Hartlepool United *
National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...
play-offs:
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...


References


External links


Nicky Featherstone profile
at the Hull City website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Featherstone, Nicky 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from Goole English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Hull City A.F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Harrogate Town A.F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Hartlepool United F.C. non-playing staff 21st-century English sportsmen