Nicholas Michael Spooner (born 5 June 1971) is an English football coach and 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 ...

who is the manager of

Hyde United Hyde United Football Club is a semi-professional Association football, football club in Hyde, Greater Manchester, England. Formed in 1919, they were renamed Hyde F.C. between 2010 and 2015 as part of a sponsorship deal with Manchester City F.C. ...

. As a player, he was a defender and

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

. He also played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

with

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

and Chester City, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

with

Charleston Battery The Charleston Battery are an American professional association football, soccer club based in Charleston, South Carolina, and member of the USL Championship. Founded in 1993, the Battery are one of the oldest continuously operating professiona ...

and in non-league with

Leigh RMI Leigh Genesis Football Club, formerly known as Horwich Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Horwich RMI) and Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Leigh RMI), is an English amateur association football club that currently plays in the South Lancas ...

Playing career

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

, Spooner played for

, Chester City and

. He joined Bolton Wanderers in 1987 after signing YTS forms. His senior career with the club was marred by injury. In October 1994 he suffered a broken leg in a match against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

following a tackle by John Gayle, and he never played first-team football for the club again. He finally left Bolton in 1999 and moved to the United States, spending a year with Charleston Battery before returning to England to play non-league football for the final years of his playing career. He played for

in 2003.

Coaching career

Spooner returned to Bolton Wanderers as a youth coach and initially coached the under-8s' team. In November 2011, Spooner was working as the under-16 coach, and in January 2013 he was the club's Head of Youth Development. In September 2016, he was promoted to under-18s' head coach. He left Bolton on 29 January 2021 after 17 years in his coaching roles. On 8 June 2021, he was appointed as the new Youth Team Coach at

FC Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 seaso ...

. In February 2022, he was appointed as the new manager of

, replacing former

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

and

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

manager

Jim Gannon James Paul Gannon (born 7 September 1968) is a professional football manager and former player who most recently was manager of Hyde United. He started and finished his career as a player in Ireland, but made most of his professional appearan ...

.https://www.tamesidecorrespondent.co.uk/2022/02/19/former-player-nicky-spooner-named-new-hyde-united-manager/, Former player Nicky Spooner named Hyde United manager, Tameside Correspondent, 19 February 2022

References

External links

1971 births Living people English footballers Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Charleston Battery players Chester City F.C. players Leigh Genesis F.C. players Hyde United F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players Association football defenders Association football midfielders Footballers from Manchester English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Association football coaches Bolton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff FC Halifax Town non-playing staff Hyde United F.C. managers {{England-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub