Samuel William Hatton (born 7 February 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 ...

who plays for

Welwyn Garden City Welwyn Garden City ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London. It was the second garden city in England (founded 1920) and one of the first new towns (designated 1948). It is unique in being both a garden city and a new town an ...

. Having started his career with Stevenage Borough, he spent time on loan with Northwood,

Yeading Yeading ( ) is a settlement in west London, forming part of the London Borough of Hillingdon, having been developed after the Second World War. Etymology Yeading is very early Saxon and was originally ''Geddingas'' or ''Geddinges'', meaning "t ...

, Maidenhead United and Diss Town before moving to

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional football club, based in Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 season. The club's home stadium is Plough Lane. The cl ...

in 2007 where he notched up 197 league appearances and 22 goals, also helping them earn promotion to 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 ...

in 2011. He joined

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

in 2012 where he remained for two seasons. His time with The Dons and Grimsby represent his only spells spent as a professional footballer before later moving on to play for Aldershot Town, Welling United, Hemel Hempstead Town,

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated popu ...

Staines Town Staines Town Football Club was a semi-professional football club based in Staines-upon-Thames, Middlesex. History Early days Staines Town FC was founded in 1892 and was known under various names including ''Staines F.C.'',''Staines Albany F ...

Wealdstone Wealdstone () is a district located in the centre of the London Borough of Harrow, England. It is located just north of Harrow town centre and is south of Harrow Weald, west of Belmont and Kenton, and east of Headstone. The area accommodates mos ...

and

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock ...

Club career

Stevenage Borough

Born in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roma ...

, Hertfordshire, Hatton progressed through the ranks of the Stevenage Borough academy but only made one first team appearance for the

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

side. His time at Stevenage was frustrating, as he was loaned out a total of five times between 2006 and 2007.

AFC Wimbledon

In the 2007–8 pre-season, Hatton was signed by

. He performed consistently over the course of five seasons, at first in midfield before converting to right back and was a part of three promotions, including the historic season that saw the club's promotion to the

. He was the club's longest serving player, having made 197 league appearances up to the end of the 2011–12 season. In May 2011, he was voted by the Wimbledon Independent Supporters Association as player of the 2010–11 season. On 15 May 2012, Hatton was released by AFC Wimbledon. Manager Terry Brown announced through the AFC Wimbledon website that the club would not take up an option to extend Hatton's contract for the 2012–13 season. Brown described this as: "Definitely one of the hardest decisions I have had to make as a manager."

Grimsby Town

On 23 June 2012, Hatton signed a two-year contract with

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profess ...

side

. He was primarily used as Grimsby's first choice right back for both the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons. Both seasons ended with the club being defeated in the Conference Play-off semi finals. He was amongst a number of players released on 9 May 2014.

Aldershot Town

After being released by

, Hatton signed for fellow Conference Premier club Aldershot Town in July 2014.

Non-League

Hatton has since played for Welling United, Hemel Hempstead Town,

and

. In December 2022, Hatton joined

, again following manager Marc Weatherstone whom Hatton had played under at

Enfield Town Enfield is a large town in north London, England, north of Charing Cross. It had a population of 156,858 in 2018. It includes the areas of Botany Bay, Brimsdown, Bulls Cross, Bullsmoor, Bush Hill Park, Clay Hill, Crews Hill, Enfield ...

and

Wingate & Finchley Wingate & Finchley Football Club is an English football club based in Finchley in the London Borough of Barnet. The club are currently members of the and play at The Maurice Rebak Stadium in North London. History The club was established in ...

International career

During his time with AFC Wimbledon in the Conference Premier, Hatton appeared twice for

England C The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at non-league level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it f ...

, playing in matches against the Republic of Ireland U23 in 2010 and Belgium U23 in 2011. Hatton was called up to the England C team again in 2012. Having featured in two out of five of Grimsby's games, Hatton was named in the England C squad to face Belgium in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

on Wednesday 12 September in an

International Challenge Trophy The International Challenge Trophy, originally known as the European Challenge Trophy, is an international association football competition. It is open to national teams featuring semi-professional U-23 footballers who have not yet won senior inter ...

game.

Honours

AFC Wimbledon *

play-offs:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hatton, Sam 1988 births Living people Sportspeople from St Albans Footballers from Hertfordshire English men's footballers England men's semi-pro international footballers Men's association football midfielders Stevenage F.C. players Northwood F.C. players Wealdstone F.C. players Yeading F.C. players Maidenhead United F.C. players Diss Town F.C. players AFC Wimbledon players Grimsby Town F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. players Dartford F.C. players Hemel Hempstead Town F.C. players Welling United F.C. players Staines Town F.C. players Bishop's Stortford F.C. players Enfield Town F.C. players Wingate & Finchley F.C. players Welwyn Garden City F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Isthmian League players Southern Football League players