Steve Thompson (footballer, born 1989)

Stephen Thompson (born 15 April 1989) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for National League North club Spennymoor Town.

Steve Thompson
Personal information
Full name Stephen Thompson[1]
Date of birth (1989-04-15) 15 April 1989
Place of birth Peterlee, England
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.71 m)[2]
Position(s) Centre forward
Club information
Current team
 Spennymoor Town
Youth career
2005–2008 Middlesbrough
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2008–2009 Port Vale 17 (2)
2009 → Stafford Rangers (loan) 4 (2)
2009–2010 Telford United 14 (0)
2010–2012 Durham City
2012–2020 Darlington
2020– Spennymoor Town 0 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Unable to make the first team at Middlesbrough, he signed with Port Vale in May 2008. He left Vale Park by mutual consent in October 2009, at which point he joined Telford United. He spent one season with Telford before joining Durham City. He signed with Darlington in September 2012, and helped the club to the Northern Football League title in 2012–13, promotion out of the Northern Premier League Division One North via the play-offs in 2015, and then Premier Division title in 2015–16. He was named as the club's Player of the Year for the 2017–18 season and equalled their goalscoring record of 100 goals in December 2019. Thompson left Darlington at the end of the 2019–20 season and signed for another National League North club, Spennymoor Town.

Career

Port Vale

Born in Peterlee, County Durham, Thompson began his career at Middlesbrough in the academy and youth team and he signed for the club at the start of the 2007–08 season but did not play a game for the first-team. Released at the end of the season,[3] he had a successful trial with Port Vale and signed with the club in May 2008,[4] citing manager Lee Sinnott's style of play as a reason for joining the club.[5]

He spent four months working off a hamstring injury,[6] before making his debut as a 74th minute substitute on 6 December 2008 against Grimsby Town.[6] His first league start came two weeks later in a 1–0 defeat to Chesterfield at Vale Park, he was taken off in the 53rd minute, despite the protestations of the home crowd.[7] His first goal came against Rochdale on 28 December, as he hit a 90th-minute winner for a Vale side reduced to 10-men.[8] Described by Ian Brightwell as "probably the best finisher we have at the club",[9] he was dropped from the first team in February 2009.[10] He worked hard at the end of the season to put himself back in contention and made eight further appearances under Dean Glover before the season's end.

During a 2009–10 pre-season friendly with Nantwich Town, Thompson was dismissed for violent conduct, shoulder-barging an opposition player in an off-the-ball incident.[11] Manager Micky Adams promised to punish Thompson in some way for his lack of discipline.[11] Two days later Adams placed him on the transfer list, along with five other youngsters.[12][13] Early the next month local Conference North side Stafford Rangers enquired about Thompson's availability, after fellow Vale youngster Ross Davidson performed well in his loan spell.[14] A one-month loan deal was quickly agreed.[15] His contract with Port Vale was cancelled by mutual consent in October 2009, Thompson aimed to find first team football elsewhere.[16]

Telford and Durham

The day after his release from Port Vale, Thompson signed with Telford United of the Conference North.[17] He spent one season with Telford, but had issues with the long distances he was travelling to the club from his home.[18] Thompson subsequently joined Northern Premier League Division One North side Durham City, and was described by the club's website as "a quick thinking classic playmaker who has pace, good feet and excellent passing ability which mean he is equally at home both scoring and making goals for others."[19] Durham finished 17th in 2010–11, but resigned from the league at the end of 2011–12 to join the Northern League.

Darlington

He signed with Northern League side Darlington in September 2012.[20] He scored his first goal in his fourth appearance for the club in a 4–1 victory over Penrith, he struck the ball from 20-yards out on a mud-filled pitch.[21] Darlington won promotion as champions in 2012–13. The "Quakers" reached the play-offs in the Northern Premier League Division One North in 2013–14, where they were knocked out by Ramsbottom United; Thompson scored 27 goals during the campaign.[21] He scored his 50th goal in his 100th appearance for Darlington against Mossley.[21] In 2015, Darlington beat Bamber Bridge 2–0 in the Division One North play-off final to secure promotion into the Premier Division.[22] A second successive promotion was achieved as Darlington won the Premier Division title with a game to spare of the 2015–16 season.[21] Darlington finished fifth in the National League North in 2016–17, but were denied a place in the play-offs due to Blackwell Meadows's lack of seating.[23] He scored 11 goals in 38 league games during the 2017–18 season as "Darlo" finished in 12th-place.[21] He was named as the club's Player of the Year for 2018.[24] Having been assigned to play right-back for much of the campaign, he still went on to score ten goals in 43 appearances in the 2018–19 season, with Darlington posting a 16th-place finish.[21]

On 26 December 2019, Thompson's 72nd-minute penalty gave his side a 2–1 win at home to Spennymoor Town and completed his century of goals for Darlington, equalling Alan Walsh's club record that had stood for 35 years.[25] His tally included four hat-tricks: against Leamington, Sunderland Ryhope Community Association, Burscough and Wakefield.[21] He scored six goals in 36 appearances in the 2019–20 season, which was permanently suspended on 26 March due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England, with Darlington in eleventh place.[26] After eight years with the club, he chose not to accept Darlington's offer of a new contract and left at the end of the 2019–20 season.[27]

Spennymoor Town

Thompson signed for another National League North club, Spennymoor Town, on 20 May 2020.[28]

Career statistics
As of match played 14 March 2020
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Port Vale 2008–09[29] League Two172000000172
2009–10[30] League Two0000000000
Total 172000000172
Darlington 2016–17[31] National League North40800—00408
2017–18[31] National League North381100—003811
2018–19[31][32] National League North381100—003811
2019–20[31][33] National League North29531—4[lower-alpha 1]0366
Spennymoor Town 2020–21[31] National League North0000—0000
  1. Appearances in FA Trophy

Honours

Individual

Darlington

References
  1. "Player Registrations" (PDF). thefa.com. September 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  2. "FootballSquads - Port Vale - 2009/10". www.footballsquads.co.uk. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  3. "Port Vale: Thompson aims to follow in Rooney's footsteps". The Sentinel. 30 August 2008. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  4. "Vale sign Boro youngster Thompson". BBC Sport. 14 May 2008. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  5. "Thompson happy with Sinnott style". BBC Sport. 16 May 2008. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  6. Baggaley, Michael (10 December 2008). "Port Vale: Thompson 'has role to play for Valiants'". The Sentinel. Retrieved 10 December 2008.
  7. "Port Vale 0 Chesterfield 1". The Sentinel. 20 December 2008. Retrieved 20 December 2008.
  8. "Port Vale 2–1 Rochdale". BBC Sport. 28 December 2008. Retrieved 28 December 2008.
  9. "Thompson is 'showing potential'". BBC Sport. 18 January 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  10. "Drop was deserved admits Thompson". BBC Sport. 6 February 2009. Retrieved 7 June 2009.
  11. Shaw, Steve (5 August 2009). "Port Vale: Adams sees red as Thompson is sent off". The Sentinel. Retrieved 5 August 2009.
  12. Shaw, Steve (6 August 2009). "Port Vale: Valiants transfer list six players". The Sentinel. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  13. "Port Vale looking to move on six". BBC Sport. 6 August 2009. Retrieved 6 August 2009.
  14. Shaw, Steve (2 September 2009). "Breaking News: Davidson set to extend Stafford stay". The Sentinel. Retrieved 2 September 2009.
  15. "Port Vale: Thompson joins Davidson at Stafford". The Sentinel. 3 September 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  16. Shaw, Steve (6 October 2009). "Breaking News: Vale cancel Thompson's contract". The Sentinel. Retrieved 6 October 2009.
  17. "Vale's Thompson joins AFC Telford". BBC Sport. 7 October 2009. Retrieved 7 October 2009.
  18. "AFC Telford striker Steve Thompson deal in the balance". BBC Sport. 25 June 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  19. "profile". durhamcityafc.com. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  20. "Stephen Thompson Signs For Quakers". darlington1883.co.uk. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  21. Stoddart, Craig (23 March 2020). "Stephen Thompson's top ten moments with Darlington". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  22. Smith, Oliver (2 May 2015). "Darlington 1883 2-0 Bamber Bridge". Lancashire Post. Retrieved 9 May 2015.
  23. "National League: Darlington FC, Hungerford Town & Poole Town denied play-off places". BBC Sport. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  24. "Stephen Thompson". darlingtonfc.co.uk. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  25. Stoddart, Craig (26 December 2019). "Stephen Thompson: 'It was a derby and I scored in front of the Tin Shed, it was perfect'". The Northern Echo. Darlington. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  26. "National League clubs vote to end regular season immediately". BBC Sport. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  27. Loughlin, Nick (16 May 2020). "Quakers' crowd hero calls time on eight-year Darlington stint". The Northern Echo. Darlington. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  28. Loughlin, Nick (20 May 2020). "Thompson makes a shock move to Spennymoor from Darlington". The Northern Echo. Darlington. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  29. "Games played by Steve Thompson in 2008/2009". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  30. "Games played by Steve Thompson in 2009/2010". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 January 2017.
  31. "S. Thompson". Soccerway. Perform Group. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
  32. Simpson, Ray (22 September 2018). "Quakers beaten by first half goal". Darlington F.C. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
    Hatfield, Luke (23 November 2018). "Darlington 0 AFC Telford 2 – Report, pictures and highlights". Shropshire Star. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  33. For FA Cup 2nd qualifying round: Simpson, Ray (21 September 2019). "Quakers win first FA Cup tie in five years". Darlington F.C. Retrieved 23 September 2019.
    For FA Trophy third qualifying round: Simpson, Ray (23 November 2019). "Sub Justin scores the winner". Darlington F.C. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
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