Michael Nelson

Michael John Nelson (born 23 March 1980) is a former professional footballer who played as a defender.

He is currently the manager of Chester-le-Street United.

Nelson started his career at semi-professional level, playing for Spennymoor United, Leek Town and Bishop Auckland.

His performances earned him a move to Bury in 2001.

After winning the Bury Player of the Year award in 2002–03, Nelson moved to third tier Hartlepool United.

However Nelson failed to maintain this through to the 2004–05 season and he handed in a transfer request.

His agent claimed that he'd been "promised" a better deal.

This triggered a feud with Hartlepool chairman Ken Hodcroft who criticised Nelson and his agent.

Nelson was missing in several of Hartlepool's matches and was rumoured to be signing for Hull City for a fee of around £100,000.

However Nelson withdrew his transfer request and was reinstalled into the starting line-up.

In his first two seasons with the club, Hartlepool would reach the play-offs in both seasons, before being relegated in 2005–06.

However, Hartlepool secured an immediate return to League One as runners-up with Nelson earning a place in the PFA Team of the Year for his performances.

In 2009, he would earn a move to Norwich City where he would spend the next two seasons.

He subsequently joined Championship club Scunthorpe United.

Nelson had two spells in Scotland with Kilmarnock and Hibernian in between a brief spell with Bradford City.

In 2014, he signed for League Two club Cambridge United, where he would spend one season.

He signed for League Two Barnet where he would play for three seasons.

He dropped into non-League football in 2018.

He had spells with Chesterfield, Gateshead and Blyth Spartans before retiring in 2020 having made over 700 career appearances.

Born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, Nelson started his playing career as a semi-professional, playing for non-League teams such as Spennymoor United, Leek Town and Bishop Auckland.

Nelson's performances attracted the attention of League clubs who sent scouts to watch him.

Nelson was given a trial at Hartlepool but he was not offered a contract by the then Hartlepool manager Chris Turner.

However Nelson was offered a contract at Bury by manager Andy Preece after Bury scout Peter Ward convinced him to give Nelson a chance.

Once Nelson had settled down to professional football, he gradually became a first team regular and during his first full season at Bury he managed to play 31 of the club's 46 league matches, scoring 2 goals in the process.

Nelson formed a defensive partnership with Danny Swailes.

However, during the season Nelson suffered what he described as the worst injury of his career after suffering a collapsed lung and several cracked ribs after a collision during Bury's match against Wigan Athletic.

Nelson had to have a drain inserted into his chest for several days while he was hospitalised.

The injury threatened to keep him sidelined for three months but remarkably Nelson was able to resume training less than three weeks later.

Despite being dropped early on, Nelson's second season turned out to be even more successful as he played in 40 of Bury's 46 matches, scoring 5 goals.

Nelson was made club captain and his performances earned him the respect of the club's players and fans.

During that season, Bury manager Andy Preece hailed Nelson as "the best centre-half in Division Three".

However, Bury failed to gain promotion to League 1 as they missed out during the play-offs and Nelson was offered the chance to play in a higher division by several League 1 clubs.

The following season, Nelson joined Hartlepool United on the same day that Neale Cooper was appointed manager for a fee of around £70,000.

Nelson was seen as natural replacement for Graeme Lee who had joined Sheffield Wednesday.

Nelson started strongly for Hartlepool and scored the winner from 30 yards during his debut in Hartlepool's 4–3 win over Peterborough.

This goal almost earned him another award as it was on the shortlist for Hartlepool's Goal of the Season.

He was also voted September's Player of the Month on the official Hartlepool website.

Nelson began to form a strong partnership with Chris Westwood and the pair played together for the majority of Hartlepool's games.

Nelson went on to play in 40 of Hartlepool's league matches and played in both legs of Hartlepool's play-off semi-final match against Bristol City.

Nelson was in contention for Hartlepool's Fans and Players' Player of the season but he missed out to Jim Provett on both occasions.