Kevin Nicholls

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Kevin Nicholls
Personal information
Full name	Kevin John Richard Nicholls[1]
Date of birth	2 January 1979 (1979-01-02) (age 30)
Place of birth	Newham, England
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position	Central midfielder
Club information
Current club	Luton Town
Number	8
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–1999 1999 1999–2001 2001–2006 2006–2007 2007–2008 2008–	Charlton Athletic → Brighton & Hove Albion (loan) Wigan Athletic Luton Town Leeds United Preston North End Luton Town	012 0(1) 004 0(1) 028 0(1) 175 (30) 013 0(0) 018 0(0) 019 0(0)
National team
	England U20	001 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:00 18 April 2009 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Kevin John Richard Nicholls (born 2 January 1979) is an English footballer who plays in midfield for Luton Town, as club captain.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Charlton Athletic 1.2 Wigan Athletic 1.3 Luton Town 1.4 Leeds United 1.5 Preston North End 1.6 Luton Town return 2 International career 3 Honours 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Charlton Athletic

Born in Newham, London, Kevin began his playing career at Charlton Athletic, making his debut in the 1996–97 season. After a serious knee injury ruled him out of most of the 1997–98 season, he failed to break into the team in 1998–99 season and was loaned to Brighton & Hove Albion who promptly sent him back after four games.

[edit] Wigan Athletic

After a short period back at Charlton, Nicholls was transferred to Wigan Athletic in the summer of 1999 for £250,000, rising to £650,000 based on appearances. In the 1999–2000 season he was once again a victim of injury, only playing 8 games. Nicholls appeared in 26 games in the 2000–01 season, scoring his only goal for Wigan in the 2–1 defeat against Reading in the play-off semi-final.

[edit] Luton Town

In the summer of 2001, Joe Kinnear signed Nicholls for Luton for a fee rising to £150,000. Kevin was a pivotal player in Luton's promotion season of 2001–02, becoming the club captain. At Luton, Nicholls managed for several seasons to avoid the injuries that dogged him at previous clubs and became the "heart and soul of the team" according to Kinnear. Unfortunately the 2003–04 season was not so good as he was again injured and missed 5 months. After the injury Kevin returned to his preferred central midfield position and contributed to Luton's very respectable 10th place finish.

In the 2004–05 season Nicholls was voted Player of the Year by the supporters as Luton won the League One championship. It was Nicholls who lifted the championship trophy following their 4–2 victory against Brentford in April. He scored 14 goals, most of which came, crucially at times, from the penalty spot.

Nicholls was a vital part of the Luton side that not only finished 10th in the Championship in their first season, but in the match against Liverpool in the FA Cup, a game in which the Hatters went into a 3–1 lead courtesy of Nicholls, once again, with a penalty. The Hatters eventually fell short of the quality to see out the game, losing 5–3, but many of the players, such as Nicholls, who had spent the majority of their careers in the lower leagues, were now in the public eye.

[edit] Leeds United

On 26 July 2006, Nicholls signed for Leeds United for a fee of £700,000.^[2] In his first training session with Leeds, he damaged his knee ligaments but hoped to be back within 3 months.^[3] Nicholls' quick rehabilitation allowed him to make his debut for the club as a substitute in Leeds' match against Sunderland on 13 September 2006, one and a half months before he was due back.^[4]

Nicholls picked up another injury on 30 September 2006 against West Bromwich Albion, which kept him out until December. On 26 October 2006, he was made the new captain of Leeds United Football Club by new manager Dennis Wise, with Shaun Derry being appointed his deputy.^[5]

Nicholls returned from injury on 16 December 2006, starting in the 1–0 loss against Ipswich Town. This was his first game as captain of Leeds and it ended with a red card in the dying minutes. Manager, Wise, decided not to appeal against the decision, so Nicholls missed Leeds' following three matches over the Christmas period.^[6] Nicholls returned to the side once his suspension had been served in the 2–1 victory over Coventry City.

On 3 March, 2007 Nicholls was dropped for Leeds' home match against Sheffield Wednesday. In his post-match interview, Dennis Wise said that Nicholls had asked to leave the club and return to his former club Luton Town.^[7] However, Wise stated that he would not allow Nicholls to return to Luton unless the original fee of £700,000 was to be paid back to Leeds. It was also stated that Nicholls had been stripped of the captaincy. He became somewhat of a hate figure amongst Leeds fans.^[8]

[edit] Preston North End

On 29 June 2007, he left Leeds and had signed a deal to move to Preston North End for a fee of £750,000.^[9] Nicholls officially moved to Preston on 3 July due to Leeds' administration forcing them to delay all trading until that date.

Nicholls' spell at Preston was initially successful. He was a regular under Paul Simpson in the first few months of the season, but featured little following the arrival of new manager Alan Irvine, falling behind Paul McKenna, Darren Carter and new signing Richard Chaplow in the pecking order. On 2 August 2008, it was announced that Preston North End and Kevin Nicholls had come to an agreement to release him from his contract.

[edit] Luton Town return

On 2 August 2008, Nicholls signed a three year contract with former club Luton Town, stating he will always support Luton and loves the club.^[10] He returned as club captain, taking over from Keith Keane. Nicholls missed much of the 2008-09 season as a result of recurring injury problems, but returned fully fit in the final run-in of games. On 24 March 2009, he was given a five game ban and £1,000 fine for supposedly applauding Luton fans for throwing missiles at the referee after a controversial 3–3 draw with Bradford City.^[11]

On 5 April 2009, Nicholls captained Luton to a 3–2 victory over Scunthorpe United at Wembley Stadium in the Football League Trophy final, picking up the man-of-the-match award for his performance in the heart of midfield.^[12] He played for Luton in their 0–0 draw with Chesterfield on 13 April, which saw them lose their Football League status and suffer relegation to the Football Conference.^[13]

[edit] International career

He was capped once and then sent off for the England under-20 team.

[edit] Honours

• 2004–05: Football League One Champions - Luton Town
• 2008–09: Football League Trophy - Luton Town

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Kevin Nicholls career stats at Soccerbase
• Kevin Nicholl profile at the Luton Town website

Sporting positions
Preceded by Paul Butler	Leeds United captain 2006–2007	Succeeded by Jonathan Douglas

v • d • e Luton Town F.C. – current squad 1 Tyler · 2 Asafu-Adjaye · 4 Keane · 5 Roper · 6 Pilkington · 7 Henderson · 8 Nicholls (c) · 10 Charles · 11 Emanuel · 14 Hall · 16 Jarvis · 19 Talbot · 24 Craddock · 25 Beavan · 29 Patrick · 30 Farthing · 32 Gallen · 33 Howells · 35 Wood · 36 Fletcher · 40 Sinclair · — Burgess · — Gnakpa · — Hatch · — Newton · — White · Manager: Harford