Ben Mackey

Ben Mackey (born 27 October 1986) is an English professional football player who is currently at Leamington. Mackey started his career at Coventry City Football Club where he made three appearances.[1] The first on 12 April 2003 against Ipswich meant that he was (and still is) the youngest player ever to take the pitch for the club's first team, aged 16 years and 167 days. At the start of the 2005/06 season Mackey had a trial with Linfield F.C. of the Irish Premier League. He made four appearances for them and scored one goal.

At the start of the 2006/07 season Mackey joined Leamington where he has had the chance to get more first team experience. That season he was Leamington's highest scorer and repeated the feat in 2007/08. 2007/08 saw him become the first player to sign a contract with the club since they reformed in 2000. This showed both the clubs high regard for Mackey and his loyalty to the club after rumours that Nuneaton Borough of the Conference North were interested in signing him.[2]

After 92 games and 57 goals Mackey moved to Brackley Town at the end of May 2008 (he was third top scorer in the league for 2007/08 with 24 goals),[3] signing a two-year contract with the Southern League Premier Division outfit. He then signed for Conference North side Corby Town in June 2010 where he scored 10 league goals in the first half of the 2010/11 season before breaking his leg.

In November 2011 Mackey signed for Evesham United,[4] who at the time played in the Evo-Stik Premier League Southern.

In 2011/2012 he moved to St Neots and helped them win the Southern League Central Division title in 2011–12. He quickly went to become a fans favourite and is known amongst fans as "Big Ben". The following season he moved to Stourbridge F.C. and finished second highest scorer in the league with 29 goals.[5] He then signed for Hemel Hempstead Town F.C. where he set the club record for number of goals scored in one season whilst helping them win the league title.[6]

On 13 May 2015 it was announced that Mackey was returning to Leamington, initially for pre-season training but with the aim to play for them during the 2015/16 Southern Football League season.[7] He has started the season well with 10 goals in 17 games including 2 goals in the FA Trophy.

References

  1. ↑ Ben Mackey career statistics at Soccerbase
  2. ↑ Local Leamington newspaper report including Nuneaton's interest in Mackey
  3. ↑ Official Southern League website top scorers list 2007/08
  4. ↑ Leamington FC official site news report on the signing
  5. ↑ Official Southern League website top scorers list 2012/13
  6. ↑ Pitchero non-league article
  7. ↑ News item on the Leamington F.C. website

External links

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