News News
News

Alfreton Town: Player Spotlight

Posted by Kelly Gilchrist
Posted on Mon 30 Jan 2017
Posted in News

This week sees the Shaymen face two away fixtures, the first of which will be a trip to The Impact Arena to face Alfreton Town. Here we take a look at one of Alfretonโ€™s main men in โ€˜Player Spotlightโ€™…

Craig Westcarr signed for Alfreton Town in summer 2016 after spending last season with Mansfield Town, and on loan at Southport. Westcarr is a striker with a host of highly established football league clubs on his CV including Nottingham Forest, Notts County and Portsmouth.

He was born in Nottingham on January 29, 1985 and would go on to represent his hometown club Forest. He spent his youth days at the City Ground and would become the youngest player to ever represent the club, when he came on there in a 1-0 win over Burnley at the age of just 16, in October 2001.

The striker scored his first senior goal in May 2003 in a 2-2 draw at Rotherham Unitedโ€™s old Millmoor ground, at the back end of a season in which he had made 13 appearances. The following season, though, game time was harder to come by and loans to Lincoln City and MK Dons followed, before Westcarr was released by Forest in 2005.

He played out an eight-goal season at Cambridge United before joining Kettering Town in 2006. At Kettering, he was a part of the side which finished 2nd in the Conference North before ultimately losing out on penalties to Farsley Celtic in the play-off semi finals. Celtic would go on to beat Hinckley United in the final and gain promotion.

Westcarr, playing alongside former Shayman Gareth Seddon, equalised twice for Kettering in their FA Cup tie against Fulham in 2009, but they lost out cruelly late on, 4-2. He was released by Kettering just a few months later but joined League Two side Notts County, where his highlights included netting a hat trick against Hereford United. He also continued his FA Cup pedigree, bagging the first goal as now-Liverpool โ€˜keeper Simon Mignolet failed to deal with a cross for Sunderland at the Stadium of Light. Westcarr and Notts County won the match 2-1.

Significant spells of over 50 matches followed at Chesterfield and Walsall, before Westcarr made in excess of 30 appearances on the south coast at Portsmouth.

The forward has had a steady return this season in terms of goals, netting ten in the Vanarama National League North, but the Shaymen will no doubt be aware of his ability and knack of scoring in big games ahead of this weekโ€™s clash.

Read more posts by Kelly Gilchrist

Our
Principal
Partners
Our
Football
Partners
0
0