Star Bridlington Town goalkeeper James Hitchcock recently reached the rare feat of appearing in 100 consecutive games for his club. So appropriately he is our latest player to be profiled in our weekly series.
Name: James Hitchcock
Age: 24
Position: Goalkeeper
Current Club: Bridlington Town
Previous Clubs: Scarborough Athletic, Barton Town Old Boys, Frickley Athletic, Retford United.
Day Job: Engineer at BAE Systems
Best mate in football: Couldn’t pick just one there are about six or seven to choose from!
Description of Career Highlight: Two East Riding Senior Cup final wins for Brid, but mainly last season’s win against North Ferriby who had just been promoted to the Conference. The FA Cup run we went on this year was unbelievable too. We were unlucky not to go further, almost beat Harrogate Town at home and away!
Lowest Moment in Football: Probably my last game for Frickley… conceded directly from a corner, had a bit of a beast and never played for them again! Haha. Think I was only 20/21 at the time too so knocked my confidence for six!
Description of Most Memorable Match: Two games stand out for me. The game I mentioned above against North Ferriby. We won 1-0 and I made a few decent saves, had one of my best games and got man of the match. That and in the FA Cup this season when we won away against Newcastle Benfield which turned out to be one of the best days of my life. Absolute scenes afterwards!
First semi-professional manager: Paul Olsson at Scarborough (2010-11)
Description of First Red Card (at semi-professional level): Never been sent off
Description of First clean sheet (at semi-professional level): It was for Scarborough, won 1-0 at home against Arnold Town I think.
Description of favourite goal / clean sheet (at semi-professional level): Scored a few own goals if that counts…
What do you want to achieve in football in the future: I’m very happy at Brid, would love to win the league and I think we’ve got a great chance this season. Would maybe like to play higher one day, did alright when I was at Frickley three seasons ago in the Evo Stik League, but think I’m a better keeper now.
Favourite Non League Ground to play at (barring your own club): I’ve always liked playing at Tadcaster, great set up, great pitch and they always get a decent crowd.
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Take a look at our previous Player Profiles
Worsbrough Bridge midfielder Connor Rollinson
Hemsworth Miners Welfare midfielder Lee Swift
Brighouse Town goalkeeper Tom Taylor
Farsley Celtic midfielder Chris Howarth
Then Shaw Lane AFC attacker Joe Thornton
Selby Town utility man Mick Jones
AFC Emley defender Liam Schofield
Garforth Town defender Luke McCrum
Yorkshire Amateur striker Joel Hughes
Nostell Miners Welfare full-back Eddy Busfield
Goole AFC goalkeeper Jody Barford
Hemsworth Miners Welfare defender Harry Viggars