Justin Walker (footballer)

Justin Walker (born 6 September 1975, Nottingham) is an English former professional footballer who made more than 300 Football League appearances for six different clubs from 1997 to 2006 as a midfielder. He is currently the first-team development coach at Derby County.

For other people named Justin Walker, see Justin Walker (disambiguation).

Justin Walker
Personal information
Full name Justin Matthew Walker
Date of birth (1975-09-06) 6 September 1975
Place of birth Nottingham, England
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Derby County (first-team development coach)
Youth career
1991–1992 Nottingham Forest
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–1997 Nottingham Forest 0 (0)
1997–2000 Scunthorpe United 132 (2)
2000–2002 Lincoln City 76 (4)
2002–2003 Exeter City 39 (5)
2003–2005 Cambridge United 59 (2)
2004 → York City (loan) 9 (0)
2005–2006 Chester City 21 (0)
2006–2008 Ilkeston Town 34 (1)
2008 FC Halifax Town 8 (0)
Total 378 (14)
National team
England Youth
England Schoolboys
Teams managed
2020 Derby County (co-interim manager)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Club career

Early years

As a youngster, Walker represented England at youth and schoolboy level and signed professional forms with Nottingham Forest in September 1992. But he failed to break into the first-team with Forest and joined Scunthorpe United in March 1997. Walker was a regular with United until he moved to Lincoln City in July 2000, playing in the 1998–99 Football League Division Three play-off final win at Wembley Stadium against Leyton Orient. After two years with Lincoln, in which he was named Player of the Season for the 2000–01 season, financial difficulties due to the ITV Digitial collapse meant that Walker was released at the end of his contract.

Exeter City

Walker joined Exeter City in August 2002, but his solitary season with the Grecians ended in relegation from the Football League.

Cambridge United

Walker joined Cambridge United in 2003 and suffered relegation in the 2004–05 season. Walker achieved a possibly unique hat-trick of successive relegations out of the league by playing for York City on loan for two months in the 2003–04 season.

Chester City

Walker joined Chester City ahead of the 2005–06 campaign, where he was to manage just 13 league starts. With six weeks of the season remaining Chester lay bottom of the League Two table and Walker seemed set for yet another relegation experience, but a late run of wins saved City from the drop. However, Walker was released in the summer of 2006 and joined Ilkeston Town.[1]

FC Halifax Town

On 2 August 2008, he linked up with his former Ilkeston manager Nigel Jemson at FC Halifax Town[2] debuting in their inaugural match, a 3–0 home defeat to Bamber Bridge on 16 August 2008.[3] After starting Town's first seven league games, Walker found himself dropped to the substitutes bench and, after one further league appearance from the bench, he was released in November 2008.[4]

Coaching career

On 3 September 2020, after a number of years as part of Derby County's academy staff, Walker was handed the role of Derby first-team development coach in Phillip Cocu's backroom team.[5] In November 2020, he was one of the caretaker management team appointed following the dismissal of Cocu.[6] After Wayne Rooney took sole charge shortly after, Walker returned to his first-team development role.

References
  1. "Ex-Imp Walker Joins Ilkeston". The Forgotten Imp. 31 July 2006. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 2 January 2008.
  2. "Midfielder signs for Vince". FC Halifax Town. 2 August 2008. Retrieved 12 August 2008.
  3. "Walker Offers No Excuses". FC Halifax Town. 16 August 2008. Archived from the original on 9 January 2009. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
  4. "Midfielder Released From Town". FC Halifax Town. 21 November 2008. Archived from the original on 5 October 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2009.
  5. Powell, Dave (3 September 2020). "Former Chester midfielder Justin Walker gets key role under Philip Cocu at Derby County". CheshireLive. Reach plc. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  6. "Walker appointed to Derby caretaker management team". BBC Sport. 14 November 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
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