Justin Walker (footballer)

Justin Walker (born 6 September 1975, Nottingham) is a former professional footballer who has made more than 300 Football League appearances for six different clubs from 1997 to 2006 as a midfielder. He is now playing non-league football for F.C. Halifax Town.

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, Walker joined Exeter City in August 2002, but his solitary season with the Grecians ended in relegation from the Football League. The same fate would befall his next club, Cambridge United in 2004–05. 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 2003–04 season.

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. On 2 August 2008 he linked up with his former Ilkeston manager Nigel Jemson at F.C. Halifax Town debuting in their inaugural match, a 3-0 home defeat to Bamber Bridge on 16 August 2008. 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.