Nikki Bull

DOB: 2nd October 1981

Position: Goalkeeper

Season of first appearance: 2013/14

Season of last appearance: 2016/17

Full Appearances: 92

Substitute: 0

Goals: 1

Clean Sheets: 27

Also played for:

QPR, Hayes, Aldershot, Brentford, Wycombe Wanderers.

Player Profile:

Goalkeeper born in Hastings, East Sussex, who started his career at Queens Park Rangers. While at Loftus Road, Nikki had a brief loan spell at Conference club Hayes in 2001/02. He was released by Rangers in the summer of 2002 and signed for Isthmian League club Aldershot Town.

In his first season at the club, he was named Player of the Year as the Shots romped to the Isthmian Premier title and promotion to the Conference. Nikki scored his solitary goal for the club in the final home match against Hendon on 26.4.03, a second half penalty in a 6-2 win. 

Nikki was first choice keeper as Aldershot sought to establish themselves in the Conference. He was in goal for the Shots as they beat Margate 2-1 at Crabble on 12.8.03. Aldershot reached the play-off final that season, losing to Shrewsbury on penalties at Stoke City. More play-off heartache was experienced in 2004/05 with a shoot-out defeat at Carlisle United in the play-off semi-finals. Nikki again won the Player of the Year trophy in 2005/06.

In Aldershot's Conference title-winning season, 2007/08, Nikki was named Goalkeeper of the Year and Non-League Footballer of the Year. Nikki then played for Aldershot Town in the Football League in 2008/09.

After 267 appearances, he left Aldershot in July 2009 with the intention of pursuing a career outside of football. However, he changed his mind and signed for League One Brentford ahead of 2009/10. But he only played six times for the Bees with future Arsenal goalie Wojciech Szczęsny the most regular choice between the sticks.

The following season, he turned down the offer of a further one-year contract with Brentford and instead agreed a similar deal with League Two Wycombe Wanderers in June 2010.

Nikki played 48 times in both league and cup in 2010/11 and was named both the supporters' and players' player of the year as Wycombe won promotion.

Nikki left Wycombe by mutual consent in November 2012. He had played 114 times for the Chairboys.

After being out of football for over a year, Nikki was reunited with his former boss at Aldershot, Terry Brown, when he signed for Margate in February 2014. His debut was a 2-1 home win over Thamesmead on 18.2.14. From then until the end of the season he only missed one game - at home to Lewes on 12.4.14 when Aaron Kilbourn played. That was because Nikki was serving a suspension for a sending off in a 2-0 defeat at Canvey Island on 29.3.14 when he brought down an opposing player, resulting in a penalty. There was no sub keeper that day and defender Mitchell Nelson replaced him between the posts for the closing minutes of the match. Nikki made a total of 17 appearances in 2013/14.

Of joining Margate, Nikki later said: "When I joined the club back at the start of 2014 it was only meant to be for a few games as a favour to Terry Brown who had just taken over as manager and wanted to get a few results and build some momentum for the following season. I had been out of the game for a year or so after leaving Wycombe Wanderers for personal reasons and was ready to get back in and saw a few games at Margate as being the perfect way to get some sharpness back before getting back into the Football League with another club that summer."

He added: "I had spoken to Terry a few weeks before the play-offs and told him that I would be leaving at the end of the season when my contract finished, I was honest and told him that I had not enjoyed the season, I had struggled going back to part-time football for the first time in ten years and that I did not like the mentality and application of some of the players who had failed to understand that they had joined Margate to win the league and to do that you had to perform week in, week out. For me, too many were happy to just pick up wages and pick and choose when they turned up."

But he was persuaded to stay for 2014/15 because "Terry spoke warmly about the club and his excitement about the journey he was starting at Margate which he felt could reach the Football League given the financial support the club had driving it forward from its new owner Bob Laslett". 

He added: "I was shown plans of the new ground and training facility, and you could not help but be impressed with the vision. That vision convinced me to stay at the club for another season." 

Nikki remained first choice keeper in 2014/15 and was a crucial part of our promotion winning team. One highlight was the injury time equaliser he scored at Tonbridge Angels on Boxing Day. Nikki came up for a corner with Margate 2-1 down and smashed the ball into the net.

Nikki suffered a nasty injury in a match at Peacehaven on 4.4.15. In the first half he dived to stop a shot but hit his head on the base of the post. Yet he played on until half-time when he was replaced by Matt Armstrong-Ford. Margate won the game 2-0. Despite this incident, Nikki played the entirety of a home match against Tonbridge just 48 hours later.

Nikki captained the side for the latter part of the season as Margate were promoted via the play-offs after beating Hendon 1–0. He won the Players' Player of the Season award.

Of that season, Nikki later said: "At Margate, there was an expectation and a demand to get promotion that season due to the finances that were being spent on the pitch and, although we just about achieved our objective, I have to say that it was probably the least enjoyable season I had ever had during my career. I didn’t celebrate the promotion as we had under-performed as a team for most of the season and it was just sheer relief as opposed to ecstasy when that final whistle blew at Hendon in that play-off final."

He added: "Looking back now, that promotion hid a multitude of sins. There were still no improvements to the stadium or training ground and none of the infrastructure at the club had been enhanced at all."

Nikki remained between the posts for the early part of 2015/16 as Margate joined the National League South. He saved a penalty in the 80th minute of the opening game - a 1-1 draw at home to Truro City on 8.8.15. He made 24 consecutive appearances from the start of the season.

Nikki said: "The promotion-winning team, not surprisingly given its results over the course of the season, was ripped apart and rebuilt in anticipation of another promotion at the first time of asking from the National South, however this would be no easy task given the teams in the league and the finances that many of them were backed with who could more than compete with ourselves. Before a ball was kicked in the 2015-16 season, my own thoughts were that, given the players we had signed in the close season, as long as those players gelled quickly, we would be a contender for the play-offs which would have been the minimum requirement from those upstairs at the club who wanted back-to-back promotions.

"We started the season poorly and word had got round the previous season how to beat us and stop us playing, and sides knew that we did not have an effective Plan B - we played a diamond which was very narrow without any natural width and teams just sat back against us and then counter-attacked us and exposed us in wide areas. In so many games we had the majority of possession but ultimately at the end of the day the only statistic that counts in football is how many goals you score compared to your opposition."

Terry Brown was sacked as manager after a 3-0 defeat at St Albans on 5.12.15 and Nikki was appointed manager until the end of the season.

Nikki decided he couldn't be both manager and goalkeeper and signed Chris Lewington as a replacement, who remained ever present until the end of 2015/16.

However, Nikki was required to make two further appearances between the sticks in 2016-17 - during a 2-0 FA Cup win at home to Biggleswade Town on 17.9.16 and the FA Cup replay at home to Harrow Borough on 18.10.16 that we lost 3-1.