Nick Platnauer

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Nick Platnauer
Personal information
Full name	Nicholas Robert Platnauer
Date of birth	June 10, 1961 (1961-06-10) (age 48)
Place of birth	Leicester, England
Playing position	Left-back/Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Hinckley United (assistant manager)
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
000–1982 1982–1983 1983–1984 1984–1986 1986 1986–1989 1989–1991 1991 1991–1993 1993 1993–1994 1994–1996 1997–1998	Bedford Town Bristol Rovers Coventry City Birmingham City →Reading (loan) Cardiff City Notts County →Port Vale (loan) Leicester City Scunthorpe United Mansfield Town Lincoln City Hinckley United	00? (?) 024 (7) 046 (6) 028 (2) 007 (0) 115 (6) 057 (1) 014 (0) 035 (0) 014 (2) 025 (0) 027 (0) 051 (2)
Teams managed
2000–2003 2003 2004–2007 2007–	Rothwell Town Kettering Town (caretaker) Bedford Town Hinckley United (assistant)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Nicholas Robert (Nick) Platnauer (born 10 June 1961) is an English former professional footballer. He was a left-back and is currently assistant manager at Conference North side Hinckley United

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Management career 3 Honours 3.1 as a Player 3.2 as a Manager 4 References

[edit] Playing career

Platnauer was born in Leicester but moved to Bedford as a youngster, where began his career with his local side Bedford Town. He joined Bristol Rovers of the Third Division in August 1982. Having impressed in the 1982–83 season, in August 1983 he stepped up to the First Division with Coventry City for a fee of £50,000.

He played around fifty games for the Sky Blues before switching to Birmingham City in December 1984. At the end of the season Birmingham were relegated, they had finished one place and two points away from the safety of 19th place- occupied by Coventry.

Spending the 1984–85 season in the Second Division, he struggled to establish himself at St Andrew's. The club bounced back to the top-flight at the first attempt. Finding the competition for first team places greater in the 1985–86 season, Platnauer joined Reading on loan in January 1986.

He joined Cardiff City in the Fourth Division on a free transfer in September 1986, thereby completing the set of all four levels of the Football League. After making his debut in a 1-1 draw with Halifax Town he was a regular in the 1986–87 season. He also featured heavily in the 1987–88 promotion winning season before helping the Welsh club consolidate their third tier status in 1988–89.

In August 1989 he won a £50,000 move to Neil Warnock's Notts County. He played at Wembley as County won promotion to the Second Division with a 2-0 victory over Tranmere Rovers in the play-offs. Platnauer had now won promotion from three divisions of the Football League.

County would achieve promotion from the play-offs for a second successive season in 1990-91, though Platnauer would play little part in it. He was loaned out to Port Vale in January 1991. He played fifteen games for the Burslem club before returning to Nottinghamshire in April.^[1]

In July of 1991 he joined Second Division Leicester City on a free transfer. He enjoyed regular football in the 1991-92 season, helping the Foxes to an encounter with Blackburn Rovers in the play-off final, though he would finally taste defeat at the national stadium, as Rovers won 1-0.

Leicester would have another crack at the play-off final the following year, though Platnauer would have little contribution to the season having lost his place and moved to Scunthorpe United on a free transfer in March 1993.

His stay with Scunthorpe was a short one, later in the year he signed with basement division newcomers Mansfield Town. His experience was appreciated at Mansfield, though the Stags did not challenge for promotion in the 1993–94 season. He also played once for Kettering Town in 1993 in a cup game against Northampton Town.

In 1994 he joined Lincoln City, as they spent the 1994–95 and 1995–96 seasons milling about in fourth tier mid-table obscurity.

On leaving Lincoln, he became player-coach at Bedworth United, under former Notts County teammate Dean Thomas. He joined the newly amalgamated Hinckley United in 1997. The Knitters were then competing in the Southern Football League Division One Midlands, Platnauer playing over fifty times.

[edit] Management career

Platnauer was appointed as manager of Rothwell Town in 2000 and remained in this post until October 2003.^[2] The following month he became caretaker-manager of Kettering Town,^[3] after the sacking of Dominic Genovese. He remained in charge until December 2003 when Kevin Wilson was installed as manager, Platnauer having ruled himself out of the running.^[4]

He took over as manager of Bedford Town (where Wilson had previously been manager) in January 2004 and in 2006 guided Bedford to promotion from the Southern Football League Premier Division to the Conference South via the play-offs. However, Bedford struggled the following season and Platnauer resigned in January 2007 with the side bottom of the table,^[5] at the season's end the club had failed to improve their position and were relegated.

In October 2007 he linked up with Dean Thomas once again, becoming assistant manager at Hinckley United, where Thomas is the manager.

[edit] Honours

[edit] as a Player

with Birmingham City

• Football League Second Division runner-up: 1984–85

with Cardiff City

• Football League Fourth Division runner-up: 1987–88

with Notts County

• Football League Third Division play-off winner: 1990
• Football League Second Division play-off winner:1991

with Leicester City

• Football League Second Division play-off runner-up: 1992

[edit] as a Manager

with Bedford Town

• Southern Football League Premier Division play-off winner: 2006

[edit] References

v • d • e Kettering Town F.C. – Managers York (1922–24) · Matthews (1924–25) · Collier (1925–30) · Cawthorne (1930) · Dainty (1931–32) · Loasby (1932–35) · Potter (1937–38) · Riches (1938–39) · Molloy (1945–47) · Riches (1948–49) · Calder (1950–56) · Lawton (1956–57) · Mather (1957–58) · Froggatt (1958–61) · Akers (1961–63) · Lawton (1963–64) · White (1964–65) · Swindlin (1965) · Gammon (1965–71) · Atkinson (1971–74) · Vowden (1974–75) · Dougan (1975–77) · Jones (1977–79) · Clarke (1979–82) · Conde (1982–83) · Masson (1983) · Needham (1983–86) · Buckley (1986–88) · Morris (1988–92) · Cusack (1992) · Carr (1992–95) · Johnson (1995–96) · Berry (1996–98) · Morris (1998–2001) · Shutt (2001–03) · Genovese (2003) · Platnauer (2003) · Wilson (2003–05) · Gascoigne (2005) · Wilson (2005–06) · Maison (2006–07) · Westley (2007) · Cooper (2007–)