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Aidan Thomas Stone (born 20 July 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for EFL League One club Port Vale.

Aidan Stone

Stone (August 2022)
Personal information
Full name	Aidan Thomas Stone[1]
Date of birth	(1999-07-20) 20 July 1999 (age 23)[2]
Place of birth	Stafford, England[2]
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.86 m)[2]
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team	Port Vale
Number	1
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
201?–2016	Sporting Khalsa
2016–2017	Brocton
2017–2019	Burnley	0	(0)
2018	→ Lancaster City (loan)	0	(0)
2019–2021	Mansfield Town	24	(0)
2019–2020	→ Widnes (loan)	5	(0)
2021–	Port Vale	23	(0)
National team
2017	England Schoolboys U18	2	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 22:00, 12 November 2022 (UTC)

He began his career at Sporting Khalsa and Brocton, before being signed by Burnley, from where he was loaned out to Lancaster City. He joined Mansfield Town in June 2019 and made his English Football League debut in February 2020. He signed with Port Vale in June 2021 and helped the club to win promotion out of League Two via the play-offs in 2022.

Career

Early career

Born in Stafford,[2] Stone attended Kingsmead School and Wolgarston High School.[3] He played as a centre-half in his youth until he put on extra weight at the age of 14 and decided to concentrate on goalkeeping.[4] He played for Sporting Khalsa.[5] Having failed a three-month trial spell at Walsall at the age of 16, he joined Midland League side Brocton in February 2016, winning the club's young player and players’ player of the year awards during the 2016–17 Premier Division relegation campaign.[6][5] He won two caps for the England Schoolboys U18s team in 2017, playing against Northern Ireland and Australia in England's victorious Centenary Shield campaign.[5][3]

Burnley

Stone was signed by Burnley to a one year-contract with the option of a further 12 months in June 2017.[7][5] He signed a new one-year contract in April 2018.[8] He joined Lancaster City in July 2018 in a loan deal to run the first half of the 2018–19 season.[9] He made one FA Trophy appearance at Lancaster.[10] He played for Burnley U23s in the 2019 Lancashire Senior Cup final, which ended in a 2–0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers.[11] He credited Nick Pope, Joe Hart and Tom Heaton for having a positive influence on his career, saying "it’s nice to have them as colleagues but also as friends".[12]

Mansfield Town

Stone signed for Mansfield Town on 24 June 2019 after impressing manager John Dempster on trial, and was expected to provide competition for first-choice goalkeeper Conrad Logan whilst Bobby Olejnik recovered from a knee injury.[13][14] He made his senior debut at Field Mill on 27 August in a Football League Trophy game against Everton U21; the match finished 1–1 with Everton winning the resulting penalty shoot-out 4–1.[15] On 1 December, he joined Northern Premier League Division One North West club Widnes on a one-month loan deal, having been recommended to the club by Mansfield's Head of Recruitment Andy Burgess.[16] He played five games for the "Whites".[17] In January 2020, Mansfield manager Graham Coughlan said he was hoping to give Stone some more first-team experience before the end of the 2019–20 season.[18] He made his English Football League debut on 15 February, in a 1–0 home win over Newport County.[19]

He made 24 appearances in the 2020–21 season and was praised by manager Nigel Clough in April for recovering from a costly error in a 1–1 draw with Newport County to pick up the man of the match award for his performance in a 1–0 win at Stevenage.[20] However the club confirmed in the following month that Stone would not be offered a new contract.[21] Stone described the decision as "a bit of a shock" as "I thought I'd done enough to earn a new contract".[22]

Port Vale

On 25 June 2021, Port Vale announced that they had signed Stone on a one-year deal to start on 1 July, with the option of a further 12 months; manager Darrell Clarke said that "we are pleased to have secured Aidan's future at Vale Park and expect to have a healthy dose of competition now in the goalkeeping positions, following Lucas Covolan's arrival earlier in the week."[23] He was given the chance to secure a starting place after Covolan was sent off on the opening day of the 2021–22 season.[24] Covolan was returned to the starting eleven upon serving his suspension, only to be sent off yet again in January; Stone had to then sit on the bench behind new loan signing Tomáš Holý until giving an impressive performance upon being given his first league start in two months on 12 March.[25] He remained in goal for the rest of the season and saved three penalties in the penalty shoot-out victory over Swindon Town in the play-off semi-final.[26] He started in the play-off final at Wembley Stadium as Vale secured promotion with a 3–0 victory over Mansfield Town; Michael Baggaley of The Sentinel wrote that "[Stone had an] early mix up with Gibbons but retrieved the situation with a save from Murphy... spilled a ball into the area but Hall cleared off the line.... [Stone] has played a huge part in getting Vale this far".[27][28] The club named him as Young Player of the Year and invoked their option to extend his contract by a further 12 months in June 2022.[29][30] The club then gave Stone a new deal to run until 2024.[31]

He lost his first-team spot to loan signing Jack Stevens early in the 2022–23 campaign, with Clarke claiming that further work with coach Carlo Nash would bring out Stone's potential as a "top half of League One goalie".[32]

Style of play

Stone is a very vocal goalkeeper with good distribution skills.[4]

Career statistics

As of match played 12 November 2022

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		EFL Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Burnley	2018–19[33]	Premier League	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lancaster City (loan)	2018–19[10]	NPL Premier Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	1[lower-alpha 1]	0	1	0
Mansfield Town	2019–20[34]	League Two	3	0	0	0	0	0	1[lower-alpha 2]	0	4	0
	2020–21[35]	League Two	21	0	1	0	0	0	2[lower-alpha 2]	0	24	0
	Total		24	0	1	0	0	0	3	0	28	0
Widnes (loan)	2019–20[17]	NPL Division One West	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
Port Vale	2021–22[36]	League Two	18	0	2	0	1	0	7[lower-alpha 3]	0	28	0
	2022–23[37]	League One	5	0	1	0	1	0	3[lower-alpha 2]	0	10	0
	Total		23	0	3	0	2	0	10	0	38	0
Career total			52	0	4	0	2	0	14	0	72	0

Honours

Burnley

• Lancashire Senior Cup runner-up: 2019[11]

Port Vale

• EFL League Two play-offs: 2022[27]

References

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