| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Neil Aspin[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 12 April 1965[1] | ||
| Place of birth | Gateshead, England[2] | ||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[3] | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1979–1982 | Leeds United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1982–1989 | Leeds United | 207 | (5) |
| 1989–1999 | Port Vale | 348 | (3) |
| 1999–2001 | Darlington | 50 | (0) |
| 2001 | Hartlepool United | 10 | (0) |
| 2001–2004 | Harrogate Town | ||
| 2009–2014 | FC Halifax Town | 0 | (0) |
| Total | 615 | (8) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2005–2009 | Harrogate Town | ||
| 2009–2015 | FC Halifax Town | ||
| 2015–2017 | Gateshead | ||
| 2017–2019 | Port Vale | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Neil Aspin (born 12 April 1965) is an English football manager and former player.
A defender who could play at centre-back and right-back, he was a marker and an tackler. He made his debut in the English Football League for Leeds United at the age of 16 in February 1982, which would be his only appearance in the First Division (first tier). He spent seven seasons in the Second Division (second tier) with the club, making 244 league and cup appearances and being named the club's Player of the Year for the 1984–85 season. He was sold to Port Vale for a £150,000 fee in July 1989 and would go on to make 410 appearances in all competitions during a ten-season stay at Vale Park. He was named the club's Player of the Year in the 1989–90 season and helped the "Valiants" to win the Football League Trophy in 1993. The following season, 1993–94, he was named on the PFA Team of the Year as he helped Vale to win promotion out of the Second Division (third tier), and he again won the Port Vale Player of the Year award. He also played in the 1996 Anglo-Italian Cup final defeat to Genoa. He spent July 1999 to January 2001 with Third Division (fourth tier) side Darlington. Then he spent the second half of the 2000–01 season at Hartlepool United. He played in play-off final defeats with Leeds, Port Vale and Darlington.
He played non-League football at Harrogate Town until retiring as a player in 2004, and then managed the club from January 2005 to April 2009. He was appointed as manager of FC Halifax Town in April 2009. He managed Halifax to three successive promotions in his first four seasons at the club, taking them from the second tier of the Northern Premier League to the Conference Premier by winning the Northern Premier League Division One North and Premier Division titles in 2009–10 and 2010–11 and then the Conference North play-offs in 2013; he also won the Peter Swales Shield in 2011 and the West Riding County Cup in 2013, as well as numerous Manager of the Month awards. However, he was sacked in September 2015 after a series of poor results, and two months later took charge at Gateshead. He spent two years at Gateshead before he was installed as Port Vale manager in October 2017. He steered the club away from relegation at the end of the 2017–18 season before tendering his resignation in January 2019.