 In his first season for Preston, Hawley made total of 38 appearance(31 in League, 6 in FA Cup, 1 in League Cup and 1 in Football League Trophy) and scoring 4 (3 in league and 1 in FA Cup).Under manager of Cotterill, Short, Paul Ince and Martin Allen, Hawley fell out with favour due to that he has struggled to make an impact for Notts County and his poor performance struck again.In May 2012 he was released by Notts County, along with 12 other players.