Nick Townsend  Nicholas Peter Townsend (born 1 November 1994) is an English footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Newport County. Townsend began his career with Birmingham City, but never appeared for their first team. He spent time on loan with Conference North club Oxford City and Lincoln City of the Conference Premier before joining Championship club Barnsley, initially on loan, in 2015. In 2017, he had a brief loan spell with National League club Solihull Moors before being released by Barnsley at the end of the 2017–18 season. Townsend was born in Solihull, West Midlands, where he attended Alderbrook Secondary School. He and his father had season tickets at Birmingham City, and the seven-year-old Townsend was at the 2002 play-off final at which the club were promoted to the Premier League for the first time. He joined Birmingham City's youth academy as an under-nine, and took up a scholarship in July 2011. He was given a squad number in January 2013 after previous third-choice goalkeeper David Lucas left the club, and, with the sale of first-choice goalkeeper Jack Butland pending, he was an unused substitute as Colin Doyle started the FA Cup third round defeat against Leeds United. Butland signed for Stoke City, but was loaned back until the end of the season, so Townsend returned to third choice. He spent a spell on loan at Oxford City, for whom he went straight into the starting eleven and played nine Conference North matches and two in the Oxfordshire Senior Cup. At the end of the season, Townsend signed a one-year professional contract with Birmingham City, with the option of a further year. A fractured hand kept him out of the 2013–14 pre-season friendlies, but he was given a squad number and a place on the bench for the League Cup second-round match at Yeovil Town in late August after Darren Randolph sustained a broken nose and gashed hand during the previous match. After Lincoln City's regular goalkeeper, Paul Farman, was injured in February 2014, Townsend joined the Conference Premier club on a month's youth loan; he was recommended by fellow Birmingham youngster Charlee Adams who was already on loan there. He went straight into the starting eleven for the home match against Kidderminster Harriers, kept a clean sheet, his performance in his second game, a 1–1 draw with Chester, earned him a spot in "The Non-League Paper"'s Team of the Week, and he kept his place for the remaining 12 matches of the season.