Lee Hughes name receives mixed reactions while speaking of football. His illustrious career continues to be followed closely by sky sports news who were following his career from his days as a semi professional in England C National Football team to his latest position being a striker of Notts County. Lee Hughes began realizing his dream when he became a part of the West Bromwich Albion to get a record fee of 200,000, the biggest ever paid to a non-league player. His career continued its upward stream until the car accident that he was involved in and held accountable during the 2003-2004 season.
It can be said that it was this crash that changed Hughes life. A passenger, Douglas Graham, inside the Renault that his Mercedes hit, died from the crash and the driver of the Renault was seriously injured. Since Hughes had been drinking that night, he fled from the accident scene to avoid the breath analyzer test. Though he turned himself to the police the next day and was charged with causing death by drunken driving, he was released on bail which allowed him to finish Albions First Division campaign and subsequently be a part of the Premier League. He went on to becoming the clubs leading goal scorer with 13 goals.
The verdict of the crash was delivered in August 2004 where Hughes was found guilty of the death of Douglas Graham a result of drunken driving as well as fleeing from the crime scene and was sentenced to 6 years of imprisonment and was also banned from driving for 10 years.
It seemed like the beginning of his downslide when his contract with West Bromwich Albion was terminated and his appeal to get a reduced sentence refused. While in prison he found salvation in Islam, the faith that he changed into. Alongside, he also played for the Staffordshire County Senior League as part of the prison football team, Featherstone F.C.
Days before his release news surfaced of Hughes signing a contract with Oldham Athletic. He did sign a two year contract upon his release in August 2007 along with them at 1,800 every week, the total amount being one tenth of what he earned during his stint with Wes Bromwich Albion. However, by the point the season ended, Hughes has reclaimed his position as being the highest goal scorer for the club, scoring 8 goals.
It has been on the upswing for Hughes since that time. He joined the Championship Club Blackpool on loan making his first goal against Charlton Athletic. He was then signed a two year agreement for League Two team for Notts County and scored a hat-trick in the victory over Bradford City with 5-0.
Though Hughes finds himself climbing to an advaced status of success, he’s still haunted by the demons in the past. He still seeks to redeem himself by doing community and charity work with anticipation that his work in some way can help prevent another tragedy from happening.
Sky Sports news has the detailed and updated records of all of Lee Hughes games, scores and transfer history