It's Rush hour as Nick clocks on

Experienced former Wrexham marksman Nick Rushton has joined the Runcorn Linnets recruitment drive from Vauxhall Motors.

Nick is the third player to move eastbound along the M56 from Ellesmere Port, following Runcorn's capture of goalkeeper Calvin Hare and striker Conor Harwood.

Linnets' latest acquisition topped the  scoring charts with the Motormen in each of the last two seasons.

Vauxhall have cut their playing budget for the forthcoming campaign to safeguard long-term sustainability.

They have, meanwhile, installed one-time Runcorn Town boss Chris Herbert as manager in succession to Danny Holmes.

Nick adnits it helped that two fornmer Vauxhall team-mates had already made the summer switch to APEC Taxis Stadium.

He added: "It wasn't an easy decision to leave Vauxhall at the time because we were starting to progress.

"But obviously things change in football quite quicly and it felt right for me to move on and find a new challenge.

"After speaking to Ello, it was clear that this suited me and hopefully gets the best out of me."

The player becomes the ninth newcomer in Runcorn's squad.

He netted 19 times for Vauxhall in 2024-25, when they reached the NPL West Play-offs, and last season notched another 18 goals n league matches alone.

The now 34-year-old first made his name as a centre forward at Wrexham but says he is happiest in the 10 position.

He explained: "If  you've got a big striker like Con (Conor Harwood) and Lew (Lewis Buckley), who have signed this year, that's perfect for me to run off them and play off them.

"So hopefully, I can find the pockets and get some chances."

Nick enjoyed 100 Wrexham appearances at youth and reserves level with 38 goals and 24 first-team outings with five goals between 2012 and 2015.

These included a dozen starts for the then Conference Premier club, where he spent eight years.

While at The Racecourse Ground, Nick had loan spells in 2011-12 at Newtown and Airbus UK Broughton (both in the Welsh Premier League) and then in National League North at Barrow (2013-14) and Hednesford Town (2014-15).

He scored 15 goals in 51 outings at Step 2.

On leaving the Red Dragons, Nick played a season and a half at Connah's Quay and had a lengthy spell at Newtown (2017-2023) before moving to Colwyn Bay and then back to Airbus.

He has played 296 matches in the Cymru Premier League alone, scoring 86 goals.

Nick's full career aggregate by the time he joined Vauxhall two seasons ago was 421 games and 121goals.

On what Linnets fans can expect from him, he said: "From me, goals first and foremost and I like to get plenty of assists to help the team.

"I work from beginning to end so hopefully more goals and plenty of assists. It's a new challenge for me so yeah, I am excited."