Nolan Keeley was signed as a midfielder from Scunthorpe at the age of 28 in January 1980 for a fee of £7,000. City were 16th in Division Four at the time. He partnered George Shipley in midfield for the next 14 games scoring 3 goals before getting injured by which time City had risen to 7th place. He returned for the last 3 games of the season, filling in at left back for Phil Neale who had gone off to the cricket.
In the 1980/81 promotion season Keeley played in every league and cup game at left back, with Phil Neale playing in midfield, up to 7th March when he got injured. That was a total of 41 games. Due to his injury he never appeared in the first team again so we'll never know what would happened otherwise. It was two years after his being injured that he was released and went on to spend time with non-league clubs in East Anglia.