He helped Bishop Auckland win two Northern League titles and to reach the 1911 Amateur Cup Final, and also played non-league football for Stockton.

in 1912, Healey was the club's top scorer as they won the 1912–13 North-Eastern League title, and was a member of the Amateur XI that opposed a team of professionals in the 1913 FA Charity Shield.

[6] Albert taught at the Bluecoat School in Stockton before moving to Darlington where he opened a hardware shop, and later worked for the National Telephone Company; he died in February 1899.

[5] Elizabeth remarried; at the time of the 1911 Census, Healey and his sister Winifred were assisting in their stepfather's business as licensee of the Three Tuns Hotel in Bishop Auckland.

[7][8] Healey attended Darlington Grammar School, where he captained both the cricket and the football teams, and went on to Armstrong College, Newcastle, to train as a teacher.

In February 1910, he was selected for an amateur international trial,[14] and in March, he appeared for Sunderland's North-Eastern League team, creating two goals and scoring the last in a 6–0 defeat of Darlington.

"[16] He kept his place for the last home match of the season, against Bradford City, "proved a keen worker", according to the Echo correspondent, and scored the first two goals in a 3–0 win.

[20] For family reasons, Healey began the 1910–11 season with Stockton,[21] but soon returned to Bishop Auckland, whom he helped reach the 1911 FA Amateur Cup final.

He was described as "[possessing] fine physique, and is a remarkably clever dribbler and good shot" – he had already reached the 20-goal mark for Darlington[30] – and it was expected that "professional training will increase his pace".

[31] He made his first-team debut on 4 April at home to Preston North End, scored Middlesbrough's third goal 15 minutes into the second half as they won 4–1,[32] and "proved himself well up to the first grade of Association Football".

[34] He made three more Football League appearances, and scored one more goal,[1] a second-half header against Bradford in November 1914 in what was Middlesbrough's first home defeat of the season.

Healey scored twice against Bishop Auckland in the fifth qualifying round,[39] and repeated the feat in the sixth, as well as creating two for Aaron Travis, as Darlington beat Southern League club Norwich City 5–0.

The match ended goalless; Healey was unusually indecisive in front of goal, and was standing in an offside position when Travis did put the ball in the net.

[42] Although reported doubtful for the replay,[43] he did appear, pressuring goalkeeper Arnold Birch into conceding a corner from which Darlington took the lead – the goal variously attributed to George Stevens or to Healey himself.

[14] His first international selection came in the form of a last-minute call-up when Frank Monk and Vivian Woodward dropped out of the England Amateur XI's visit to mainland Europe in March 1911.

[67] In 1913, Healey was appointed captain of Darlington CC, a position he held until the end of the 1930 season, when he resigned after leading the club to a seventh North Yorkshire and South Durham League title under his captaincy.