He also played in the Football League for Wigan Athletic and Birmingham City before finishing his career with non-league Halifax Town.
Since retirement he has worked as assistant manager of Halifax Town before returning to Wigan Athletic as a youth team coach.
Most famous for captaining Sheffield Wednesday, Atherton started his career at hometown club Wigan Athletic as a trainee and spent three years there before attracting the attention of Coventry City.
Atherton scored his first Premier League goal on the 27th November 1994 – a "freakishly spectacular 40-yard" volley for Wednesday in the televised 1-1 draw at Aston Villa.
[4] After being released by Bradford on a free transfer he finished his career at Halifax Town, where injury forced him to retire from professional football after playing only 14 games for the club, but came out of retirement because of Halifax's injury crisis and was named as a substitute for their home game against Grays Athletic on 16 October 2007.