Nicky Howell is a Second Year Academy Scholar at Carrow Road. Although he is regarded as a right winger, Nicky is often called upon to do a job down either flank. Being only slight in stature, the Academy coaching staff at Colney were of the belief that Nicky would need to be nurtured in his first as a trainee, indeed it was felt that we might not see the best of him until he was into his third and final year as a scholar. Nobody bothered to tell Nicky this however, and in just half a season he has become a key player in Adrian Boothroyd's squad.

He has scored some vital goals, including the memorable winning goal against Aston Villa in the F.A.Youth Cup in front of 1500 Canary supporters at Carrow Road. Added to that he has been involved with Keith Webb's reserve team. In the summer of 2003, Academy Director Sammy Morgan said "He's a lad with bags of potential.. he's can play, he's got pace, he's got tricks"

On January 26th 2005, Norwich announced that they would not be offering professional contracts to third year scholars .Adam Smith, Lee Blackburn, Olly Willis and Nicky Howell. "We've worked with the boys and when it comes to the crunch, a decision has to be made," said Nigel Worthington. "Unfortunately, from their point of view, the boys will not be taken on. We will do everything we can to help them move forward, whether that be in football or another field". Ricky Martin added the timing of the decision was made to give the players the chance to make other plans. "We've looked to make this decision at this time to enable the players to finish off the educational element of their scholarship and to make a decision as to whether to pursue their career with trials at another football club or to apply to university."

At the end of March 2005, Nicky trialled for Yeovil playing on 23rd March 2005 for their reserves in a 2-0 win over Bournemouth. In July 2005, it was announced, along with Olly Willis, that he was part of this year's intake for Team Bath. However both Olly and Nicky played for Robert Taylor's Dereham Town on the opening day of the Ridgeons League season against Halstead (13th August 2005). Nicky was in the Dereham side that narrowly won the Norfolk Senior Cup final 1-0 against Paul Franklin's Norwich United on 19th April 2006.