Steven Gillespie
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Steven Gillespie | ||
| Date of birth | 4 June 1985 | ||
| Place of birth | Liverpool, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Colchester United | ||
| Number | 9 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Liverpool | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2003–2004 | Liverpool | 0 | (0) |
| 2004–2006 | Bristol City | 12 | (1) |
| 2005 | → Cheltenham Town (loan) | 12 | (5) |
| 2005–2006 | → Cheltenham Town (loan) | 9 | (3) |
| 2006–2008 | Cheltenham Town | 67 | (21) |
| 2008– | Colchester United | 86 | (23) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:30, 6 March 2012 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). |
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Steven Gillespie (born 4 June 1985 in Liverpool) is an English professional footballer currently playing for Colchester United.
Contents |
[edit] Career
[edit] Early career
Gillespie, who plays as a striker, began his career as a trainee for Liverpool.
Gillespie began his career with Liverpool having carved out a name for himself as a goalscorer in schoolboy football. He broke Robbie Fowler's goal-scoring record for Liverpool Schools; he later had his record broken by Wayne Rooney.
[edit] Bristol City
In 2004, having had few opportunities at Liverpool, he was released and was quickly signed by Bristol City, then of League One, who are now in the Championship.
[edit] Cheltenham Town
He continued to find himself without many chances and later in 2004 was sent on-loan to Cheltenham Town of League Two, where he scored four goals in five appearances. Gillespie once again joined Cheltenham on loan at the end of the 2004–05 season, and again in the first half of the 2005-2006 season, scoring a further five goals.
[edit] Cheltenham Town
He signed a permanent two-and-a-half year contract in January 2006, for an undisclosed fee.
Despite signing a new contract in August 2007, Gillespie handed in a transfer request in the summer of 2008 after having an impressive season with Cheltenham as they finished in mid-table in League One.[1] Less than a week after handing in the request, Gillespie was sold to fellow League One club Colchester United for a fee of £400,000.[2]
[edit] Colchester United
On 7 July 2008, Gillespie signed for Colchester following a successful season with Cheltenham in which he scored 16 goals. It was a club record signing, as the U's looked to bounce back to the Championship.
Unfortunately for both Gillespie and Colchester, however, his time with the club was dogged by injuries from shortly after his arrival, despite having made a promising start with three goals from his first three outings.[3]
His first season in Essex continued to be stop-start and, although when he managed to play he continued to show his natural, goalscoring instinct and displayed this in scoring five goals in his little time spent on the pitch, he struggled to rack up game time and barely managed a ninety minute performance. This was compounded when, in the 5-0 home win over Carlisle he managed just sixteen minutes in his return from injury before having to go off injured once more.[4]
The season was a huge shame for Gillespie who would have wished to make a much more impressive impact on his arrival as the club's record signing. Under Aidy Boothroyd in the 2009/10 season he struggled to break in to the team despite seemingly having gotten over the worst of his injury troubles and it was not until the final season of his contract that Gillespie's ability finally came to the fore.
With John Ward now the U's manager, his former Cheltenham Town boss eased him back in to the U's team after the Christmas period and Gillespie flourished, bagging nine goals in ten starts as well as having a legitimate goal chalked out in a 0-1 defeat at Charlton.[5]
Gillespie committed his future to Colchester for another two years on 17 May 2011 and was given the number nine shirt for the 2011–12 season.[6]
[edit] Career statistics
[edit] Club
| Club | Season | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Other[8] | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Liverpool | 2003–04 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Bristol City | 2004–05 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 2 | 0 | 12 | 0 | |
| Cheltenham Town (loan) | 2004–05 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 12 | 5 | |
| Bristol City | 2005–06 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | |
| Cheltenham Town (loan) | 2005–06 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 3 | 2 | 12 | 5 | |
| Total | 12 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 2 | 0 | 17 | 1 | ||
| Cheltenham Town | 2005–06 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | |
| 2006–07 | 23 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 24 | 5 | ||
| 2007–08 | 37 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 | 0 | 40 | 16 | ||
| Total | 67 | 21 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | – | 1 | 0 | 71 | 23 | ||
| Colchester United | 2008–09 | 17 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | 2 | 0 | 20 | 5 | |
| 2009–10 | 30 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | – | 0 | 0 | 33 | 2 | ||
| 2010–11 | 18 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | 1 | 0 | 19 | 9 | ||
| 2011–12 | 21 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | 0 | 24 | 10 | ||
| Total | 86 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | – | 4 | 0 | 96 | 26 | ||
| Career total | 186 | 53 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 208 | 60 | |
[edit] References
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/cheltenham_town/7487059.stm Gillespie demands Cheltenham exit, BBC Sport, July 3, 2008
- ^ http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1841_3790271,00.html Colchester seal Gillespie deal, TEAMtalk, July 7, 2008
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/colchester_united/7587915.stm Gillespie frustrated by injuries, BBC Sport, August 29, 2008
- ^ http://www.cu-fc.com/page/MatchReport/0,,10424~44417,00.html Colchester 5-0 Carlisle, Colchester United, October 25, 2008
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/colchester_united/9385022.stm Charlton-Colchester goal mix-up will be investigated, BBC Sport, February 2, 2011
- ^ http://www.cu-fc.com/page/News/0,,10424~2361755,00.html? Steven Gillespie, Col U's Number Nine, Colchester United, May 17, 2011
- ^ "Steven Gillespie Career Stats". Soccerbase. 15 September 2011. http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=38527. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
- ^ Includes other competitive competitions, including the Football League Trophy and Football League play-offs
[edit] External links
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