John Eustace

John Eustace

Personal information
Full name	John Mark Eustace
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Watford
Number	4
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–2003	Coventry City	85	(7)
1998–1999	→ Dundee United (loan)	11	(1)
2003	→ Middlesbrough (loan)	1	(0)
2003–2008	Stoke City	74	(5)
2006	→ Hereford United (loan)	8	(0)
2008–	Watford	79	(9)
2009	→ Derby County (loan)	9	(1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16:09, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

John Mark Eustace (born 3 November 1979 in Solihull) is an English football player, currently playing for Watford, as a central midfielder.

Club career

Coventry City

Eustace .began his career as a trainee at Coventry City. Despite the fact that he was at the club for seven years, he only recorded 98 appearances in all competitions due to injuries. At 19 he went out on loan to Dundee United to gain first team experience. He played eleven matches and scored one goal against Hearts, becoming a firm favourite with United fans who voted him their young player of the year.

He returned to Coventry where he began to establish himself in the first team. In the 2000–01 season, he appeared in 32 league games. Despite his efforts, the club were relegated from the Premier League. At the start of the next season, he was named as captain by manager Gordon Strachan. However on 8 September 2001, Eustace was struck down with a knee injury during Coventry's league defeat to Grimsby which kept him sidelined for 7 months. He returned to action in April 2002. Eustace started the 2002–03 season well and attracted interest from Premier League club Middlesbrough, to whom he was loaned out. He only made one substitute appearance, away to Liverpool, where he appeared for only the final two minutes of the game, but earned himself a yellow card. Eustace made 33 league appearances over the season, his last with Coventry. At the start of the 2003-04 season, Eustace left Coventry for Stoke City.

Stoke City

Eustace's Stoke career started brightly. He made his debut at Stoke in a 3–0 win over Derby County at the start of the 2003–04 season and the midfielder helped the side to 11th place in the Championship, scoring five goals. Unfortunately, injury problems restricted him to a handful of appearances over the next two seasons - in The Potters 1–0 win over Wigan Athletic in February 2005, Eustace suffered a knee injury and was then substituted, in only his 8th appearance of the season. It later became clear that Eustace's injury would keep him out for at least the rest of the season. He missed the rest of the 2004-05 season and all of the 2005-06 season because of the injury. However, Eustace signed a 1 year contract extension at the beginning of the season, which lasted until the end of the 2006–07 season.

Eustace returned from his long injury lay off in June 2006. He made his first appearance for Stoke City in over 18 months in their 2-0 friendly win over local opposition Newcastle Town. On 13 October 2006, Eustace joined Hereford United on loan to gain first team football to aid his comeback. During his time at Edgar Street he was a key part of the Hereford midfield, and his loan was extended to the New Year. However on 14 December 2006 he was suddenly recalled by Stoke due to them suffering several injuries in midfield. John's grandfather Ken Eustace also played one match for Hereford during the 1949-50 season.

Eustace returned to the Stoke starting line up in the 3rd round FA Cup match against Millwall. On 11 February 2007, he started his first league match of the season in Stoke's 1–0 loss to Birmingham City. In total, Eustace made 23 league appearances over the course of the season for Stoke and Hereford. Eustace later signed a one-year contract extension with the club, to take him up until the summer of 2008. He was a regular for Stoke during the first half of the 2007-08 season and captained the team up until his move to Watford on the last day of the transfer window.

Watford

On 31 January 2008, Eustace joined Watford from Stoke City for a fee of £250,000. Since signing, Eustace has impressed the Hornets fans with his tough tackling, no-nonsense attitude, and his passing skills and composure on the ball - something Watford had lacked in the centre of midfield before his arrival. On 20 September 2008, Eustace "scored" a bizarre opening own goal in the game between Watford and Reading, where a goalmouth scramble saw the ball go nowhere near the goal line, despite the linesman flagging for a goal to the bemusement of everyone in the ground. A corner from Stephen Hunt bounced off of Eustace and was hooked back by Noel Hunt. What could have been a debatable corner for Reading, initially given as a goal kick, was actually then given as a goal. The game ended Watford 2-2 Reading. Despite playing well, Eustace found his opportunities limited during his second season with the Hornets.

On 9 March 2009 he joined Championship rivals Derby County on loan until the end of the 2008/09 season, in order to help solve the Rams' midfield injury crisis. He made his Derby debut in the 1-1 draw away to Southampton, and scored against his parent club on the final day of the season. However, Eustace failed to secure a permanent move to Derby at the end of his loan spell with the club and returned to Watford at the beginning of May.[1] However, Derby manager Nigel Clough said "He's got a year left at Watford. If he's still in the same situation at the start of next season, needing a loan, then we might look at that."

With his Hornet's career seemingly in jeopardy, Eustace signed an amended contract stipulating that he would not receive his sizeable appearance fee, freeing up Malky Mackay to pick the tenacious midfielder. After being handed the number 28 jersey for the season, Eustace went on to play an instrumental role as Watford retained their Coca Cola Championship status for another season. Eustace was also handed the captaincy on a number of occasions with first-choice skipper Jay DeMerit sidelined through injury. Eustace made over forty appearances in both league and cup competitions and was the 'Player's Player of the Season' as voted by his peers.

After much speculation throughout the 2009/2010 off-season, Eustace finally put pen-to-paper on a new contract with Watford after undergoing a medical at Leeds United FC, however a sudden change of heart from Eustace saw him sign a 2-year contract at Vicarage Road. Former Premier League side Burnley FC were also believed to be chasing Eustace's signature before he became a free agent.

Ahead of the 2010/2011 Npower Championship season, Watford boss Malky Mackay handed Eustace the club's number four jersey as well as the captaincy with USA international DeMerit released on a bosman transfer. recently he has scored one of his best goals against Coventry from a corner, he finished the goal with class from an over-head kick on the edge of the box

External links

• John Eustace profile at watfordfc.co.uk
• John Eustace at Soccerbase