Stephen Robinson (born 10 December 1974) is a former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and coach who is manager of St Mirren. During his career he played for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Robinson has managed

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

and St Mirren.

Early and personal life

Robinson was born in

Lisburn Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with ...

, Northern Ireland. His son

Harry Harry may refer to: TV shows * ''Harry'' (American TV series), a 1987 American comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), a 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (talk show), a 2016 American daytime talk show ...

is also a footballer. On 28 February 2020, Robinson was acquitted at

Edinburgh Sheriff Court Edinburgh Sheriff Court is a sheriff court in Chambers Street in Edinburgh, within the sheriffdom of Edinburgh and Borders. History The new court was commissioned by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to replace the Old Sheriff Court i ...

of assaulting his partner Robyn Lauchlan on

Waverley Bridge Waverley Bridge is a road bridge in Edinburgh linking Market Street in the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town with Princes Street in the New Town, Edinburgh, New Town. The bridge forms part of the roof of Edinburgh Waverley railway station, Edinburgh ...

in Edinburgh on 13 December 2019. Lauchlan wrote several letters to the procurator fiscal asking for the charges to be dropped, stating "In no shape or form have I ever been a victim of domestic abuse. At no stage did Stephen push, shove or frighten me. He did not do the things he was accused of."

Club career

Robinson began his career with the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

as a trainee, signing a professional contract in January 1994. He joined

due to the lack of

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

opportunities at Tottenham. After a highly successful time at Bournemouth, Robinson joined

in 2000. After failing to force himself into Preston's starting XI, he joined

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

until the end of the 2001–02 season. After this he joined

for a fee of £50,000 in 2002. He was forced to play on the right-wing by then

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (born 27 December 1946) is an Irish former football manager and player. Kinnear played as a defender, spending the majority of his career—ten seasons—with Tottenham Hotspur. With Tottenham he won the FA Cup, the EFL ...

, despite his position being an attacking centre-midfielder in his Bournemouth days. New manager Mike Newell soon reverted Robinson to his favoured central-midfield role, and he was rewarded with a

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

championship in 2005, and a tenth-place finish in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

in 2006. During the 2006–07 season, Robinson captained the side in

Chris Coyne Christopher John Coyne (born 20 December 1978) is an Australian former soccer player and coach who is currently head of Perth Glory Youth NPL in National Premier Leagues Western Australia (NPLWA). In a 17-year career as a player, Coyne appeared ...

's absence and was handed a new two-year contract by Hatters boss Mike Newell. On 26 July 2008 Robinson agreed to a mutual termination of his contract at Luton.

International career

Robinson was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

internationally by

on seven occasions from 1997 to 2007. He also played for the under-16 (one cap), under-18 (two caps, one goal), under-21 (one cap) and B (four caps, one goal) teams.

Coaching career

Motherwell assistant

Robinson joined

in February 2015, to assist manager

Ian Baraclough Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the Northern Ireland national team. He previously managed the Under-21 team. As a player, he was a defender fr ...

. He also assisted the Northern Ireland national team, working with Michael O'Neill, that qualified for

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe o ...

. Robinson was previously manager of the under-age Northern Ireland squads, working for the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became the Northern Ireland national football team. ...

Oldham Athletic

Robinson was appointed manager of

in July 2016. He was replaced as manager by John Sheridan on 12 January 2017.

Motherwell

Robinson returned to Motherwell in February 2017, this time to assist Mark McGhee as first team coach. Less than two weeks later, Robinson took over as interim manager following McGhee's departure from the club. He was subsequently appointed as manager on a permanent basis in March 2017. On 13 October 2017, Manager Robinson extended his contract with Motherwell until May 2020. On 22 October 2017, Robinson guided Motherwell to the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

final after defeating

Pedro Caixinha Pedro Miguel Faria Caixinha (; born 15 November 1970) is a Portuguese professional football manager, currently in charge of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Red Bull Bragantino. He started coaching in his late twenties, acting an assistant w ...

's Rangers 2–0 at Hampden. The game saw both managers sent to the stands for their behaviour on the touchline. They were defeated in

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

2–0 by

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. In April 2018, Motherwell won in the

2017–18 Scottish Cup The 2017–18 Scottish Cup was the 133rd season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The tournament was sponsored by bookmaker William Hill in what was the seventh season of a nine-year partnership, after contract negoti ...

semi-finals, overcoming

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

3–0, to set up another final with Celtic the following month; this was the first time the club had appeared in both domestic finals since the 1950–51 season. On 27 September 2019, Robinson said clubs had a duty of care in relation to players' mental well-being if they were injured. On 31 December 2020, Robinson resigned as Motherwell manager, after over three years in charge of the Lanarkshire side.

Morecambe

On 7 June 2021, Robinson was named as manager of newly promoted

side

on a three-year deal.

St Mirren

Robinson returned to Scottish football in February 2022, becoming manager of St Mirren.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial record

Honours

As a player

;AFC Bournemouth *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

runner-up: 1997–98 ;Luton Town *

: 2004–05 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 1998–99 Second Division

As a manager

;Motherwell * Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month: February 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Stephen 1974 births Living people Sportspeople from Lisburn Association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland B international footballers Northern Ireland international footballers Association football midfielders Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Preston North End F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Motherwell F.C. managers Motherwell F.C. non-playing staff Oldham Athletic A.F.C. managers Morecambe F.C. managers St Mirren F.C. managers English Football League managers Football managers from Northern Ireland Scottish Professional Football League managers