Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
) is a Scottish retired
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...
who played as a left-sided
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
.
Playing career
Fulton joined
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 ...
from their Boys Club in 1987 and made his league debut during the 1988–89 season. After his impressive display in a
Scottish Cup
The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Hibernian that year he was likened by his manager
Billy McNeill
William McNeill (2 March 1940 – 22 April 2019) was a Scottish football player and manager. He had a long association with Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, manager and club ambassador. McNeill captained Celtic's 'Lisbon Lio ...
to Italian forward
Roberto Baggio
Roberto Baggio (; born 18 February 1967) is an Italian former professional footballer who mainly played as a second striker, or as an attacking midfielder, although he was capable of playing in several offensive positions. He is the former pre ...
, and the ''Baggio'' moniker stuck with him throughout his career."Fulton moved to Kilmarnock" ''BBC Sport'', 27 June 2002. He had become a first-team regular by 1990 and helped the side to the 1990–91
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
final, where they suffered a 2–1 defeat to
Old Firm
The Old Firm is the collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are by far the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply em ...
rivals
Rangers
A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...
.
Fulton left Celtic Park in August 1993,
Bolton Wanderers
Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
paying £225,000 for his signature. However, he fell from favour within months of his move to
Burnden Park
Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers who played home games there between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting the 1901 FA Cup Final replay, it was the scene in 1946 of one of the greatest disasters in English footba ...
Peterborough United
Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...
before returning to Scotland at its conclusion, in a £100,000 move to
Falkirk
Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a ...
. The ''Bairns'' enjoyed a profitable first season back in the Premier Division, challenging for European qualification and eventually finishing fifth, only six points behind 2nd place
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 ...
. Fulton re-established himself as a first-team player, playing 33 times during the campaign.
In July 1995, Jim Jefferies resigned as Falkirk manager to take-over at Heart of Midlothian and Fulton was one of the first players he signed for the
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
club. The side had been near the bottom of the table at the time Fulton signed but recovered to finish 4th and reach the Scottish Cup Final, where Rangers proved too strong for them. He helped Hearts to the
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
Celtic Park
Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is also ...
showpiece. Rangers were again the opposition and once again they had the measure of Hearts, two individual goals from
Paul Gascoigne
Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is described by the National Football Museum as "widely recognised as the most naturally talente ...
turning the match in the
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
side's favour.
In 1997–98, Hearts mounted an unexpected challenge for the league title, with Fulton in the vanguard. He was the only Hearts player to start every league game and his six goals from midfield led the side to an eventual third-place finish. They also reached the Scottish Cup Final for the second time in three years and ended a 36-year wait for silverware by defeating Rangers 2–1."Hearts grab glory after 36 years" ''BBC Sport'', 17 May 1998. Due to an injury to regular skipper
Gary Locke
Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Locke serv ...
, Fulton was appointed
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
for the occasion and he set his side on the way to victory after he was brought down in the box to win a first minute
penalty kick
A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...
from which they took the lead.
Fulton earned his debut selection to the Scotland national team in September 1998, for a
World Cup qualification
The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup.
Qualifying tournaments are hel ...
match against
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
.Lithuania v Scotland 1998 , Almis Lithuanian Soccer: History & Statistics. Accessed 5 July 2007. His Hearts team-mate
Neil McCann
Neil Doherty McCann (born 11 August 1974) is a Scottish football manager, pundit and former professional player who played as a left winger. His most recent role in football was a stint as the caretaker manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
...
made his debut in that game but Fulton remained on the bench.
Jim Jefferies was by this stage
Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
manager and he again moved to sign Fulton, offering him a two-year contract with the
Ayrshire
Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...
club. He finished his career with a season with
Partick Thistle
Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...
.
Personal life
His sons
Jay
A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family (biology), family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For examp ...
, Dale and Tyler are also professional footballers. Jay plying his trade now at Swansea City having all played together at Fulton's former club Falkirk respectively. Jay was born in
Bolton
Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...
during his father's short spell in England with Bolton Wanderers during the 1993–94 season.