Stephen Holbrook (born 16 September 1952) is an English former

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 made 119 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

in the 1970s. He played on the

right wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authori ...

. He went on to play

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

Life and career

Holbrook was born in

Richmond, Yorkshire Richmond is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, and the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. Historically in the North Riding of Yorkshire, it is from the county town of Northallerton and situated on t ...

, where he attended Richmond Secondary Modern School. He 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 ...

several times for England Schoolboys. He scored the winning goal against their Welsh counterparts, and the ''

Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specific ...

'' gave him a glowing report, albeit in a losing cause, against the German Schoolboys at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

in April 1968: He began his football career as an apprentice with

, and made his first-team debut for the club on 7 November 1970, in a 2–0 home defeat to

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 ...

in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. After playing just twice more over the next 18 months, he moved on to

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

club

. Over five seasons with Darlington, he played 131 matches in all competitions and scored 13 goals, all but one in the league. That goal came in the 1975–76 League Cup against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

, newly

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

from the Second Division. Darlington had lost the home leg 2–0, but in the second leg, at Wednesday's Hillsborough ground, Holbrook opened the scoring in the second half, the match ended 2–2, and Darlington won the replay and went on to reach the last 32 of the competition. Speaking 25 years later, he described the goal as "An absolute pearler. I wouldn't care, I was whinging to the referee because someone was pulling me back and he just said 'There's the ball' and I hit it. Afterwards we were running back and the ref asked me if I was satisfied. After winning at Hillsborough, I think I probably was." Holbrook made a transfer request in 1977, left the club and signed with

, playing in the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

. He scored 34 goals from 156 appearances in senior competition for Gateshead over six seasons, in the last of which they won the Northern Premier League title. Holbrook's employment after retiring from football included operating a car hire company in Darlington.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holbrook, Steve 1952 births Living people Sportspeople from Richmond, North Yorkshire English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Hull City A.F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players English Football League players Northern Premier League players