Stephen William Henry Lovell (born 6 December 1980) 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 played as a striker. Lovell played the majority of his career in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

, representing Dundee, Aberdeen and Falkirk, but also played in England for

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 ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

and

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

Career

Portsmouth

Lovell started his career in 1998 when he joined

, but then surprisingly signed for

for £250,000 despite only making a few brief appearances. He then went on loan to

(where he scored once against Watford) and

Dundee

Lovell signed for

club

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

in the summer of 2002. He spent three seasons at

Dens Park Dens Park, officially known as Kilmac Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland, which is the home of club Dundee F.C. and has a capacity of . Tannadice Park, the home of rivals Dundee United, is just 200 yards ...

, scoring 35 goals in 98 competitive appearances.

Aberdeen

In the summer of 2005, following Dundee's relegation from the SPL, Lovell signed for

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 ...

. He made his Aberdeen début against

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. ...

on 8 August and scored his first goal against Rangers the following week. Lovell went on to score a further nine times that season. Lovell formed the habit of scoring late goals for Aberdeen, becoming something of a "supersub". These late goals included two in separate matches against

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

, which maintained Aberdeen's unbeaten record against that opponent. Lovell also scored a consolation goal in the second leg of Aberdeen's

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

match against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

in the

Allianz Arena Allianz Arena (; known as Fußball Arena München for UEFA competitions) is a football stadium in Munich, Bavaria, Germany with a 70,000 seating capacity for international matches and 75,000 for domestic matches. Widely known for its exterior ...

. In April 2008, he was told by

Jimmy Calderwood James Calderwood (born 28 February 1955) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Calderwood played for Birmingham City and Dutch clubs Sparta Rotterdam, Willem II Tilburg, Roda JC and Heracles Almelo. After retiring as a player, Calder ...

that he would not be offered a new contract by Aberdeen and would be free to leave in the summer. It was reported on 18 July that Hibernian,

and

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 ...

were all interested in signing him.

Falkirk

In August 2008, Lovell signed for Falkirk on a one-year deal with the option of a further one. He scored his first goal in a

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 ...

match against Queen of the South and netted his first league goal against

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

the following Saturday. Despite a disappointing season for Falkirk in the league, Lovell ended up with a Scottish Cup runners-up medal, after playing the full match 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 ...

against Rangers. In May 2009, it was reported that Lovell had undertaken a medical at

Tannadice Park Tannadice Park ( gd, Pàirc Thanachais), usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Dundee Hibernian in ...

ahead of a proposed move to

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

, although United manager

Craig Levein Craig William Levein (born 22 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is currently a full-time advisor to the board of directors at Highland Football League club Brechin City. During his playing career ...

later refuted the story and Lovell admitted he knew "absolutely nothing about it". On 27 June 2009, he left Falkirk despite finishing the season as their top league goal scorer after new manager Eddie May refused to renew his contract. Lovell attempted to sue the club the following year for compensation as he claimed he had been entitled to a contract extension.

Partick Thistle

After leaving Falkirk, Lovell signed for

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. ...

where he played seventeen games, scoring 3 goals, before leaving on 24 March 2010 to have surgery on a niggling ankle injury.

AFC Bournemouth

In June 2010, Lovell joined his half-brother,

Eddie Howe Edward John Frank Howe (born 29 November 1977) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the head coach of Premier League club Newcastle United. A defender during his playing career, Howe spent most of his playing ...

at Bournemouth, his second spell at the club. After spending a period of pre-season with the club in 2009 he finally signed following the lifting of the club's transfer embargo. Lovell's contract came to an end after the 2010–11 campaign, but was offered a further year plus one-year option by Cherries boss,

Lee Bradbury Lee Michael Bradbury (born 3 July 1975) is an English football manager and former footballer who is currently manager of National League club Eastleigh. As a player, he was a striker who made more than 500 appearances in the Football League wi ...

, and put pen to paper on 25 May 2011 keeping him at Bournemouth until at least May 2012. Lovell had struggled to overcome an ankle injury and only returned to the squad in April 2011 but showed enough quality to merit a new deal. On 1 September 2011, Lovell announced his retirement from professional football with immediate effect after struggling with injuries for the past two seasons. Lovell scored four goals during his second spell at Bournemouth. His first goal came against Hartlepool in the league, a game in which Bournemouth confirmed their spot in the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

playoffs despite conceding an injury time goal scored by Hartlepool goalkeeper

Scott Flinders Scott Liam Flinders (born 12 June 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Mansfield Town. Flinders has played for Barnsley, Crystal Palace, Gillingham, Brighton & Hove Albion, Yeovil Town, Blackpool, ...

. However, his two goals against Huddersfield in the play off semi final second leg were unable to prevent them from losing on penalties. At the start of the following season, Lovell scored a goal against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

in the League Cup as they lost 4–1. On 2 September 2011 Lovell retired from football because of injury.

Personal life

In 2008, Lovell became engaged to Scottish singer-songwriter

Amy Macdonald Amy Elizabeth Macdonald (born 25 August 1987) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. In 2007, she released her debut studio album, ''This Is the Life (Amy Macdonald album), This Is the Life'', which respectively produced the singles "Mr. Rock & Roll ...

but the two separated four years later. He is the half brother of Newcastle United manager,

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lovell, Steve 1980 births Living people People from Amersham English footballers Men's association football forwards AFC Bournemouth players Portsmouth F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Aberdeen F.C. players Falkirk F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players