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, Leyton Orient,

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 and Northern Ireland. Robinson has managed 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 is also a footballer. On 28 February 2020, Robinson was acquitted at Edinburgh Sheriff Court of assaulting his partner Robyn Lauchlan on Waverley Bridge 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 Tottenham Hotspur youth system 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

on loan until the end of the 2001–02 season. After this he joined Luton Town 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, 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 championship in 2005, and a tenth-place finish in the Championship in 2006. During the 2006–07 season, Robinson captained the side in Chris Coyne'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 internationally by Northern Ireland 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. He also assisted the Northern Ireland national team, working with Michael O'Neill, that qualified for UEFA Euro 2016. Robinson was previously manager of the under-age Northern Ireland squads, working for the Irish Football Association.

Oldham Athletic

Robinson was appointed manager of Oldham Athletic 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 final after defeating Pedro Caixinha's

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 ...

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 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 League One 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 runner-up: 1997–98 ;Luton Town * League One: 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