Stuart Barlow (born 16 July 1968) is an English

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 ...

coach and former professional player. As a player, he was a

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 ...

and

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

from 1989 until 2009. He notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for Everton and was part of the squad that won the

1994–95 FA Cup The 1994–95 FA Cup (known as The FA Cup sponsored by Littlewoods for sponsorship reasons) was the 114th staging of the FA Cup. The competition was won by Everton, with a shock victory over Manchester United, who were strong favourites to reta ...

. He also played 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

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

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 ...

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional association football, football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they wer ...

and

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

before winding his career in Non-league football with

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 ...

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

and

Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge is an urban village in Lancashire, England, south-east of Preston, in the borough of South Ribble. The name derives from the Old English "bēam" and "brycg", which probably means "tree-trunk bridge". The population was 13,945 at ...

. Following retirement, Barlow worked away from the sport for a number of years before being appointed assistant manager

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 ...

side

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...

in 2011.

Playing career

Barlow came into the game at a late age for a professional footballer as he was only playing at Sunday League level when he was 21 years old. He joined Everton in 1990 and went on to feature in the

. In 1995 the club won the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, although Barlow was not in the side that defeated

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

1–0 in the final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

, he did appear in earlier rounds including starting the quarter-final versus Newcastle United. Barlow was injured for the semi-final. Barlow gained a reputation as a pacy striker who would willingly chase lost causes. However, his inability to find the net regularly (despite his pace often putting him through on goal) led to the affectionate nickname of Stuart 'Barndoor' Barlow amongst the Goodison support. Another nickname was "Jigsaw", as the joke was that, "He went to pieces in the box". He joined

for £350,000 a few months later by ex Everton striker and present Athletic manager

Graeme Sharp Graeme Marshall Sharp (born 16 October 1960) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager. Sharp played as a forward for Dumbarton, Everton, Oldham Athletic and Bangor City. He enjoyed great success with Everton, helping them wi ...

. At the time he came in the Latics were struggling in the First Division. He spent nearly three seasons at the club and scored 32 goals in 93 games, but was sold to

in 1998 for £45,000 by

Neil Warnock Neil Warnock (born 1 December 1948) is an English former football manager and player. He is also a television and radio pundit. In a managerial career spanning five decades, Warnock has managed sixteen different clubs from the Premier League to ...

. Whilst at Wigan he played in the final as they won the 1998–99 Football League Trophy. He joined

in July 2000 and is best remembered by the club's supporters for scoring a winning goal in an

fifth round replay win against

club

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in the 2000–01 season. With then second tier Tranmere trailing 3–0 at half time,

Paul Rideout Paul Rideout (born 14 August 1964) is an English former professional footballer and youth team coach of Major League Soccer side Sporting Kansas City. As a player, he was a striker from 1980 until 2002, notably in the Premier League with Ever ...

scored a hat-trick to level the scores before Barlow scored the winner to put Tranmere through to the last eight. After spells with

and

, he joined

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

side

in 2006 and later went on to

and

. Whilst with Fleetwood he was loaned out to

where he eventually joined permanently. In 2010, a Merseyside Derby charity game was held between former players of Everton and Liverpool at Goodison Park. Stuart scored the only goal in a 1–0 win for Everton.

Coaching career

In November 2011 Barlow became the Assistant manager of

club

Personal life

Barlow retired in 2009 despite being offered a fresh contract by

. He stated his decision was so he could support and watch his young son play football for his club Formby Juniors, who Barlow ended up coaching. As well as this he also helped a friend in his

scaffolding Scaffolding, also called scaffold or staging, is a temporary structure used to support a work crew and materials to aid in the construction, maintenance and repair of buildings, bridges and all other man-made structures. Scaffolds are widely use ...

business and aided his wife open her own bridal shop.

References

External links

*
Stuart Barlow
at TranmereRovers.co.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Barlow, Stuart 1968 births Living people English footballers Everton F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Bury F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players Southport F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Bamber Bridge F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players National League (English football) players Footballers from Liverpool Association football forwards