Tony Grant (born 20 August 1976) is an Irish professional

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 last played for Duleek.

Career

Early years

Starting as a trainee with

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

, Grant signed for

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 ...

in November 1995. He was loaned out to Glenavon, making a permanent move to the

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

club in January 1997; he scored the only goal in their

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

final win over

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay. The original Palm Bay estate was ...

the same year.

League of Ireland

Grant signed for

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

in the summer of 2000 and scored on his debut for the club in August of that year. He was presented with the

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

award at the end of his first season with the club. During his career with the "Hoops", he scored several decisive goals against rivals,

Bohemians Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

, including the only goal in

Dalymount Park Dalymount Park (Irish: ''Páirc Cnocán Uí Dhálaigh'') is a football stadium in Phibsborough on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. It is the home of Bohemian F.C., who have played there since the early 20th century. Affectionately known as D ...

's centenary game and a back-heeled winner in another

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

derby, at

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of Royal Parks of London, London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I of England, C ...

. Grant scored the winning goal for Rovers in the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

UEFA Intertoto-Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foo ...

tie with

Odra Wodzisław Odra may refer to: Rivers * Odra (Poland), also known as Oder, a river in Czech Republic, Poland and Germany * Odra (Kupa), a river in Croatia * Odra (Spain), a river in Spain Populated places * Odra, Silesian Voivodeship, a village in south ...

in Poland. He made a total of 6 appearances in

European Competition The European Competition is a student competition in which students of all ages submit creative, artistic, or written pieces of work on the activities of the European Union. Tendered by European Movement Germany, it is the oldest student competition ...

for Shamrock Rovers. On 24 February 2004, Bohemians announced the signing of Grant and

James Keddy James Keddy (born 26 March 1973) is an Irish football coach and former player who is currently manager at Wexford FC. Career Keddy made his League of Ireland debut for Home Farm on 13 October 1991. He joined UCD in 1994 and his other clubs ...

from Shamrock Rovers. Less than two months later, the two clubs played each other at Dalymount Park. The game finished 2–2 but was marked by a

Pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

's head being thrown onto the pitch by Rovers supporters, in a gesture aimed at Grant in particular. The incident remained a topic of humour amongst the media for weeks after, as well as a reminder of the intensity of the rivalry between the two clubs. Grant suffered at first with several niggling injuries during his time with Bohemians, but won back his place in October 2004. In June 2005 he scored another winner in the

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from (football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foot ...

. Grant signed for

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Dhroichead Átha Aontaithe) is a semi-professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches ...

in 2006 making his debut in the

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 ...

away to

HJK Helsinki Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (), commonly known as HJK Helsinki, or simply as HJK, is a professional football club based in Helsinki, Finland. The club competes in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. Founded in 1907, the club has spent most of its history ...

in Finland. Injury brought his first season to an early end. He started the 2007 season quite well scoring four goals in twenty appearances, fourteen of these appearances were as a substitute. One of those four goals happened to be the equaliser in the 2007 Setanta Cup Final.

Later years

In the summer of 2008 Grant rejoined Glenavon. He played for three seasons here with fellow Dublin men Adrian Harper and Trevor Molloy. He was released by the club in May 2011 at the end of his contract and signed with Leinster Senior League side Glebe North↵He was then re-signed by Glenavon on 4 January 2012.

Honours

Team

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. *

Setanta Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of Ir ...

. Glenavon *

: 1996–97.

Individual

* Shamrock Rovers F.C. Player of the Year: 2000–01.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Tony 1976 births Living people Republic of Ireland association footballers Association football forwards Shamrock Rovers F.C. players Bohemian F.C. players Drogheda United F.C. players League of Ireland players Glenavon F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Preston North End F.C. players English Football League players