Billy Stewart (born 1 January 1965) is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player who works as a goalkeeping coach for West Ham United Women. A

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, he primarily played with Chester City.

Playing career

Stewart began as an apprentice with his hometown club, Liverpool, with which he turned professional in January 1983. He was unable to make the first team at

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

and joined

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

in July 1984. Stewart made 14 league appearances in two years at Springfield Park before former Latics manager Harry McNally signed him for Chester City in August 1986. After initially sharing goalkeeping duties with John Butcher, Mike Stowell and Mike Astbury, Stewart established himself as a starting goalkeeper. Between January 1988 and October 1990 he did not miss a match; his run of 124 games only ended after a sending-off at

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

. In 1992–93 Stewart was named as the club's player of the season (despite conceding more than 100 goals), but a pre-match injury at

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

in September 1993 sidelined him for the remainder of the following season. Stewart was allowed to join

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

in July 1994, but ended the season playing at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

for Chesterfield in the

Football League Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the Third Division become the fourth tier of English football. In 2 ...

playoff final against Bury (while on loan with the

Saltergate Saltergate, officially the Recreation Ground, was the historic home of Chesterfield Football Club, and was in use from 1871 until the club's relocation in July 2010, a 139-year history that made it one of the oldest football grounds in England ...

club). He helped Chesterfield to a 2–0 victory and promotion, and returned to Chester in the summer of 1995. Stewart missed only one game in 1995–96, but at the end of the season he dropped into gon-league football with

Southport Southport is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. It lies on the West Lancashire Coastal Plain, West Lancashire coastal plain and the east coast of the Irish Sea, approximately north of ...

. Stewart played for the Sandgrounders for three and a half years, making another trip to Wembley in the final of the 1997–98

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

(which ended in a 1–0 defeat to

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1887, ...

). Stewart moved to fellow Conference side

Hednesford Town Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park. They won the FA Trophy in 2004. History The club was established in 1880 as a merger of t ...

in December 1999 and later played for such clubs as

Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge is a large 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". People who live in Bamber Bri ...

Rhyl Rhyl (; , ) is a seaside town and community in Denbighshire in Wales. The town lies on the coast of North Wales, at the mouth of the River Clwyd. To the west is Kinmel Bay and Towyn, to the east Prestatyn, and to the south-east Rhuddlan ...

, Marine and

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay () is a town, Community (Wales), community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (h ...

Coaching career

Stewart has travelled throughout the world and has coached in Texas, USA, for England under-19s in Slovenia for the European Qualifiers, and with the England schoolboys in the

Victory Shield The Victory Shield is an annual football (soccer), football tournament competed for by the under-16 teams of Scotland national under-16 football team, Scotland, Republic of Ireland national under-16 football team, Republic of Ireland, Northern Irel ...

. He was also the Northern Ireland goalkeeping coach when the Northern Ireland under-19s retained the

Milk Cup SuperCupNI, formerly called the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament and the Dale Farm Milk Cup, is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The cup matches are mainly played in the North Coast area of ...

. Stewart travelled with Northern Ireland to Portugal for an under-21

friendly game An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

and to Malta with the under-19s. He holds a UEFA A coaching licence and a FA Goalkeeping A licence and the new UEFA Goalkeeping A Licence. Stewart is a recipient of the FA Advanced Youth Award and is an FA Goalkeeping Coach Educator and Internal Verifier. He currently delivers all levels of FA Goalkeeping Level 1 to Level 4 and the FA Level 3 Goalkeeping module for the UEFA B Licence. Billy also holds FA qualifications for Futsal at levels 1&2. Stewart has worked with every age group at

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. He began at the Academy in 1999 where he was the Academy Goalkeeping Coach, co-ordinating the goalkeeping programme starting with goalkeepers as young as age seven and developing the goalkeeping training programme up to full-time players. Stewart's last full-time role at Liverpool was coaching the reserve-team goalkeepers at the

Melwood AXA Melwood Training Centre, in West Derby, Liverpool is the training ground and academy for Liverpool Football Club's Women's first team, youth teams and academy. It was formerly the men's first team's training ground from the 1950s until N ...

Training Ground; he also worked with first-team goalkeepers, including Reina,

Diego Cavalieri Diego Cavalieri (born 1 December 1982) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Cavalieri is of Italian ancestry and holds both Italian and Brazilian passports. He has earned three caps for the Brazil national ...

, David Martin and

Charles Itandje Charles Hubert Itandje (born 2 November 1982) is a retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in France, Itandje represented the Cameroon national team. Club career Lens Born in Bobigny (a suburb of Paris) of Cameroonia ...

. He has also worked with other first-line goalkeepers such as Dudek, Kirkland, and Carson. He holds

NVQ National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are practical work-based awards in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland that are achieved through training and assessment. The regulatory framework supporting NVQs was withdrawn in 2015 and replaced by th ...

teaching-assessor and internal-verification certificates, and is fully CRB checked. He joined

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England, that compete in the , the fourth level of the English football league system. They have spent their entire history playing a ...

at the start of the 2015–16 season and left after three seasons helping Accrington Stanley gain promotion to the

EFL League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

as League Two champions for the 2017–18 season. Stewart is now the full-time first team goalkeeping coach at West Ham United Ladies who are in the Women's Super League. In November 2020, he was named as temporary co-manager of West Ham United Ladies team following the departure of Matt Beard.

Honours

Chesterfield *

play-offs: 1994–95 Southport *

runner-up: 1997–98 Individual * Chester City Player of the Season: 1992–93 * Chester City Most appearances by a goalkeeper: 317Chester Goalkeeper List

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stewart, Billy (Footballer) 1965 births Living people English men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Liverpool F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Southport F.C. players Hednesford Town F.C. players Rhyl F.C. players Marine A.F.C. players Bamber Bridge F.C. players Colwyn Bay F.C. players Cymru Premier players England men's semi-pro international footballers Liverpool F.C. non-playing staff Accrington Stanley F.C. non-playing staff Footballers from Liverpool Association football goalkeeping coaches Women's Super League managers English football managers English Football League players

Playing career

Coaching career

Honours

Further reading

References

External links