Stuart Elliott (born 23 July 1978) is a Northern Irish former 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 lea ...

who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

from 1998 to 2013. Elliott made a name for himself whilst with

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

and

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

as well as being capped 39 times by

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. He also played professionally for

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club based in East Belfast, Northern Ireland, that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882 and has since won more than 130 major honours. They are one of three Northern Iris ...

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

and

Stirling Albion Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in as a member of the Scottish Profession ...

. He had initially retired in 2010 but came out of retirement to return to

for the 2012–13 season.

Club career

Glentoran

Born in

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, Elliott started his career at St Andrews FC, from Belfast, then moved on to

(also in Northern Ireland) before joining

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

club

Motherwell

He became a fans favourite at

Fir Park Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–2008 SPL season. ...

and his impressive performances earned him his first cap for

against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

in September 2002. In May 2002, Motherwell went into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

and as a result had to sell many of their best players. During his time at the club, Elliott scored 22 goals in 77 appearances.

Hull City

Elliott joined Hull City for £230,000 and in his first season finished as the club's top scorer in 2002–03 with 12 goals. In 2003–04, he continued to impress and again hit double figures for his club. As Hull City clinched a place in The Championship in 2004–05, Elliott enjoyed a fantastic season netting 27 goals in the league (which earned him the golden boot, albeit shared with

Dean Windass Dean Windass (born 1 April 1969) is an English former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), striker. He played spells at Bradford City A.F.C., Bradford City and contributed to his hometown ...

) as well as two in the cup, while also starring for Northern Ireland. This goal scoring tally is perhaps made all the more impressive given that Elliott does not play as a striker and was out for 6 weeks with an injury during mid-season. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Elliott was unable to maintain this incredible goal scoring form in the Championship. In fact, he found himself in-and-out of the team, but despite this he still finished 2005–06 as Hull's top scorer with seven league goals. In 2006 it was revealed that he was suffering from a form of

exercise-induced asthma Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) occurs when the airways narrow as a result of exercise. This condition has been referred to as exercise-induced asthma (EIA); however, this term is no longer preferred. While exercise does not cause asth ...

, which affects his ability to perform for the full ninety minutes. In 2006–07 he was mainly used as an 'impact player' coming off the bench late in the game, such as in 13 January match against QPR when he came on with eleven minutes to go and scored twice to give the Tigers a 2–1 victory.

Doncaster Rovers

On 31 January 2008, Elliott signed for

on loan until the end of the season with a view to a permanent deal. Elliott had already snubbed moves to

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. It lies on the River Skerne, west of Middlesbrough and south of Durham. Darlington had a population of 107,800 at the 2021 Census, making it a "large town" ...

, citing a desire to remain in the local area. He signed a two-year deal with Doncaster Rovers on 1 July. On 27 September 2008, Elliott became one of three men in the Rovers team to successfully hit the bar on the "Crossbar Challenge" on ''

Soccer AM ''Soccer AM'' was a British football-based comedy talk show, produced by Sky Sports. It aired from 20 August 1994 to 27 May 2023 on Sky Showcase, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Football. From 2010, the programme was put on a short b ...

''. On 8 January 2009 Elliott joined

on a one-month loan deal, this was extended for another month with Elliott eventually returning on 8 March.

Hamilton Academical

Elliot was released by Doncaster on 1 January 2010 and signed for

two days later until the end of the season. He was then loaned to

two months later. In August 2010, Elliott announced that he wished his contract cancelled to be able to concentrate on his faith, with a view to perhaps entering ministry.

Return to Glentoran

Elliott returned to former club

in September 2012. He made his first appearance since returning to the club on 1 October, coming off the bench as Glentoran lost 3–2 to Linfield in the

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster F ...

. He made his first league appearance on 6 October, coming off the bench as Glentoran lost 2–0 to

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

. He scored his first (and indeed only) goal since his return to Glentoran in an IRN-BRU League Cup game against

Institute An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

. The goal was described as an "unstoppable 20 yard shot". Glentoran went on to win the game 4–2 on penalties after a 2–2 draw. After making only seven appearances and scoring one goal in all competitions, Elliott was released by Glentoran after the turn of the year.

International career

Elliott earned 39 caps for

, scoring 4 goals including an impressive free kick against

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. He played in Northern Ireland's famous victory over

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

but soon after began to struggle for his place in the team due to emerging young talents Sammy Clingan and

Chris Brunt Christopher Colin Brunt (born 14 December 1984) is a Northern Irish former professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder and is the current West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion loan player manager. He is wi ...

Personal life

He is a born-again Christian, belonging to Living Hope Christian Church in Hull, where he is a frequent speaker and their newest pastor. There are only three churches of this denomination in the world; these being in Belfast, Motherwell and Hull, which by coincidence, correspond exactly to where he played the majority of his club football.

Honours

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 Football in England, En ...

: 2004–05 League One *Inducted in to Hull City Hall of Fame

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Stuart 1978 births Living people Ulster Scots people Evangelicals from Northern Ireland Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Men's association football wingers Glentoran F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Stirling Albion F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Northern Ireland men's international footballers