Craig Brewster
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| Craig Brewster | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Craig James Brewster | |
| Date of birth | December 13, 1966 (age 40) | |
| Place of birth | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Aberdeen | |
| Number | 23 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Dundee United Dundee Stobswell |
||
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1985–91 1991–93 1993–96 1996–2001 2001–02 2002–05 2005–06 2006 2007 |
Forfar Athletic Raith Rovers Dundee United Ionikos Hibernian Dunfermline Ath. Inverness C.T. Dundee United Aberdeen |
191 (35) 86 (34) 90 (40) 144 (45) 25 (3) 77 (20) 31 (10) 4 (0) 7 (0) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 2004–06 2006 |
Inverness C.T. Dundee United |
|
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Craig James Brewster (born 13 December 1966) is a Scottish professional footballer and former manager. He recently agreed to sign for Aberdeen in the January transfer window.
Contents |
Brewster was born in Stobswell, Dundee and grew up a Dundee United supporter. He signed for the club as a schoolboy, but was not offered professional terms by then manager Jim McLean. Unable to find a senior club, Brewster dropped into junior football with Dundee Stobswell for a while, before signing for Forfar Athletic in 1985. At this time, his regular playing position was in midfield. His form at Forfar prompted the attention of Raith Rovers, who signed him in 1991. At this time he converted to striker, and formed a prolific partnership with Gordon Dalziel that helped Raith to the First Division title in 1993. That summer, Brewster returned to Dundee United, signing for the Tannadice club for a fee of £250,000.
After a slow start in which he struggled to adapt to Premier Division football, Brewster's first season at Tannadice culminated in his greatest moment as a player, scoring the winner for United in the 1994 Scottish Cup final against Rangers. However, the club was relegated a year later. Brewster helped them towards promotion back to the top flight in 1995-96, scoring four goals in one match against Dumbarton, but when his contract expired at the end of the season he decided to further his career elsewhere. With the Bosman ruling having just come into force, Brewster was entitled to move abroad on a free transfer, and he decided to take advantage of an offer from Greek club Ionikos.
While other Scottish players who moved to Europe at this time mainly returned home soon afterwards, Brewster remained at Ionikos for five seasons. His time in Greece included another national cup final appearance, but Ionikos lost the 2000 Greek Cup to AEK Athens. The following year, Brewster returned to Scotland, signing for Hibernian. A year later he joined Dunfermline Athletic, where he enjoyed some of the most consistent form of his career playing alongside Stevie Crawford, who had a been a youngster at Raith during Brewster's time there. Despite some clamour from fans and the media for Brewster to be called up to the Scotland squad at this time, this never materialised.
In November 2004, Brewster was offered the job of player/manager with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, and the promise he showed in this role (albeit with a squad mainly put together by former ICT managers Steve Paterson and John Robertson) led to speculation of a return to Dundee United in a managerial capacity. This came to pass in January 2006, when he was appointed to the player/manager position back at his hometown club.
Inverness CT record:
| Pld | W | D | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 17 | 18 | 15 |
Brewster's return to United yielded little success, where despite going unbeaten in his first three games, the remainder of the 2005/06 season brought just one win against Livingston. Brewster had to wait four league games into the 2006/07 season for his second league win, and oversaw only two league wins in his nine months at Tannadice. On 29 October 2006, after a 5-1 defeat to Falkirk, Brewster and assistant Malky Thomson left by "mutual agreement".[1] After leaving Dundee United he was linked with several managerial vacancies, including those at former clubs Dunfermline, Raith and Ionikos.
United record:*
| Pld | W | D | L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | 2 | 11 | 15 |
* League games only
After spells as player-manager at Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Dundee United, he joined Aberdeen in December 2006 signing a contract until the end of the 2006-07 season.[2] He made his debut for Aberdeen as a substitute in a 0-0 draw with Hibernian on 2 January 2007. Brewster scored his first goal for Aberdeen with a header from 12 yards out in the Scottish Cup third round 2-2 draw with Hibernian on 10 January 2007. However, less than a week later - on 13 January, Brewster suffered a dislocated shoulder in the 1-1 home draw against Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Doubts were cast over his playing future, but Brewster vowed to return to the pitch, returning in early March.
- ^ "Levein poised as Brewster leaves", BBC Sport website, October 29, 2006.
- ^ "Brewster happy with Aberdeen deal", BBC Sport website, 20 December 2006.
| Preceded by John Robertson |
Inverness CT Manager 2004-2006 |
Succeeded by Charlie Christie |
| Preceded by Gordon Chisholm |
Dundee United Manager 2006 |
Succeeded by Craig Levein |
| Aberdeen F.C. - Current Squad |
|---|
|
1 Langfield | 2 Hart | 3 Byrne | 4 Anderson | 5 Diamond | 6 Severin | 7 J. Smith | 8 Nicholson | 9 Lovell | 10 Mackie | 11 Clark | 14 Dempsey | 15 Touzani | 16 Miller | 17 D. Smith | 18 Winter | 19 Foster | 20 Soutar | 21 Considine | 23 Brewster | 24 Donald | 25 Maguire | 26 Daal | Manager: Calderwood |
Categories: 1966 births | Living people | People from Dundee | Scottish footballers | Scottish football managers | Forfar Athletic F.C. players | Raith Rovers F.C. players | Dundee United F.C. players | Dundee United F.C. managers | Hibernian F.C. players | Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players | Aberdeen F.C. players | Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players | Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. managers