CRAIG BREWSTER

'Craig James Brown Brewster' (born 13 December, 1966) is a Scottish professional footballer and manager. He is the current player-manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Contents

Early career

Scottish Cup winner

Greece and afterwards

Management

Inverness CT

Dundee United

Return to playing

Return to management

Inverness CT

See also

References

External links

Early career

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.

Scottish Cup winner

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.

Greece and afterwards

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.

Management

Inverness CT

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

Dundee United

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

Return to playing

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. In May 2007, it was announced that Brewster had signed a six-month extension to his Aberdeen contract.

Return to management

Inverness CT

On 24 August 2007, it was announced that Brewster was to return to manage Inverness. In his last two appearances for Aberdeen, he scored three goals.

See also

★ Dundee United FC Season 1995-96

★ Dundee United FC Season 2005-06

★ Dundee United FC Season 2006-07

References

1. Levein poised as Brewster leaves
2. Brewster happy with Aberdeen deal

External links

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