KEITH GILLESPIE

'Keith Robert Gillespie' (born 18 February 1975 in Larne, County Antrim) is a Northern Irish professional footballer, who plays in midfield. He currently plays for Sheffield United of the English Football League Championship.

Contents

Playing career

Early career

Manchester United

Newcastle United

Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City

Sheffield United

International career

References

External links

Playing career

Early career

His first years were spent in Islandmagee, County Antrim where he attended Whitehead Primary School. He later moved to Bangor, County Down where he attended Rathmore Primary School and Bangor Grammar School.

Manchester United

Gillespie began his career at Manchester United where he struggled to establish himself as a first-team player. However, he was a member of the famous Manchester United Youth Cup winning side of , a team that included Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Gary Neville and Robbie Savage.
After a loan spell at Wigan Athletic, he moved to Newcastle United as part of the £7 million deal which took Andrew Cole to Old Trafford.

Newcastle United

Gillespie stayed at Newcastle for five seasons and during this time he played 143 games, including 15 European ties primarily in the Champions League and UEFA Cup, and scored 13 goals. In both the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons he helped Newcastle to finish second in the Premier League (runners up to Gillespie's former club, Manchester United, on both occasions). In his final full season at Newcastle, the 1997-98 season, Gillespie helped Newcastle to reach the FA Cup final. However, he was not in the squad for the final and Newcastle lost to Arsenal The following season saw Gillespie depart St James' Park, moving to Blackburn Rovers for £2.3 million.

Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City

Five seasons at Ewood Park brought another 138 games and 6 goals as well as another loan spell at Wigan Athletic, bringing his total appearances for Athletic to 15 from which he scored 4 goals. He then moved to Leicester City on a free transfer playing 48 games and scoring two goals in two seasons.

Sheffield United

Gillespie signed for his current club, Sheffield United, on 5 August 2005, signing a one-year contract. This was then extended to June 2007 a month later. In his first season at the club, Gillespie played a role in Sheffield United's successful promotion campaign to the Premiership.
On 20 January 2007, during a Premiership match against Reading at the Madejski Stadium, Gillespie was sent off for violent conduct (elbowing Reading's Stephen Hunt) twelve seconds after coming on as a substitute. As he made his way off the pitch, Gillespie pushed Hunt in the face.^[1] He thereby achieved the dubious honour of becoming the fastest sending-off of a substitute in English football. He was sent off before the ball had come back into play, and so technically sent off being on the pitch for zero seconds of play.^[2]
The day after this incident, he stunned Sheffield United when he handed in a transfer request to the chief executive Terry Robinson.^[3]
In the summer of 2007 he was linked with a move back to the Premiership with Bolton Wanderers but, in July, Gillespie signed a new two-year contract.

International career

Gillespie is a member of the current Northern Ireland team having been named in the 20-man squad for their Group F Euro 2008 qualifying games against Denmark in the Parken Stadium and Latvia at Windsor Park.
He is currently 4th place in the list of appearances for Northern Ireland with 77 caps. He played an important role in his country's 3-2 qualifying win against Spain at Windsor Park on 6 September 2006. His most recent cap was against Latvia in a 0-1 away defeat on 8 September 2007.^[4]

References

1. Reading 3-1 Sheff Utd
2. FA to act after mayhem at the Madejski
3. Let me go demands Gillespie
4. Latvia v. N.Ireland, Euro 2008 Qualifier, 8 September 2007 (accessed September 82007)

External links

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