Alister Crawford (born 30 July 1991) is a Scottish 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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

club

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an ol ...

Career

Hamilton Academical

Born in

Lanark Lanark (; gd, Lannraig ; sco, Lanrik) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a population of 9 ...

and brought up in nearby

Carluke Carluke (; gd, Cathair MoLuaig) is a town that lies in the heart of the Lanarkshire countryside in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, northwest of Lanark and southeast of Wishaw. Carluke is largely a commuting town, with a variety of small stores ...

, Crawford played as a child with local club Milton Rovers before joining the youth setup at Heart of Midlothian, but he was released in 2006 due to concerns over his slight build. Picked up by

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 the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scottis ...

, he progressed to the first team and made his league debut aged 18 on 13 January 2010 against

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in ...

, and spent a loan spell at Bo'ness United during the first half of the 2010–11 season. In May 2011, he signed a new two-year contract with Hamilton despite the club suffering

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open league ...

. In June 2012, Crawford announced that he was willing to prove his worth at the club following a spell of injury. On 28 August 2012, Crawford scored the only goal of the game as Hamilton beat

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. The club have been mem ...

1–0 in extra time in the

2012–13 Scottish League Cup The 2012–13 Scottish League Cup was the 67th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious football knockout competition. It is also known as the Scottish Communities League Cup for sponsorship reasons, after the Scottish Government continued t ...

, and he later spoke of his desire to help "kick-start" the season. Crawford signed a new two-year contract in July 2013. At the start of the 2013–14 season, Crawford publicly stated that the new synthetic pitch at

New Douglas Park New Douglas Park, currently known as the ZLX Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, which serves as the home of Scottish Championship side Hamilton Academical and Scottish League One s ...

would give Hamilton an advantage over their opponents. In April 2014 he was selected to the 2013–14

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

PFA Scotland Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Scotland Team of the Year (often called the PFA Scotland Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 44 footballers in the four national tiers of the Scottish foo ...

, alongside teammates Ziggy Gordon and Anthony Andreu. A month later, Crawford was part of the Hamilton team which won promotion back to the Premiership by defeating Hibernian in the play-off final. In October 2014 he signed a new contract with the club, to last until the summer of 2018. In August 2015, he scored a late winning goal against Hearts in the first match he had played against his former youth club. In September 2016 it was suggested by Hamilton manager Martin Canning that Crawford should play for the Scottish national team. In November 2016 club captain Michael Devlin said that the team hoped that Crawford would not leave the club in the January 2017 transfer window. In December 2016, Canning said they wished to keep Crawford until the end of the 2016–17 season. Crawford was one of seven first-team players who left Hamilton at the end of the 2017–18 season; he stated that his preference was to play in England.

Doncaster Rovers

On 10 July 2018, Crawford signed for

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at T ...

on a two-year contract.

Bolton Wanderers

On 2 September 2019, Crawford signed for fellow

side

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

on a contract until the end of the season, after terminating his contract with Doncaster Rovers. He made his debut on 14 September, starting against

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around ...

in a 6-1 defeat. He scored his first goal for the club in the

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL ...

game at

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on 1 October, a game Bolton eventually lost on penalties. On 26 June it was announced Crawford would be one of 14 senior players released at the end of his contract on 30 June, but he returned to the club a few days later after signing a new two-year contract, turning down League One teams in order to return.

Tranmere Rovers (loan)

On 1 February 2021, he signed on loan for

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

until the end of the season.

St Johnstone

On 31 August 2021, Crawford returned to Scotland to join

on a six-month loan deal until January 2022. On 3 January 2022, Crawford signed a permanent deal with St Johnstone until 2024.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Ali 1991 births Living people Footballers from South Lanarkshire People from Carluke Association football midfielders Scottish footballers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Bo'ness United F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players