Craig Slater (born 26 April 1994) is a Scottish professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach. He plays 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 ...

for Forfar Athletic, and is also first team coach at

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL (previously styled as ''SWPL 1'') and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of th ...

team

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 ...

. Slater began his career at St Mirren but left in 2012 to join

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

. He made his professional debut in December 2012 and went on to spend four years at the club, making 85 appearances. He left in 2016 to join English League Two club

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

. After a loan spell with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

he moved to

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

in 2018 and then Queen's Park in 2020 before joining Forfar Athletic in 2021. In May 2023, he signed for Arbroath on a free. Slater has represented

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels.

Club career

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Slater played for the youth teams at St Mirren "since the age of five or six". On leaving school in 2010 at the age of 16, he signed professional terms and a two-year contract. However, he said "going into training every day just wasn't enjoyable any more and I felt as if I wasn't going anywhere with the club" and asked to have his contract terminated in 2012. He briefly trained with

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

but he left with the club suffering financial difficulty, before joining

Kilmarnock

Slater made his professional debut for Kilmarnock on 29 December 2012, in an away match against

coming on as a substitute in a 2–2 draw. He made one further appearance for Killie during the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season, starting in their 3–1 home defeat by Hibernian on 15 May 2013. In the 2013–14 season, after a substitute appearance on the opening day of the season, Slater began to establish himself in the first-team during the Autumn of 2013, and in February 2014, he was named as the SPFL Young Player of the Month for January. He scored his first career goal on 29 March when he scored the winning goal in injury time in Kilmarnock's 2–1 win away to Motherwell. He ended the season having made 22 league appearances and one cup appearance. Slater scored on the opening day of the 2014–15 season in the 1–1 draw with

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. He received his first

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or di ...

on 1 January 2015 against his former employers St Mirren. He had just converted a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

to put Kilmarnock 2–0 up, but he was shown a second yellow card after running to celebrate with supporters. He scored two more goals to bring his tally to four for the season in his 27 appearances. Slater scored in his first game of the season for the second successive season with a goal in Kilmarnock's 4–1 League Cup win against

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

on 25 August 2015. He scored four goals in 32 appearances. After helping his side to

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

survival by beating

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

4–1 on aggregate, on 23 May 2016, Slater announced that he was to leave Kilmarnock. He had rejected the offer of a new deal.

Colchester United

On 7 July 2016, Slater joined English League Two club

, signing a two-year contract. He made his debut for Colchester on 6 August in their 1–1 draw with

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

at Victoria Park on the opening day of the season. He scored his first Colchester goal with a

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

in their 2–1 defeat to

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club has played ...

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in the area of Milehouse, Plymouth, Devon, England. With a capacity of 17,900, the ground has been the home of Plymouth Argyle Football Club since 1903, and was also used between 1900 and 1903 by Argyle Athlet ...

on 29 October. He was ruled out for the remainder of the 2016–17 season in March 2017 following an operation for a double hernia and groin problems, having scored three goals in 32 games in all competitions. On 3 January 2018, Slater joined

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association footb ...

club

on loan until the end of the 2017–18 season. He made his debut on 6 January in United's 6–1 defeat at

and was substituted off after 59-minutes. He scored his first goal for the club on 28 April in United's 2–0 win over Livingston. At the end of the 2017–18 season he was released by Colchester. On 2 July 2018 he joined

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga (, ) is a professional association football league in Denmark and the highest level of the Danish football league system. The league is currently contested by 12 teams each year, with 2 teams relegated. It is the current ...

side

AC Horsens Alliance Club Horsens (), commonly referred to as AC Horsens () or simply Horsens, is a Danish professional football club based in Horsens, Central Denmark Region. Founded in 1994, as a superstructure on Horsens fS (founded 1915), Stensballe ...

for a short trial.

Partick Thistle

Slater joined

side

on a one-year deal in July 2018. He left the club in January 2020.

Queen's Park

Later that month Slater signed for

Scottish League Two The Scottish League Two, known as William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional association football, foo ...

side Queen's Park. He would win the league with the ''Spiders'', prior to leaving the club in 2021.

Forfar Athletic

In May 2021, Forfar Athletic announced that they had signed Slater on a two-year deal. He was nominated for

player of the year and named in the PFA team of the year in

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Arbroath

Slater signed a two-year contract with

club

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

in May 2023.

International career

Slater has represented

at under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21 levels. He made his under-16 debut against

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

on 18 August 2009, and made four appearances in total. Slater made ten appearances for the under-17 team between his debut against

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

in July 2009 and March 2011. He scored one goal for the team in Scotland's 2–1 win against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in November 2010. Slater played one game for Scotland's under-19 team on 9 April 2013 when they defeated their

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * Pertaining to Serbia in Southeast Europe; in particular **Serbs, a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans ** Serbian language ** Serbian culture **Demographics of Serbia, includes other ethnic groups within the co ...

counterparts 2–1. On 5 March 2014, Slater made his debut for the Scotland under-21 side, starting in a 2–2 draw against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Tannadice Tannadice Park, officially known as The CalForth Construction Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Du ...

. Between 2014 and 2016, he made ten appearances for the under-21s.

Coaching career

Slater joined

team

in July 2021, working as first team coach under head coach Paul Brownlie.

Career statistics

Honours

Queen's Park *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

References

External links

Craig Slater profile
at the official

Colchester United F.C. Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Craig 1994 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Scotland men's youth international footballers Scotland men's under-21 international footballers St Mirren F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players Queen's Park F.C. players Forfar Athletic F.C. players Arbroath F.C. players 21st-century Scottish sportsmen