Craig Slater (born 26 April 1994) is a Scottish professional football player and coach. He 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

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( gd, Obar Bhrothaig ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast some ENE of Dundee and SSW of Aberdeen. ...

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Champio ...

, 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 1 and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of the Scottish Women's Football Leag ...

team

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

. Slater began his career at St Mirren but left in 2012 to join Kilmarnock. 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 The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Le ...

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 tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

. After a loan spell with

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 ...

he moved to

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 ...

in 2018 and then Queen's Park in 2020 before joining

Forfar Athletic Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in Scottish League Two. They play their home games at ...

in 2021. In May 2023, he signed for Arbroath on a free. Slater has represented

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

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

Club career

Born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

, 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 military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

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

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 representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

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. 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 dia ...

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 In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

win against

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing f ...

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

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 ...

survival by beating

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large 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 ...

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

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 League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartl ...

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 off ...

in their 2–1 defeat to

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park ...

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.2016–17 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

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 Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

. At the end of the 2017–18 season he was released by Colchester. On 2 July 2018 he joined

Danish Superliga The Danish Superliga ( da, Superligaen, ) is the current Danish football championship tournament, and administered by the Danish Football Association. It is the highest football league in Denmark and is currently contested by 12 teams each y ...

side AC Horsens 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 cinch League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League Two was ...

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

Forfar Athletic

In May 2021,

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

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 ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

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, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

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 (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in November 2010. Slater played one game for Scotland's under-19 team on 9 April 2013 when they defeated their Serbian 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 ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

Tannadice Tannadice Park ( gd, Pàirc Thanachais), usually referred to as Tannadice, 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 Dundee Hibernian in ...

. 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 tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

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