Martin Canning (born 3 December 1981) is a Scottish football player and coach and is assistant manager at

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Sto ...

. Canning played as a central defender for Ross County,

Peterhead Peterhead (; gd, Ceann Phàdraig, sco, Peterheid ) is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is Aberdeenshire's biggest settlement (the city of Aberdeen itself not being a part of the district), with a population of 18,537 at the 2011 Census ...

, Gretna, Hibernian and Hamilton Academical.

Playing career

Canning became Gretna's record signing in January 2006 after joining from Ross County in a £60,000 deal. He made 46 appearances for Gretna, scoring once against Livingston, and helped them to promotion to the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...

in the 2006–07 season. He was cup tied for their run to the

2006 Scottish Cup Final The 2006 Scottish Cup Final was played on 13 May 2006 at Hampden Park in Glasgow and was the final of the 120th Scottish Cup. The final was contested by Heart of Midlothian (Hearts), who beat Hibernian 4–0 in the semi-final, and Gretna, who ...

. His contract with Gretna was terminated by mutual consent on 31 January 2008 due to the ensuing financial crisis at Gretna. Canning had to waive money he was due by Gretna to ensure that he was released from his contract and he was subsequently named in a

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

s list published by Gretna's

administrator Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * N ...

in April 2008. In February 2008, Canning signed a 16-month contract on 16 February 2008 with Hibernian after impressing in two reserve games while on trial. Canning made 12 league appearances for Hibs, but was released on 1 September 2008 to make way for new signing Souleymane Bamba. Canning then signed for Hamilton Academical on the same day. Canning started coaching Hamilton's under-17 team, while continuing his playing career, in the 2012–13 season. He signed a new one-year contract with Hamilton in May 2013. A year later, he was part of the ''Accies'' team which won promotion to the

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 ...

, via a play-off win over his previous club Hibernian. Canning maintained his playing registration after being appointed Hamilton manager in 2015. Despite only making three first team appearances in the 2015–16 season due to injury, he extended his playing contract by another year in May 2016.

Coaching career

Canning became interim

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of Hamilton Academical in January 2015, after Alex Neil left to join Norwich City. He was appointed manager on a permanent basis later that month, despite having lost all three matches as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

. Hamilton finished 11th in the

2016–17 Scottish Premiership The 2016–17 Scottish Premiership (known as the Ladbrokes Premiership for sponsorship reasons) was the fourth season of the Scottish Premiership, the highest division of Scottish football. The fixtures were published on 17 June 2016. The seas ...

, then avoided relegation by winning a play-off against Dundee United. Hamilton again avoided relegation in 2017/18 by finishing in 10th place. Canning left Hamilton in January 2019 by mutual consent. Since departing Hamilton, Canning has been at Real Betis, Celtic, Leicester City, Preston, Aberdeen and Sunderland to assist with coaching. In August 2019, Canning took on the role as Head of Coaching at North Kelvin United on an interim basis. In November 2019, he was appointed permanently. Canning was appointed assistant manager of

in September 2022.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager of the Month: November 2017

References

External links

*
Hamilton Academical Manager - Martin Canning Details
Fitbastats {{DEFAULTSORT:Canning, Martin 1981 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Association football central defenders Gretna F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Peterhead F.C. players Ross County F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish footballers Scottish Premier League players Clydebank F.C. (1965) players Scottish Professional Football League players Scottish football managers Hamilton Academical F.C. managers Scottish Professional Football League managers Hamilton Academical F.C. non-playing staff Sunderland A.F.C. non-playing staff Stoke City F.C. non-playing staff