Stephen Robinson (born 10 December 1974) is a former

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, who manages

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 ...

club St Mirren. During his career he played for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth ( ) is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. ...

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

. Robinson has managed

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...

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 ...

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

and St Mirren

Early life

Robinson was born in

Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...

, Northern Ireland.

Club career

Robinson began his career with the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team if they show en ...

as a trainee, signing a professional contract in January 1994. He joined

due to the lack of

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

opportunities at Tottenham. After a highly successful time at Bournemouth, Robinson joined

in 2000. After failing to force himself into Preston's starting XI, he joined

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

until the end of the 2001–02 season. After this he joined

for a fee of £50,000 in 2002. He was forced to play on the right-wing by then

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (27 December 1946 – 7 April 2024) was an Irish professional football manager and player. As a defender, Kinnear spent the majority of his career spanning ten seasons with Tottenham Hotspur and one with Brighton & H ...

, despite his position being an attacking centre-midfielder in his Bournemouth days. New manager Mike Newell soon reverted Robinson to his favoured central-midfield role, and he was rewarded with a League One championship in 2005, and a tenth-place finish in the

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 sys ...

in 2006. During the 2006–07 season, Robinson captained the side in

Chris Coyne Christopher John Coyne (born 20 December 1978) is an Australian former Association football, soccer player and coach who is currently head of Perth Glory FC Youth, Perth Glory Youth NPL in National Premier Leagues Western Australia (NPLWA). In a ...

's absence and was handed a new two-year contract by Hatters boss Mike Newell. On 26 July 2008 Robinson agreed to a mutual termination of his contract at Luton.

International career

Robinson was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

internationally by

on seven occasions from 1997 to 2007. He also played for the under-16 (one cap), under-18 (two caps, one goal), under-21 (one cap) and B (four caps, one goal) teams.

Coaching career

Motherwell assistant

Robinson joined

in February 2015, to assist manager

Ian Baraclough Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English football manager and former player who is currently sporting director at Partick Thistle, of the Scottish Championship. His most recent role had been a short spell as assistant manager ...

. He also assisted the Northern Ireland national team, working with Michael O'Neill, that qualified for

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's association football, football ch ...

. Robinson was previously manager of the under-age Northern Ireland squads, working for the

Irish Football Association The Irish Football Association (IFA) is the governing body for association football in Northern Ireland. It organised the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland national football team from 1880 to 1950, which after 1954, became t ...

Oldham Athletic

Robinson was appointed manager of

in July 2016. He was replaced as manager by John Sheridan on 12 January 2017.

Motherwell

Robinson returned to Motherwell in February 2017, this time to assist

Mark McGhee Mark Edward McGhee (born 25 May 1957) is a Scottish former professional football player and coach. A former forward, McGhee started his career at Greenock Morton in 1975 and had spells at clubs including Newcastle United, Aberdeen, Hamburg, ...

as first team coach. Less than two weeks later, Robinson took over as interim manager following McGhee's departure from the club. He was subsequently appointed as manager on a permanent basis in March 2017. On 13 October 2017, Manager Robinson extended his contract with Motherwell until May 2020. On 22 October 2017, Robinson guided Motherwell to the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

final after defeating

Pedro Caixinha Pedro Miguel Faria Caixinha (; born 15 November 1970) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who played as a goalkeeper. He started coaching in his late twenties, acting an assistant with Sporting CP, Al-Hilal, Panath ...

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 ...

2–0 at Hampden. The game saw both managers sent to the stands for their behaviour on the touchline. They were defeated in the final 2–0 by

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

. In April 2018, Motherwell won in the 2017–18 Scottish Cup semi-finals, overcoming

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

3–0, to set up another final with Celtic the following month; this was the first time the club had appeared in both domestic finals since the 1950–51 season. On 27 September 2019, Robinson said clubs had a duty of care in relation to players' mental well-being if they were injured. On 31 December 2020, Robinson resigned as Motherwell manager, after over three years in charge of the Lanarkshire side.

Morecambe

On 7 June 2021, Robinson was named as manager of newly promoted League One side

on a three-year deal.

St Mirren

Robinson returned to Scottish football in February 2022, becoming manager of St Mirren.

Personal life

His son

Harry Harry may refer to: Television * ''Harry'' (American TV series), 1987 comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (New Zealand TV series), 2013 crime drama starring Oscar K ...

is also a footballer. Robinson was accused of assaulting and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards his partner, Robyn Lauchlan, on Waverley Bridge in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 13 December 2019. He was found not guilty after a trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in February 2020.

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial record

Honours

As a player

;AFC Bournemouth *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

runner-up: 1997–98 ;Luton Town * League One: 2004–05 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

: 1998–99 Second Division

As a manager

;Motherwell * Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month: February 2019 ;St Mirren * Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month: August 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Stephen 1974 births Living people Association footballers from Lisburn Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Northern Ireland men's B international footballers Northern Ireland men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Preston North End F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Motherwell F.C. managers Motherwell F.C. non-playing staff Oldham Athletic A.F.C. managers Morecambe F.C. managers St Mirren F.C. managers English Football League managers Association football managers from Northern Ireland Scottish Professional Football League managers Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers