Steven David Williams (born 16 October 1974, in

Aberystwyth Aberystwyth (; ) is a University town, university and seaside town and a community (Wales), community in Ceredigion, Wales. It is the largest town in Ceredigion and from Aberaeron, the county's other administrative centre. In 2021, the popula ...

) is a Welsh coach and former

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who has served as goalkeeping coach at association football club

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

and

Gaelic football Gaelic football (; short name '')'', commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA, or football, is an Irish team sport. A form of football, it is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score ...

county teams

Louth Louth may refer to: Australia *Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia * Louth, New South Wales, a town * Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia ** Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality Canada * Louth, Ontario Ireland * Cou ...

and

Monaghan Monaghan ( ; ) is the county town of County Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It also provides the name of its Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish and Monaghan (barony), Monaghan barony. The population of the town as of the 2022 cen ...

. He represented his country at Under-15, Under-16, Under-18 and Under-21 level in association football.

Career

Williams started his career at

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

before moving to

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

in 1993. He was handed his professional debut in October 1993 when he played in a 5–0 defeat to

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system, as of the 2024–25 seas ...

and featured a number of times throughout the remainder of the 1993–94 season but in the following years he found first team opportunities hard to come by. At the end of the 1996–97 season he was handed a chance in the first team following an injury to Tony Elliott and helped Cardiff reach the play-offs before suffering defeat to

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

. Having spent four years with Cardiff, Williams was released by the club and joined

in 1997. He moved to Shelbourne for the onset of the 1999–2000 and was a major player in their double success that season, having kept seventeen clean sheets. He was voted Early & Baldwin Player of the Year in 2002/03 and won the SWAI Goalkeeper of the Year award for calendar year 2003. Possibly his greatest hour came when he kept a clean sheet as Shels beat

Hajduk Split Hrvatski Nogometni klub Hajduk Split, commonly referred to as Hajduk Split (), is a Croatian professional football club based in Split, that competes in the Croatian First League, the top tier in Croatian football. Since 1979, the club's home ...

2–0 in a Champions League qualifier in 2004. Steve was also prone to mistakes. He dropped the ball into his own goal on the final day of the 2006 season against Bohemians. Shelbourne, however went on to win the title. Although prone to mistakes he made some outstanding saves. Some of these include denying Bohemians an equaliser in Dalymount Park with an unbelievable save to guarantee Shels title victory. Williams made 213 league appearances during his time with Shels. Williams departed Shelbourne following 7 successful years to join

Bray Wanderers Bray Wanderers Football Club are an Irish association football club playing in the League of Ireland First Division. The club in its present form was founded in 1942 in Bray, and was known until 2010 as ''Bray Wanderers A.F.C.'' It was elect ...

in 2007. He took his position as Bray's first choice goalkeeper making 29 league and cup appearances for the 'Seagulls'. In 2008 Williams linked up with newly formed League of Ireland entity

Sporting Fingal Sporting Fingal Football Club was an Irish association football club based in Fingal. Between 2008 and 2010, the club played three seasons in the League of Ireland. During their first two seasons they played in the First Division before winnin ...

for their inaugural campaign in the

League of Ireland First Division The League of Ireland First Division, also known as the SSE Airtricity League First Division for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland football league system. The division w ...

. Williams made 25 league and cup appearances for Sporting Fingal during the 2008 season before losing his no.1 spot to

St. Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club, commonly known as Pat's or The Athletic, is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the League of Ireland Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played ...

loanee

Brendan Clarke Brendan Clarke (born 17 September 1985) is an Irish football player who plays for Galway United in the League of Ireland First Division. Club career St Patrick's Athletic Clarke is a goalkeeper and played schoolboy football for local side C ...

during the latter part of the season. On 6 February 2009, Williams signed for

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club is a professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches at Sullivan & Lambe Park. The current club is the ...

. Steve made himself at home in Drogheda almost immediately. During a penalty shootout in the annual Jim Malone Cup match against Dundalk, he saved a penalty from former Drogs hero

Declan O'Brien Declan Timothy O'Brien (December 21, 1965 – February 16, 2022) was an American film and television writer and director. He was known as the director of three films in the ''Wrong Turn'' series (2009–2012). Biography His work with Syfy ...

, and

George O'Callaghan George Paul O'Callaghan (born 5 September 1979) is an Irish former football player and manager. O'Callaghan started his career with Port Vale in 1995; he made 41 appearances for the club before joining Cork City in 2002. He spent five years a ...

to win the cup for Drogheda. Williams shared Drogheda's goalkeeping spot with Paul Skinner over the 2009 Premier Division campaign as Drogheda achieved their season goal of Premier Division survival. Williams made 24 competitive appearances for Drogheda United in 2009. Williams rejoined his former club Shelbourne and linked up with former manager

Dermot Keely Dermot Keely (born 8 March 1954) is an Irish former manager and player. He was a schoolteacher by profession. Family Keely's family have played League of Ireland football at various levels. His late father Peter Keely played for Shelbourne., h ...

on 21 January 2010. In his second spell at Shelbourne he played as back-up keeper to

Dean Delany Dean Delany (born 15 September 1980) is an Irish former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Beginning his career in England with Everton in 1997, three years later, he moved on to Port Vale, having never turned out for the first-team at Ev ...

but still made 3 league and cup appearances before his departure at the end of the season. Prior to the start of the 2011 season, Williams returned to Drogheda United.

Coaching career

Williams was goalkeeping coach with

county team

and coached Rory Beggan during

2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship The 2018 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship was the 131st edition of the Gaelic Athletic Association, GAA's premier inter-county Gaelic football competition since its establishment in 1887. Thirty-three teams entered the competition – ...

campaign, which ended at the semi-final stage. In November 2020, Stephen Kenny asked Williams (then working with Dundalk for seven years) to coach the

Republic of Ireland national football team The Republic of Ireland Men's national football team () represents the Republic of Ireland in men's international Association football, football. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The team made their debut at the Ir ...

goalkeepers when Alan Kelly asked to stay in the UK due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Williams left his role as Dundalk's goalkeeping coach in December 2020 to return as goalkeeping coach with Gaelic football county team Louth following the team's appointment of

Mickey Harte Mickey Harte (born 1954) is an Irish Gaelic football manager and former player. He has been joint-manager of Offaly since 2024. Harte managed the Tyrone county team from 2003 until his resignation in 2020, at which time he was the longest ...

as manager.

Honours

Club

;Shelbourne *

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

(5): 1999–2000, 2001–02,

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

(1): 2000 * Leinster Senior Cup (1):

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Individual

*SWAI Goalkeeper of the Year (2): 2003, 2004

References

External links

*
Airtricity League Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Steve 1974 births Living people Association football goalkeeping coaches Bray Wanderers F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Drogheda United F.C. players Dundalk F.C. non-playing staff Dundalk F.C. players English Football League players Footballers from Aberystwyth League of Ireland players Men's association football goalkeepers Shelbourne F.C. players Sporting Fingal F.C. players Wales men's under-21 international footballers Welsh men's footballers Gaelic football goalkeeping coaches Louth county football team non-playing personnel Monaghan county football team non-playing personnel