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John Robertson (footballer, born 1964)

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For other people with the same name, see John Robertson.

John Robertson
Personal information
Full name John Grant Robertson[1]
Date of birth (1964-10-02) 2 October 1964 (age 60)
Place of birth Edinburgh, Scotland
Position(s) Striker
Team information
Current team
 Inverness Caledonian Thistle (manager)
Youth career
Salvesen Boys Club
Edina Hibs
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1988 Heart of Midlothian 203 (106)
1988 Newcastle United 12 (0)
1988–1998 Heart of Midlothian 310 (108)
1998 → Dundee (loan) 4 (1)
1998–2000 Livingston 41 (14)
Total 570 (229)
International career
1984–1987[2] Scotland U21 6 (0)
1990–1996[3] Scotland B 3 (0)
1990[4] SFA (SFL centenary) 1 (0)
1990–1995 Scotland 16 (3)
Managerial career
2002–2004 Inverness Caledonian Thistle
2004–2005 Heart of Midlothian
2005 Ross County
2006–2007 Livingston
2007 Derry City
2010–2012 East Fife
2017– Inverness Caledonian Thistle
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

John Grant Robertson (born 2 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football player and coach, currently in his second spell of managing Inverness Caledonian Thistle. His playing career included spells at Newcastle United, Dundee and Livingston, but he is best known for his two spells at Heart of Midlothian totalling almost 20 years, where he is the club's all-time leading goalscorer. He has since managed Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Heart of Midlothian, Ross County, Livingston, Derry City and East Fife.

Playing career

Hibernian attempted to sign Robertson as a teenager but he asked for time to think the deal over; after Hibs refused, he signed for Heart of Midlothian along with school friend and fellow future internationalist Dave Bowman. Robertson eventually earned the moniker "The Hammer of Hibs" (in addition to his more standard nickname "Robbo") as he scored a record 27 goals in Edinburgh derby matches.[5] In 1986, 20 league goals from Robertson helped Hearts to the brink of a league and cup double. A 27 league game unbeaten run ended with two Albert Kidd goals for Dundee in the last six minutes of the season allowing Celtic to overtake them to win the title. A week later, Hearts lost 3–0 to Aberdeen in the cup final.[6] He scored 106 goals in 202 Hearts league games in this spell at Tynecastle Park.

He left Hearts to play for Newcastle United in April 1988. Robertson failed to score in 14 Newcastle competitive first team games and returned to Hearts in December of that year, and remained there for the next decade. In 1998 Hearts won the Scottish Cup with Robertson an unused substitute, earning him his only senior medal as a player. In this second spell at Hearts he scored at a much less prolific rate compared to his first spell, with this time 106 goals in 310 league games. After an earlier loan spell with Dundee scoring once in 4 league games, he left Tynecastle that summer. He joined Livingston as a player-coach, scoring 14 goals in 41 league games.

Robertson was also a Scottish international, playing on 16 occasions for Scotland. He made his debut against Romania in 1990, scoring in a 2–1 win. He trained with the national team before UEFA Euro 1992, but had to withdraw from the final squad due to injury.[citation needed]

Coaching career

Whilst playing for Livingston, Robertson became involved the coaching side of the game.[7] He left the club in season 2002–03 to become manager of Inverness Caledonian Thistle where he guided the Highland team to the SPL for the first time in their history. In November 2004 he returned to Hearts as head coach and despite two cup semi-finals and a good season in Europe as well as finishing fifth in the league, he was sacked in May 2005.

Robertson was appointed manager of Scottish First Division team Ross County in June 2005, but left by mutual consent after four months.[7] He was then appointed manager of Livingston in February 2006,[7] but was sacked in April 2007 after finishing sixth in the First Division.

Robertson was appointed by League of Ireland side Derry City in July 2007. He took club out of the relegation battle to a safe mid table position and also won the FAI League Cup and qualified for the Setanta Cup before being dismissed by the new chairman and board of directors at Derry, and replaced by former Derry boss Stephen Kenny.[8]

In 2009, Robertson coached strikers at Scottish Premier League clubs Dundee United and Kilmarnock. In March 2010, Robertson helped coach the strikers at Hearts on a non-contract basis.

Robertson was appointed manager of East Fife in October 2010. In September 2011, his East Fife side knocked SPL club Aberdeen out of the Scottish League Cup at Pittodrie Stadium. On 1 March 2012 it was announced that Robertson had left East Fife.[9]

In June 2017, Robertson returned to Inverness Caledonian Thistle as manager.[10][11] On 24 March 2018, the club won the Scottish Challenge Cup. In the 2018/19 season, Inverness qualified for the promotion playoffs but were beaten in the semi-finals by Dundee United.[12] Dundee then made an approach for Robertson, but this was rejected by Inverness.[12]

Career statistics

Club

[13][14][15][16][17]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Scotland League Scottish Cup League Cup Europe Total
1981–82 Heart of Midlothian First Division 1 0 0 0 0 0 – – 1 0
1982–83 23 21 3 0 2 0 – – 28 21
1983–84 Premier Division 35 15 2 1 7 4 – – 44 20
1984–85 33 8 5 2 5 1 2 2 45 13
1985–86 35 20 5 4 3 1 – – 43 25
1986–87 37 16 6 2 1 0 2 1 46 19
1987–88 39 26 4 2 3 3 – – 46 31
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1988–89 Newcastle United First Division 12 0 – – 2 0 – – 14 0
Scotland League Scottish Cup League Cup Europe Total
1988–89 Heart of Midlothian Premier Division 15 4 3 0 0 0 1 0 19 4
1989–90 32 17 3 4 1 1 0 0 36 22
1990–91 31 12 1 0 3 1 3 3 38 16
1991–92 42 14 6 4 3 2 0 0 51 20
1992–93 42 11 4 3 3 1 4 0 53 15
1993–94 36 8 3 1 2 2 2 1 43 12
1994–95 31 10 5 3 2 1 0 0 38 14
1995–96 33 12 5 1 2 1 0 0 40 14
1996–97 27 14 3 2 5 3 1 0 36 19
1997–98 21 6 2 0 2 0 0 0 25 6
1997–98 Dundee First Division 4 1 0 0 0 0 – – 4 1
1998–99 Livingston Second Division 36 13 5 2 3 1 – – 44 16
1999–00 First Division 5 1 1 0 0 0 – – 6 1
Total Scotland 558 229 66 31 47 22 15 7 686 289
England 12 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 14 0
Career total 570 229 66 31 49 22 15 7 700 289

International appearances

Scotland national team[18]
Year Apps Goals
1990 2 2
1991 3 0
1992 3 0
1993 3 0
1995 5 1
Total 16 3

International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1 12 September 1990 Hampden Park, Glasgow  Romania 1–1 2–1 UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
2 17 October 1990 Hampden Park, Glasgow   Switzerland 1–0 2–1 UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
3 24 May 1995 Toyama Park Stadium, Toyama  Ecuador 1–0 2–1 Kirin Cup

Managerial record

As of match played 10 March 2020[19]
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Win %
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Scotland 26 December 2002 3 November 2004 84 44 13 27 052.38
Heart of Midlothian Scotland 3 November 2004 9 May 2005 35 13 9 13 037.14
Ross County Scotland 21 June 2005 24 October 2005 15 6 5 4 040.00
Livingston Scotland 15 February 2006 15 April 2007 51 15 10 26 029.41
Derry City Republic of Ireland 2 July 2007 11 December 2007 24 8 8 8 033.33
East Fife Scotland 26 October 2010 1 March 2012 62 28 11 23 045.16
Inverness Caledonian Thistle Scotland 14 June 2017 Present 137 65 34 38 047.45
Career total 408 179 90 139 043.87

Honours

Player

Heart of Midlothian
Livingston

Manager

Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Derry City

Individual

References

  1. ^ "John Robertson". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  2. ^ Scotland U21 player Robertson, John, FitbaStats
  3. ^ Scotland B player Robertson, John, FitbaStats
  4. ^ On this day, back in 1990, a Scottish League XI beat Scotland 1-0 at Hampden Park in the SFL Centenary match with the goal coming from then Aberdeen Football Club star Hans Gillhaus, Scottish Professional Football League via Facebook, 18 August 2016
  5. ^ "Heart of Midlothian VS Hibernian". www.fifa.com. FIFA. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
  6. ^ Pye, Steven (1 May 2015). "How Albert Kidd became a Hibs and Celtic legend without playing for them". the Guardian.
  7. ^ a b c "Robertson named Livingston boss". BBC Sport. BBC. 15 February 2006. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  8. ^ "Derry sack Robertson". Retrieved 11 December 2007.
  9. ^ "John Robertson". Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  10. ^ Healey, Derek (14 June 2017). "John Robertson returns as Caley Jags boss 13 years after securing top flight promotion". The Press and Journal. DC Thomson & Co Ltd. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  11. ^ "John Robertson returns as Inverness Caley Thistle manager". BBC Sport. BBC. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  12. ^ a b MacBeath, Amy (21 May 2019). "Dundee refused permission to speak to Inverness CT boss John Robertson". BBC Sport. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  13. ^ "John Robertson". London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  14. ^ "Dundee - 1997/98". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  15. ^ "Livingston - 1998/99". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  16. ^ "Livingston - 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  17. ^ "Newcastle United - 1988-89 season". 11v11. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  18. ^ John Robertson at the Scottish Football Association
  19. ^ "John Robertson's managerial career". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  20. ^ "Six former players added to Scotltish football's hall of fame". BBC Sport. 27 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
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