A majestic left winger, Stuart Elliott played for Glentoran, Motherwell, Hull City, Doncaster, Grimsby, Hamilton, Sterling and Northern Ireland.
Hull City legend Stuart Elliott
It was a wet and windy January afternoon at the KC Stadium, made all the more glum as Hull City trailed 1-0 to QPR. The Londoners have been untroubled for all of 80 minutes, with goalkeeper Simon Royce barely having to make a save of note all game. With 10 minutes remaining, Phil Brown introduces Stuart Elliott.
In an instant, the game was turned on it’s head. There was a new-found sense of optimism in the stands, and that optimism was quickly justified in the 85th minute, when Elliott diverted a cross from close-range into the back of the net. Five minutes later, at the death, he handed Hull City all three points with a trademark header.
This decisive cameo came after the peak of Elliott’s powers – which was undoubtedly in the 2004-05 season, when the left winger scored an incredible 27 league goals, a tally made all the more impressive by the fact Elliott was not a forward, and also spent more than 7 weeks of that season out injured.
Stuart Elliott scores the winner for Hull City vs QPR
Asthma prevented Elliott from taking the step up that the likes of Ian Ashbee and Andy Dawson did with Hull City, but his struggles in the Championship and departure before the Tigers first taste of Premier League football have done little to thwart his legacy and cult status in East Yorkshire.
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Elliott joined Hull City from Motherwell in 2002 for £230,000. Then-manager Jan Molby had a short and miserable reign as Hull City boss, but his recruitment was impressive, bringing in the likes of Elliott, Ashbee and Green. Elliott’s first season was disrupted by injuries, but he still finished the campaign with 12 goals, making him the Tigers top scorer.
Under the stewardship of Peter Taylor over the next couple of years though, Elliott would come into a world of his own. He scored 14 goals in the 2003-04 season in a prolific Hull City team which also saw Ben Burgess bag 18, Danny Allsopp 15 and Jason Price 10. The following season, as alluded to earlier, was astonishing, with Elliott ending the campaign with 29 goals from 42 games in all competitions.
Stuart Elliott scores in Hull City’s 6-1 thrashing of Tranmere Rovers
Elliott was a somewhat unusual player. Peter Taylor once or twice flirted with the idea of playing him as a forward, such was his quality in front of goal, but it was always immediately obvious that he was most effective from the left wing.
He possessed good pace, although he was not a wonderful technician and rarely would be seen bamboozling an opponent with step-overs. Elliott was certainly an intelligent footballer with a knack of ‘being in the right place at the right time’, as they say in football.
He scored every type of goal imaginable. Tap-ins, screamers, penalties, free-kicks, one-on-one’s, you name it. However, there was perhaps no attribute more outstanding about the Ulsterman than his heading ability. Elliott had a seemingly gravity-defying ability to leap and hang in the air for an inordinate amount of time, before placing or powering the ball past the goalkeeper.
Elliott played in Northern Ireland’s famous 1-0 win over England
Ultimately, the fact that Elliott’s greatest achievements came in England’s third and fourth tiers mean he does not have the appreciation from the wider footballing community that he ought to. But anyone who saw him at his peak understands the revere he is held in by so many in East Yorkshire, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Here’s to you Stuart Elliott…
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