John Robertson (footballer, born 1964)

John Grant Robertson (born 2 October 1964) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player, 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 about 18 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.

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
Place of birth Edinburgh, Scotland
Position(s) Striker
Club 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)
National team
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)
Teams managed
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
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

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 missed out on selection for the UEFA Euro 1992 due to a hernia injury.[7]

Coaching career

Inverness (first spell)

Whilst playing for Livingston, Robertson became involved the coaching side of the game.[8] 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.

Hearts manager

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.

Ross County

Robertson was appointed manager of Scottish First Division team Ross County in June 2005, but left by mutual consent after four months.[8] He was then appointed manager of Livingston in February 2006,[8] but was sacked in April 2007 after finishing sixth in the First Division.

Derry City

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.[9] 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.

East Fife

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.[10]

Inverness (second spell)

In June 2017, Robertson returned to Inverness Caledonian Thistle as manager.[11][12] 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.[13] Dundee then made an approach for Robertson, but this was rejected by Inverness.[13] Inverness finished second in the 2019–20 Scottish Championship, which was curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic.[14] In June 2020, his contract with Inverness was extended by two years.[14]

Career statistics

Club

[15][16][17][18][19]

Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total
SeasonClubLeague AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals AppsGoals
Scotland League Scottish Cup League Cup Europe Total
1981–82Heart of MidlothianFirst Division100000––10
1982–8323213020––2821
1983–84Premier Division35152174––4420
1984–853385251224513
1985–8635205431––4325
1986–8737166210214619
1987–8839264233––4631
England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total
1988–89Newcastle UnitedFirst Division120––20––140
Scotland League Scottish Cup League Cup Europe Total
1988–89Heart of MidlothianPremier Division154300010194
1989–9032173411003622
1990–9131121031333816
1991–9242146432005120
1992–9342114331405315
1993–943683122214312
1994–9531105321003814
1995–9633125121004014
1996–9727143253103619
1997–98216202000256
1997–98DundeeFirst Division410000––41
1998–99LivingstonSecond Division36135231––4416
1999–00First Division511000––61
Total Scotland 55822966314722157686289
England 120002000140
Career total 57022966314922157700289

International appearances
Scotland national team[20]
YearAppsGoals
199022
199130
199230
199330
199551
Total163

International goals
Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
112 September 1990Hampden Park, Glasgow Romania1–12–1UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
217 October 1990Hampden Park, Glasgow  Switzerland1–02–1UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
324 May 1995Toyama Park Stadium, Toyama Ecuador1–02–1Kirin Cup

Managerial record
As of match played 3 February 2021[21]
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Win %
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 26 December 2002 3 November 2004 84 44 13 27 052.38
Heart of Midlothian 3 November 2004 9 May 2005 35 13 9 13 037.14
Ross County 21 June 2005 24 October 2005 15 6 5 4 040.00
Livingston 15 February 2006 15 April 2007 51 15 10 26 029.41
Derry City 2 July 2007 11 December 2007 24 8 8 8 033.33
East Fife 26 October 2010 1 March 2012 62 28 11 23 045.16
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 14 June 2017 Present 152 69 41 42 045.39
Career total 423 183 97 143 043.26

Honours

Player
Heart of Midlothian
Livingston

Manager
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
Derry City

Individual

See also

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. Smith, Aidan (13 April 2019). "Interview: John Robertson on plotting the downfall of Craig Levein". The Scotsman. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  8. "Robertson named Livingston boss". BBC Sport. BBC. 15 February 2006. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  9. "Derry sack Robertson". Retrieved 11 December 2007.
  10. "John Robertson". Archived from the original on 15 March 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2012.
  11. 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.
  12. "John Robertson returns as Inverness Caley Thistle manager". BBC Sport. BBC. 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 June 2017.
  13. MacBeath, Amy (21 May 2019). "Dundee refused permission to speak to Inverness CT boss John Robertson". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 21 May 2019.
  14. "John Robertson: Inverness CT manager extends contract until 2023". BBC Sport. BBC. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  15. "John Robertson". London Hearts Supporters Club. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  16. "Dundee - 1997/98". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  17. "Livingston - 1998/99". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  18. "Livingston - 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  19. "Newcastle United - 1988-89 season". 11v11. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  20. John Robertson at the Scottish Football Association
  21. "John Robertson's managerial career". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 18 June 2017.
  22. "Six former players added to Scotltish football's hall of fame". BBC Sport. 27 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  23. "Bell's Monthly Awards for August, 2005". SPFL. 14 September 2005. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
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