Keith Robert Gillespie (born 18 February 1975 in Larne, County Antrim) is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays in midfield. He currently plays for Sheffield United of the English Football League Championship.

Playing career

Early career

His first years were spent in Islandmagee, County Antrim where he attended Whitehead Primary School. He later moved to Bangor, County Down where he attended Rathmore Primary School and Bangor Grammar School. He was scouted playing for St Andrews FC from Belfast, and was the first professional footballer to come from this club.

Manchester United

Gillespie signed for Manchester United on leaving school in the summer of 1991, being a member of the FA Youth Cup winning side in 1992. Also in that team were Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, David Beckham, Gary Neville and Robbie Savage.

Gillespie made his debut for Manchester United in the 1992-93 season, and scored his first goal for the club against Bury in a 2-0 FA Cup third round triumph on 5 January 1993.

Occasional appearances for United followed over the next two years, but he was never able to displace Andrei Kanchelskis as United's first-choice right winger.

After a loan spell at Wigan Athletic in 1993-94, he moved to Newcastle United on 10 January 1995, as a £1million component in the 7 million deal (£6million cash) which took Andrew Cole to Old Trafford. Ironically, Gillespie had scored one of United's goals against Newcastle in the 2-0 victory at Old Trafford which had knocked Kevin Keegan's side off the top of the Premier League table less than three months earlier.

Newcastle United

Just seven months after moving to Newcastle, it was rumoured that United were interested in buying back Gillespie as their first-choice right winger Andrei Kanchelskis had moved to Everton and United's only cover in that position was the inexperienced 20-year-old David Beckham. However, the transfer never happened and Alex Ferguson soon abandoned interest in signing Gillespie or indeed any other player in that position as Beckham excelled in that position.

Meanwhile, Gillespie stayed at Newcastle for three-and-a-half years and during this time he played 143 games, including 15 European ties (in both the Champions League and UEFA Cup) and scored 13 goals. In both the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons he helped Newcastle to finish second in the Premier League (runners up to Gillespie's former club, Manchester United, on both occasions), being a key member of "The Entertainers".

In his final full season at Newcastle, the 1997-98 season, Gillespie helped Newcastle to reach the FA Cup final. However, he was not in the squad for the final and Newcastle lost to Arsenal The following season saw Gillespie depart Tyneside in a £2.3million move to Blackburn Rovers.

Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City

Five seasons at Ewood Park brought another 138 games and 6 goals as well as another loan spell at Wigan Athletic, bringing his total appearances for Athletic to 15 from which he scored 4 goals. He then moved to Leicester City on a free transfer playing 48 games and scoring two goals in two seasons.

Sheffield United

Gillespie signed for his current club, Sheffield United, on 5 August 2005, signing a one-year contract. This was then extended to June 2007 a month later. In his first season at the club, Gillespie played a role in Sheffield United's successful promotion campaign to the Premiership.

On 20 January 2007, during a Premiership match against Reading at the Madejski Stadium, Gillespie was sent off for violent conduct (elbowing Reading's Stephen Hunt) twelve seconds after coming on as a substitute. As he made his way off the pitch, Gillespie pushed Hunt in the face. He thereby achieved the dubious honour of becoming the fastest sending-off of a substitute in English football. He was sent off before the ball had come back into play, and so technically sent off being on the pitch for zero seconds of play.

The day after this incident, he stunned Sheffield United when he handed in a transfer request to the chief executive Terry Robinson.

In the summer of 2007 he was linked with a move back to the Premiership with Bolton Wanderers but, in July, Gillespie signed a new two-year contract.

In July 2008 he limped out of a pre-season friendly at Bury and is likely to miss the start of the 2008-2009 season Recently been linked to an Australian team Central Coast Mariners. Gillespie has since been told he is free to leave the club after a fall out with Kevin Blackwell

International career

He is currently 4th place in the list of appearances for Northern Ireland with 83 caps. He made his debut in September 1994 in a 2-1 home defeat by Portugal. He played an important role in his country's 3-2 qualifying win against Spain at Windsor Park on 6 September 2006. Gillespie was investigated by the Irish FA for his involvement in a fracas with George McCartney on the trip back home from a game in Iceland.

References

External links

• Keith Gillespie player profile at sufc.co.uk
• Keith Gillespie player profile at lcfc.co.uk
• NI FA profile