Player Profile: Keith Gillespie

22 Aug 2001: Joy for Blackburn Rovers goalscorer Keith Gillespie during the FA Barclaycard Premiership match against Manchester United played at Ewood Park in Blackburn, England. The game ended in a 2-2 draw.

Hailing from Larne, Keith Gillespie signed for Manchester United at the beginning of the 1991–92 cam­paign. A fast and power­ful winger, the North­ern Irish­man made his first senior appearance for Manchester United in a com­fort­able 2–0 win against against Divi­sion Three out­fit Bury at Old Traf­ford in the FA Cup Third Round in Janu­ary 1993.

Keith Gillespie´s Manchester United career was short lived, how­ever, as the young player was trans­ferred to fel­low Eng­lish Premier League side New­castle United in Janu­ary 1995 after mak­ing a mere four­teen league appear­ances for The Manchester Reds. While with New­castle United, Gillespie clocked up well over 100 league appear­ances before he was sold to Black­burn Rovers for a repor­ted trans­fer fee of £2.3 mil­lion in Decem­ber 1998. The Ulster­man later played for a string of clubs, includ­ing Leicester City, Shef­field United and Brad­ford City. The much trav­elled foot­baller made his senior debut for North­ern Ire­land in a 2–1 defeat against Por­tugal at Wind­sor Park in Septem­ber 1994 and won a total of 86 full caps for his nat­ive coun­try.

Unfor­tu­nately, Keith Gillespie had a gambling prob­lem and was declared a bank­rupt in Octo­ber 2010.

Keith Gillespie Play­ing Career:

Manchester United, New­castle United, Black­burn Rovers, Wigan Ath­letic, Leicester City, Shef­field United, Charlton Ath­letic, Brad­ford City, Glentoran, Dar­ling­ton, Long­ford Town.