STEVEN CRAIG ARMSTRONG
Photo courtesy of Alan Marshall, Neil Brookman, Keith Brookman ©BRFPA
Born: 02/05/1975, South Shields
Position: Defender
Rovers League Début: 06/01/1006 v Hull City
Debut Number: 596
Clubs represented: Nottingham Forest, Burnley (loan), Bristol Rovers (loan), Gillingham (loan), Watford (loan), Huddersfield Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Grimsby Town (loan), Bradford City, Cheltenham Town, Gillingham (trial), Burton Albion, Kidderminster Harriers, Mansfield Town, Forest Green Rovers, Boston United.
Managerial/Coaching Positions: Eastwood Town (player/joint manager), Hucknall Town (manager), Quorn (manager), Nottingham Forest (Elite Development Coach), Basford United (coach), Central College, Nottingham (coach), Arsenal (scout co-ordinator), Crystal Palace (Academy National Recruitment manager).
Following his Bristol Rovers début as a 64th minute substitute for Paul Tovey in a 2-1 win at Twerton Park, Craig Armstrong set up Marcus Stewart’s left footed equaliser against Carlisle United a fortnight later and featured in 14 league games in two loan spells with the club.
Man of the Match against Walsall, for Rovers, he was later to choose Marcus Stewart as godfather to one of the three children.
Having made his Burnley début in a 5-1 victory over Southend United, left back Armstrong was deputy to England international Stuart Pearce at Forest and, amongst several loan spells, he was in the Gillingham side which drew 0-0 with Rovers in November 1996.
Rare appearances at Forest continued to accumulate as his club returned to top flight football in 1998.
Left-footed Armstrong was called up to the England U-21 squad in November 1997, but injury deprived him of a place.
A first League goal followed his expensive transfer to Huddersfield, coming a minute after half-time in a 3-2 home win over Bolton Wanderers in March 1999 and, having suffered relegation with Grimsby, Armstrong helped secure Cheltenham’s promotion to League One in 2006 with a 1-0 Wembley play off victory over his former club Grimsby.
He played in three League matches for Cheltenham against Rovers. Forest Green, for whom Armstrong played in against Rovers in a pre-season friendly in July 2010, survived relegation from the Conference by the slightest of margins in 2009/10 and again in 2010/11, when he was a team mate of the former Rovers midfielder Matt Somner.
After 13 games for Forest Green, he played eight times for Eastwood (scoring against Droylsden in August 2011) and three games, playing against Altrincham, Histon and Workington, for Boston.
Armstrong featured in a bizarre match for Grimsby at Chesterfield in March 2004, the game finishing 4-4 in front of a crowd of 4,444, a mathematician’s dream!