Neil Sullivan

Neil Sullivan

Sullivan in 2005
Personal information
Date of birth	(1970-02-24) 24 February 1970
Place of birth	Sutton, England
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1][2]
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team	Leeds United (Academy Goalkeeing Coach)
Youth career
1986–1988	Wimbledon
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1988–2000	Wimbledon	181	(0)
1992	→ Crystal Palace (loan)	1	(0)
2000–2003	Tottenham Hotspur	64	(0)
2003–2004	Chelsea	4	(0)
2004–2007	Leeds United	95	(0)
2006	→ Doncaster Rovers (loan)	3	(0)
2007	→ Doncaster Rovers (loan)	13	(0)
2007–2013	Doncaster Rovers	184	(0)
2012–2013	→ AFC Wimbledon (loan)	20	(0)
Total		565	(0)
National team
1997–2003	Scotland	28	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Neil Sullivan (born 24 February 1970) is a former professional Scottish international footballer. As a player he was a professional goalkeeper from 1988 for 25 years until the age of 43 in 2013. He is now academy goalkeeping coach at Football Championship side Leeds United.

He started his career with Wimbledon shortly after the club's FA Cup triumph. He remained with The Dons for twelve years and made 181 league appearances while at times covering for the likes of Dave Beasant, Hans Segers and Paul Heald and also spent a period on loan at Crystal Palace, though by the time of his departure he was firm number one. In 2000 he moved to Tottenham Hotspur where he replaced Ian Walker as the club's favoured keeper. In 2003 he departed after losing his place in the team and was signed as a back-up keeper by rivals Chelsea. In 2004 he moved to freshly relegated Football Championship side Leeds United where he remained until 2007. Whilst at Leeds he eventually lost his place in the team and was loaned out to Doncaster Rovers in both 2006 and 2007. In 2007 he joined Rovers on a permanent deal where he remained the club's favoured keeper until the 2012–13 season when he was loaned to AFC Wimbledon, the side formed out of the ashes of his first club. Sullivan returned to Doncaster towards the end of the year and aided Doncaster to the League One title.

Between 1997 and 2003 Sullivan was capped 28 times by Scotland. He was selected for the 1998 Fifa World Cup & was the second choice keeper behind Jim Leighton and ahead of Jonathan Gould for all three games.

In July 2013 he announced he was leaving Rovers and after rejecting offers to prolong his playing career. He joined former club Leeds as an academy goalkeeping coach confirming his retirement from professional football.

Club career

Wimbledon

Sullivan began his career with local club Wimbledon in 1988, amassing a total of 224 appearances between 1988 and 2000. It was during his tenure at Wimbledon that Sullivan was often acknowledged as one of the best goalkeepers in the league marked by his selection for the division's 1997–98 team of the season. Parts of his Dons career was spent covering for the likes of Dave Beasant, Hans Segers and Paul Heald.

Sullivan was the goalkeeper against whom David Beckham scored a goal from the halfway line, while he was off his line. He also played one game on loan for Crystal Palace in 1992.

Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea

In 2000, Sullivan moved from Wimbledon to Tottenham Hotspur, where he made over 80 appearances. He then moved to Chelsea in the 2003–04 season, playing eight times for them.

Leeds United

In June 2004, he was signed by Championship team Leeds United,^[3] by manager Kevin Blackwell to replace Paul Robinson who had left Leeds to join Tottenham. Sullivan beat off competition for number one spot from young goalkeeper Scott Carson. In his first season (2004–05), he was voted as the club's Player of the Year after some superb saves throughout the season, including saving several penalties for Leeds. Leeds finished 10 points off the playoffs after a season of rebuilding. In his second season at Leeds, they reached the playoff final against Watford, with Sullivan again having a decent season. But the playoff final ended in disaster for Sullivan with Leeds losing 3–0 to Watford and Sullivan being at fault for the second goal.

Due to an injury picked up in the pre-season match against Nottingham Forest, Sullivan made few appearances in the 2006–07 campaign for Leeds, with loan goalkeeper Tony Warner filling in whilst Sullivan was injured. Kevin Blackwell was sacked and replaced by Dennis Wise. Wise decided to sign Graham Stack on loan to compete with Warner and Sullivan. On 23 November 2006, he moved on loan to Doncaster Rovers. His loan was however cut short and he returned to Leeds on 21 December 2006. Manager Dennis Wise told the press after Leeds' 2–1 victory against Coventry City that Sullivan had put on weight, and his performances were not as good, hence his loan to Doncaster.^[4] Leeds signed Casper Ankergren as the new number one goalkeeper. Sullivan re-signed on loan for Doncaster Rovers in February 2007. After the end of his loan at Doncaster, Sullivan returned to Leeds but was released at the end of his contract.

Doncaster Rovers

On 15 May 2007, Sullivan returned to Doncaster. He became the regular first team keeper and his consistent performances throughout the 2007–08 season helped Doncaster to promotion. He made an error in the 2–1 loss to Yeovil Town on 21 March 2008, mis-controlling a backpass which led to a Yeovil goal, but the disappointment of this mistake was over-shadowed by a very successful season between the sticks, in which Sullivan kept an impressive 20 clean sheets.^[5]

He overcame this to help Doncaster win promotion to the Championship with a playoff final win over former club Leeds United, leaving them in the third tier of the Football League for at least another year.

Sullivan was also credited with a man-of-the-match performance against Aston Villa on 24 January 2009 which gave Doncaster a 0–0 draw that helped keep them in the FA Cup.^[6]

The veteran goalkeeper continued to be an ever-present in the Rovers side throughout the 2009–10 season, appearing in all 46 league games for the club. In 2010, Sullivan signed a one-year-contract extension for Rovers, meaning he would be at the club until the end of the 2010/11 campaign. However, he had an injury-hit season, and was eventually replaced by Gary Woods as no.1. At the end of the season, he signed another one-year extension.^[7]

On 16 November 2012 Sullivan joined AFC Wimbledon on a short-term loan from Doncaster Rovers and made his debut the following day against Aldershot.^[8] On 2 December 2012 Sullivan started in the FA Cup 2nd round match against MK Dons, which they lost 2-1.

With first choice keeper Gary Woods injured, Doncaster recalled him for their game at Bournemouth on 9 March 2013.^[9]

Following his return to the Rovers' team from his loan spell in March 2013, Sullivan went on to play till the end of the season as Doncaster won the League One title and sealed automatic promotion to the Championship. It was later announced that he would be retained by the club for the following season.

On 11 July 2013, Doncaster Rovers confirmed that Sullivan had left the club.^[10]

International career

Sullivan has also been capped 28 times by Scotland. He was named in the Scottish squad for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, but was an unused substitute in all of Scotland's three matches.

Coaching career

After gaining promotion to The Championship with Doncaster Rovers, Sullivan turned down the offer of extending his playing career at the club as well as an Ambassadorial role^[11] in favour of returning to former club Leeds United as Academy Goalkeeper Coach on 16 July.^[12][13] With an injury to Leeds substitute goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown, Sullivan revealed he had not officially retired from playing and would be willing to register himself as a player for the 2013/14 season.^[14]

In the summer of 2014, Sullivan became the First Team Goalkeeping Coach for the 2014/15 season, under Head Coaches Dave Hockaday, Darko Milanic and Neil Redfearn.

For the start of the 2015/16 season under new Leeds Head Coach Uwe Rösler, Sullivan was to revert to his original role as the Leeds United Academy Goalkeeper Coach.^[15] After the appointment of Goalkeeper Coach Richard Hartis on 9 June 2015, Leeds confirmed Sullivan had returned to his role as Academy Goalkeeper Coach.^[16]

Career statistics

Club

As of 21.30, 27 April 2013^[17]

Honours

Club

Leeds United

• The Championship Playoff final runners-up – 2005–06

Doncaster Rovers

• Football League Trophy Winner: 2006−07
• League One Play-off winner: 2007–08
• League One Champions: 2012–13

Individual

• Tottenham Hotspur Player of the Year (1): 2001^[18]
• Leeds United Player of the Year (1): 2004-05

References

External links

• Neil Sullivan player profile at doncasterroversfc.co.uk
• Neil Sullivan player profile at leedsunited.com
• Neil Sullivan career statistics at Soccerbase
  

Scotland squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton 2 McNamara 3 Boyd 4 Calderwood 5 Hendry (c) 6 T. McKinlay 7 Gallacher 8 Burley 9 Durie 10 Jackson 11 Collins 12 Sullivan 13 Donnelly 14 Lambert 15 Gemmill 16 Weir 17 W. McKinlay 18 Elliott 19 Whyte 20 Booth 21 Gould 22 Dailly Coach: Brown