OTD: ROSS STEWART BORN

On this day in 1996, the Loch Ness Drogba was born in Irvine. 25 years later he was scoring under the arch sending Sunderland fans into bedlam as promotion into the Championship finally became a reality.

Ross began playing football from an early age, spending some time in professional youth systems for Celtic, Patrick Thistle and St Mirren. He never stayed in those academies permanently and began playing for Scottish clubs Ardeer Thistle and Kilwinning Rangers with a hope of one day playing in packed out stadiums. Like the SoL perhaps?

Even at 19-years-old he had eyes on him from the Scottish Professional Football League. League One side Albion Rovers were interested in signing him but couldn’t dream of affording the £1,500 required to get Ross out of his deal at Kilwinning.

The Albion fans actually combined their cash to pay for the transfer and even then it wasn’t enough, so Stewart’s dad proudly put up the remaining £500 to give his son a chance at the big leagues. After one season in the Scottish League One he was snapped up by Championship side St Mirren, who he had previously been with briefly as a child.

St Mirren loaned him out back into League One with Alloa Athletic but after scoring seven goals in 19 games Ross County came calling. It was here where he made his mark on Scottish football. He managed to take them up to the Scottish Premier League whilst making a name for himself. He attracted many interested parties, even without a large amount of goals to his name (28 goals in 82 games overall for County). He was doing all the right things; he just didn’t always get the rub of the green. His most impressive skill was his ability to hold up the ball, and it probably still is now.

Sunderland had seen enough and bought the Scotsman on deadline day in January 2021 for a reported £300k, which looking back on it was ridiculously good business by SAFC. His Wearside career got off to a slow start after injuries pushed him back, but he marked his debut with an impressive looping headed goal from the bench against Accrington Stanley.

At the start of the next League One season he erupted, scoring 24 goals in the league and two in the play-offs. He had led the goalscoring charts for months, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was that he gave his all every game. Despite being the only fit senior striker throughout the majority of the season (letting Wyke leave on a free in the summer), we relied heavily on him and he delivered. At times it felt like if he wasn't going to score no one was.

In the play-offs Stewart had to play up top by himself, due to an injury to his part time partner in Nathan Broadhead. At times it looked like he was missing that Broady-like player to actually make a run because all of his hold up play came to nothing.

Even after little to no action he didn’t let that stop him, he was still endlessly chasing long hopeful balls and chasing down defenders in possession and to his fortune his patience paid off. He chased down what seemed like an easy ball for the Sheffield Wednesday defender to just knock out of play, but he got the bounce wrong and Stewart passed him leading to a one-on-one with Bailey Peacock-Farrell; there was only going to be one winner in that one. Stewart gave us the one goal lead heading into the second leg where we got through via some late dramatics thanks to Patrick Roberts.

Then came the biggest game of his career at Wembley against Wycombe Wanderers in the League One play-off final, he was up top alone again, but he had Embleton in support behind him. It was Embo who opened the scoring early on before Ross found himself on the edge of the box in the latter stages of the game, he shifted the ball onto his right and blasted it low into the bottom left corner sending most of Wembley absolutely mental.

In the Championship, many outsiders questioned how Stewart would make the step up - not us though. We knew of his quality and knew he's be a class act though, even in a division above. Scoring 10 goals in 13 games, it was only a couple of injuries which prevented him from topping the goalscoring charts and potentially Sunderland to back-to-back promotions.

Whenever fit, Ross was an effective centre forward for us. Southampton ended up paying the big bucks to prise him away from us - a deal rumoured to be around the £10m mark, a real profit from the bargain we paid for his services. This would be furthest south he's played in his career, having spent all his playing years either in Sunderland or Scotland. His injury record made this a risky transfer at the time and as things stand, he's not been able to play regularly enough to make that fee worth it. He barely played in their doomed Premier League season and now we've leapfrogged Stewart and the Saints! Of course, we hope for the best regarding Stewart's injury recovery, and there is reason to be positive about his future as he scored on the final day of the 2024/25 season at home to Arsenal (his first for Southampton). We'd be happy to see him back among the goals in the Championship come 2025/26. Happy birthday Ross, and thanks for Wembley!