OTD: ROSS STEWART DEBUT

On this day in 2021, former Sunderland striker Ross Stewart made his debut for the club. He made an instant impact too, scoring after coming on at half time to give us the lead in a 2-0 away win at Accrington Stanley in League One.

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 Stadium of Light perhaps?

Even at 19 years old, he had eyes on him from teams higher up the pyramid. 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 one of his former clubs, Scottish Championship side St Mirren.

St Mirren loaned him back to League One with Alloa Athletic but, after scoring 10 goals in 23 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 (we had let Charlie 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 Broadhead-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 in the first leg of the semi final. 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 drama, 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 Elliott Embleton in support behind him. It was Embleton 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, 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 leading 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 £10 million mark in summer 2023, 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, it's unfortunately massively hampered his time at his current club.

Stewart made just four appearances in his first season and 13 the season after, as the Saints were promoted to and then relegated out of the Premier League. He did score on the final day of the top flight season though, in a 2-1 home defeat to Arsenal. The issues haven't subsided completely this season but he's doing a lot better. He's not managed a full 90 minutes (although he's gotten close a couple of times) but he's now playing regularly and contributing a decent number of goals. One highlight was when he scored a late penalty away to Fulham in the FA Cup, winning his team the game and sending them to the quarter final.