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 a 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 systems 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 Footballing Leagues. 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 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 bring them up into 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. 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 still is.
Sunderland had seen enough and bought the Scotsman on deadline day in January 2021 for £300k, which looking back on it is surprisingly good business by SAFC for once. 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.
At the start of the 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 relied heavily on him and he delivered. At times it felt like if he wasn't going to score then 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 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 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 95% 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 that devastating injury which prevented him from topping the goalscoring charts and pushing Sunderland to back-to-back promotions.
Now Ross will miss the start of next season due to injury. With a new contract yet to be agreed, let's hope all parties can reach a deal and tie down the LND's future here. Happy birthday Ross Stewart.
