Arrivals and departures - part four
Last updated : 07 September 2008 By @pnemad
Stephen Elliott was born on 6 January 1984 in Dublin. Elliott began his professional career as a youth player at Manchester City, but failed to establish himself in the first team, making only two appearances as a substitute. His league debut came on 21 February 2004 when Kevin Keegan used him as a late substitute in a 3-1 win at Bolton.
Sunderland Manager Mick McCarthy signed Elliott in June 2004 for a fee of £125,000, set by a tribunal, with extra payments linked to his performance. Elliott made his debut in the 2-0 defeat at Coventry on 7 August 2004 and scored on his home debut three days later in a 3-1 win against Crewe. He quickly established himself as first-team regular, scoring 15 goals from 42 league appearances as the team finished as champions in 2005. Elliott also scored a brace in the 3-1 victory over Preston on 18 September.
However, his Premiership season was largely disrupted by injury making only 15 league appearances. Although he scored spectacular long-range goals in consecutive matches in the defeats against Manchester United and Newcastle during September 2005.
On Sunderland's return to the Championship, again injury problems blighted his season making 24 league appearances in 2006/07 with 5 goals, two of theses coming in the 3-1 victory over Colchester as Sunderland won the title.
After 81 appearances and 22 goals for Sunderland, Elliott moved to Wolves on 17 July 2007 for an undisclosed fee (reportedly around £750,000), linking up again with Mick McCarthy. Elliott made his debut on 11 August 2007 in a 2-1 home defeat against Watford and scored his first goal for the club on his third appearance in a 3-1 defeat at Sheffield United. However, he failed to make a strong impact at Molineux and was transfer-listed at the season's end after the club missed out on the play-offs on goal difference. His performances were not helped by having to play on the wing due to injuries to Michael Knightly instead of his favoured centre-forward position. During the 2007/08 season Elliott scored 4 goals from 29 appearances.
His last appearance for Wolves was in the League Cup defeat at Rotherham on penalties on 26 August 2008 after a 0-0 draw. He signed for Preston in the last couple of hours before the end of the transfer window on 1 September 2008 for an undisclosed fee.
Elliott made his Republic of Ireland debut against Croatia at Lansdowne Road on 16 November 2004. He had previously represented Ireland's U-20 team at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championships, where he was their top goalscorer, and their U-21 team.
He scored his first International goal to beat Cyprus 1-0 in a World Cup qualifier on 8 October 2005 and has made 9 international appearances.
