Brian Graham (footballer)

Brian Graham (born 23 November 1987) is a Scottish footballer, who plays for Scottish Championship club Partick Thistle.[3]

Brian Graham

Graham playing for Greenock Morton
Personal information
Full name	Brian Graham[1]
Date of birth	(1987-11-23) 23 November 1987[2]
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)[2]
Playing position(s)	Striker
Club information
Current team	Partick Thistle
Number	9
Youth career
	Hillington F.C.
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2006–2011	Greenock Morton	65	(10)
2008–2009	→ East Stirlingshire (loan)	33	(15)
2011–2013	Raith Rovers	58	(29)
2013–2015	Dundee United	31	(6)
2014–2015	→ St Johnstone (loan)	24	(9)
2015–2016	Ross County	24	(6)
2016–2017	Hibernian	28	(4)
2017–2018	Cheltenham Town	27	(5)
2018–2020	Ross County	48	(12)
2020–	Partick Thistle	6	(3)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 23:39, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

A striker, Graham spent five years at Greenock Morton after joining the club from Hillington. Whilst at Morton he spent a season on loan at East Stirlingshire in the Third Division. He then played for Raith Rovers, moving from there to Dundee United in 2013. After spending most of the 2014–15 season on loan to St Johnstone, he joined Ross County in June 2015. Graham was released from Ross County and signed for Hibernian in August 2016. He helped Hibernian win the 2016–17 Scottish Championship, then moved to English club Cheltenham Town in August 2017. Graham returned to Ross County in August 2018.

Career

Born in Glasgow, Graham made his senior début for Greenock Morton on 29 April 2006, at Station Park, Forfar against Forfar Athletic. He replaced that season, in order to come into contention for the first team, Allan Moore ordered him and Kevin Kelbie to lose weight (despite being one of the thinnest at the club).[4] After leaving Morton at the end of the 2010–11 season, he signed for Raith Rovers in May 2011.[5] He scored 11 goals in his first season at Stark's Park, two behind top scorer John Baird. Graham went on to 28 times in his second season at the club as they finished 6th in the First Division.

Graham was unveiled as a Dundee United player before the SPL club's last game of the 2012–13 season against Celtic at Tannadice, signing a two-year deal as Jon Daly made an exit.[6] Graham was mainly used as a substitute in his first season, with 23 of his 36 appearances coming from the bench. He scored his first goal for the club in a 4–1 win over Partick Thistle,[7] and went on to finish the season with seven goals in total.

In August 2014, Graham was loaned to St Johnstone for the rest of the 2014–15 season.[8] He scored the winning goal on his St Johnstone debut on 30 August 2014 in a 1–0 win away to Motherwell, in the 86th minute, having come on as a substitute.[9] On 20 December 2014, Graham scored from the penalty spot to give St Johnstone a 1–0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle, with the penalty being awarded after he appeared to be fouled by Inverness goalkeeper Dean Brill;[10] however, in the days following the match, he was offered a two-match suspension by the Scottish Football Association's compliance officer after it had been alleged he had dived to win the penalty. St Johnstone accepted the two-match suspension.[11]

In April 2015, Dundee United announced Graham would be released when his contract expires at the end of the season.[12] It was announced by Ross County in May 2015 that Graham would be joining the club on a two-year contract.[13] He scored 11 goals in his first season at the club and started the 2016 Scottish League Cup Final victory over Hibernian, which gave County their first ever piece of silverware.[14]

Graham began the 2016–17 season in fine form, scoring in all four of Ross County's group stage matches in the reformatted League Cup. He scored the winner in a 1–0 win against Montrose, followed by a 75th-minute penalty against his former club, Raith Rovers to rescue a 1–1 draw the following week. He also netted in a 3–2 to Alloa, and despite scoring a hat-trick as County thrashed Cove Rangers 7–0 on 30 July, it proved to be not enough as the club finished third in their group and thus failed to qualify for the knockout round. A 3–1 defeat to Dundee on the opening day of the Scottish Premiership season proved to be Graham's last match for Ross County as he was released by the club on 19 August 2016, despite having a year left on his contract.[15] He signed for Hibernian the next day on a free transfer, although County later received a fee as Hibs gained promotion to the Premiership.[16][17]

Graham signed for EFL League Two club Cheltenham Town in August 2017.[18][19]

Graham rejoined Ross County on 2 August 2018 after leaving Cheltenham at the end of the 2017-18 season. [20]

Partick Thistle

Graham signed for Scottish Championship club Partick Thistle on a 2 and a half year deal.[21] Graham scored on his debut in a 2-1 defeat away to Arbroath.[22]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 18 January 2020

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Greenock Morton	2005–06[23]	Scottish Second Division	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	2006–07[24]		1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
	2007–08[25]	Scottish First Division	13	1	1	0	1	0	3[lower-alpha 1]	2	18	3
	2008–09[26]		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	2009–10[27]		22	2	1	0	2	0	1[lower-alpha 1]	0	26	2
	2010–11[28]		28	7	3	2	0	0	0	0	31	9
	Total		65	10	5	2	3	0	4	2	77	14
East Stirling (loan)	2008–09[26]	Scottish Third Division	33	15	2	1	1	1	3[lower-alpha 2]	1	39	18
Raith Rovers	2011–12[29]	Scottish First Division	24	11	0	0	2	0	1[lower-alpha 1]	0	27	11
	2012–13[30]		34	18	2	2	3	4	2[lower-alpha 1]	3	41	27
	Total		58	29	2	2	5	4	3	3	68	38
Dundee United	2013–14[31]	Scottish Premiership	30	6	3	1	3	0	–		36	7
	2014–15[32]		1	0	0	0	0	0	–		1	0
	Total		31	6	3	1	3	0	0	0	37	7
St Johnstone (loan)	2014–15[32]	Scottish Premiership	24	9	2	0	2	1	–		28	10
Ross County	2015–16[33]	Scottish Premiership	23	6	4	4	4	1	–		31	11
	2016–17[34]		1	0	0	0	4	6	–		5	6
	Total		24	6	4	4	8	7	0	0	36	17
Hibernian	2016–17[34]	Scottish Championship	28	4	4	0	0	0	1[lower-alpha 1]	1	33	5
	2017–18[35]	Scottish Premiership	0	0	0	0	2	1	–		2	1
	Total		28	4	4	0	2	1	1	1	35	6
Cheltenham Town	2017–18[35]	League Two	27	5	1	0	1	0	2[lower-alpha 3]	1	31	6
Ross County	2018–19[36]	Scottish Championship	30	8	3	2	1	0	4[lower-alpha 1]	4	38	14
	2019–20[37]	Scottish Premiership	18	4	1	0	4	2	–		23	6
	Total		48	12	4	2	5	2	4	4	61	20
Career total			338	96	27	12	30	16	17	12	412	140

1. Appearances in the Scottish Challenge Cup
2. One appearance in the Scottish Challenge Cup and two in the Scottish Second Division play-offs
3. Appearance in the Football League Trophy

Honours

Club

Ross County

• Scottish League Cup: 2015–16[14]
• Scottish Championship: 2018–19[38]
• Scottish Challenge Cup: 2018–19[39]

Hibernian

• Scottish Championship: 2016–17[17]

Individual

• SPFL Championship Player of the Month: April 2019[40]

References

1. "EFL Released and Retained List 2017-18" (PDF). English Football League. p. 73. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
2. "Brian Graham". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Retrieved 21 July 2018.
3. https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/signing-news-brian-graham-joins-the-club/
4. "Ton boss issues hefty threat to strikers". Evening Times. 17 September 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2010.
5. "Brian Graham joins Raith". SPFL. 19 May 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2014.
6. "Dundee United: Brian Graham signs as Jon Daly exits". BBC Sport. 19 May 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
7. Crawford, Kenny (23 November 2013). "Dundee United 4-1 Partick Thistle". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
8. Brian Graham: St Johnstone sign Dundee United striker on loan, BBC Sport
9. Barnes, John (30 August 2014). "Motherwell 0-1 St Johnstone". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
10. Wilson, Richard (20 December 2014). "St Johnstone 1-0 Inverness CT". BBC Sport. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
11. "St Johnstone accept two-match ban offered to Brian Graham for diving". STV Sport. STV. 24 December 2014. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
12. "Dundee United to release trio at the end of the season". BBC Sport. BBC. 30 April 2015. Retrieved 30 April 2015.
13. "Ross County: New signing Brian Graham impressed by Jim McIntyre". BBC Sport. BBC. 7 May 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
14. Wilson, Richard. "Scottish League Cup final: Hibernian 1-2 Ross County". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
15. Hislop, John (20 August 2016). "Brian Graham poised to join Hibs after leaving Ross County". The Edinburgh Reporter. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
16. Dowden, Martin (20 August 2016). "Brian Graham: Hibs sign striker after Ross County exit". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
17. McLauchlin, Brian (15 April 2017). "Hibernian 3–0 Queen of the South". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
18. "GRAHAM JOINS CHELTENHAM TOWN". Hibernian FC. 10 August 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
19. "Brian Graham: Cheltenham Town sign Hibernian striker on two-year deal". BBC Sport. BBC. 10 August 2017. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
20. "Ross County: Brian Graham returns for second spell". BBC Sport. BBC. 2 August 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
21. https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/signing-news-brian-graham-joins-the-club/
22. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/51159022
23. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2005/2006". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
24. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2006/2007". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
25. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2007/2008". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
26. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2008/2009". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
27. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2009/2010". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
28. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2010/2011". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
29. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2011/2012". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
30. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2012/2013". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
31. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2013/2014". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
32. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2014/2015". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
33. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
34. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
35. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
36. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2018/2019". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
37. "Games played by Brian Graham in 2019/2020". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
38. "Ross County Secure title and promotion". BBC. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
39. "Ross County lifted the Challenge Cup for a third time". BBC Sport. 23 March 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
40. "APRIL AWARDS FOR ROSS COUNTY". Scottish Professional Football League. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.

External links

• Brian Graham at Soccerbase