Ryan Esson

Ryan John Esson (born 19 March 1980) is a Scottish former professional football goalkeeper currently a goalkeeping coach for Inverness Caledonian Thistle. He started his career in 2000, in the Scottish Premier League, as a goalkeeper for Aberdeen. He has also played for Shrewsbury Town and Hereford United.

Ryan Esson
Personal information
Full name Ryan John Esson[1]
Date of birth (1980-03-19) 19 March 1980
Place of birth Aberdeen, Scotland
Playing position(s) Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Inverness CT (goalkeeping coach)
Youth career
Parkvale
1996–1999 Aberdeen
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1999–2006 Aberdeen 89 (0)
2002 → Rotherham United (loan) 0 (0)
2006–2008 Shrewsbury Town 6 (0)
2008 Hereford United 1 (0)
2008–2018 Inverness Caledonian Thistle 163 (0)
National team
1999–2001 Scotland U21[2] 7 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 22:59, 20 August 2017 (UTC)

Career

Aberdeen

Esson started his career with his hometown club Aberdeen in the Scottish Premier League, debuting on 14 May 2000 in the 5–1 win over Kilmarnock. Aberdeen got to the 2000 Scottish Cup Final, and after only three minutes of the match Jim Leighton (playing in his last career game) sustained a serious head injury. Due to teams only being able to name three substitutes at the time Esson was not on the bench and Robbie Winters was forced to go in goal wearing Esson's jersey.[3] He became Aberdeen's first-choice keeper for 2000–01. After losing his place the following season, he had a brief loan spell at Rotherham United in March to May 2002.

Esson did not play at all in the 2002–2003 season and only twice in 2003–2004, but played the majority of Aberdeen's games in 2004–05.
The former Scotland Youth and U21 international was an unused substitute when the senior side played the USA in November 2005.

His contract expired at the end of the 2005–06 season, and after playing in 'only' 18 matches during the campaign, Esson decided to leave the club in order to seek more first team games. His final appearance was against Celtic in May 2006.

Shrewsbury Town

He joined Shrewsbury Town on 30 June 2006 on a free transfer and made his début in the 2006–07 opener against Mansfield Town, which finished 2–2. After playing in Shrewsbury's first six league matches he was dropped in favour of Chris Mackenzie.

Whilst playing in a reserve fixture on 18 September 2006, Esson sustained a broken cheekbone, and it was later revealed that he would be sidelined for up to ten weeks.[4]

Scott Shearer was signed on loan from Bristol Rovers to cover Esson's injury spell. Upon his recovery, Esson could not dislodge him from the first team, and Shearer played out the rest of the season as first choice goalkeeper. In the League Two play-off final, Shearer was prohibited from playing against his parent club, Bristol Rovers. Chris Mackenzie, who had played more league games that season, was chosen ahead of Esson for the match.

At the end of the 2006–07 season Shearer left Shrewsbury, and the club signed Welsh international Glyn Garner to be their first choice goalkeeper for the 2007–08 season. With a season left on his contract, Esson was told that he may leave should he have the desire and opportunity.[5] However, with no firm offers on the table, Esson opted to see out his contract at the club, and he attempted to win back the first choice goalkeeper's berth.

In 2007–08, Esson was used as Shrewsbury's goalkeeper for the early rounds of the League Cup, where his highlight was an extra-time penalty save as Shrewsbury won 1–0 against Colchester United. With Glyn Garner firmly established as the club's number one goalkeeper, rumours linked Esson with a move back to Scotland. On 30 January 2008, Esson was released by Shrewsbury, after having the final six months of his contract paid off.[6]

Hereford United
Esson on stage as the Inverness team celebrate winning the First Division title in May 2010 at the Caledonian Stadium.

On 17 March 2008 he joined Hereford United until the end of the season, as cover for the injured Michael Ingham. He made his one and only appearance for the Bulls on the final day of the season, playing 90 minutes against Grimsby Town. He was released by Hereford on 19 May 2008.[7][8]

Inverness CT

On 15 July 2008 Esson completed a free transfer to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, signing a two-year contract. He was a regular in the squad which won the First Division championship in 2009–10.[9] Throughout the 2010–11 season he was the first choice 'keeper, ahead of Jonathan Tuffey.
He was voted 'Player of the Season' for the 2011–12 campaign.[10] Esson signed a new two-year contract with Inverness in May 2012.[11]
In December 2013, Esson signed a further deal with Inverness, which also included a coaching role at the club.[12]

In early 2018, Ryan announced that he would be focusing more on his coaching role rather than playing (due to the fact that Inverness had a younger and more agile keeper), but wasn't intending on retirement.

In August 2018, Ryan was offered a testimonial game in honor of his ten-year service to the highland club. The testimonial was initially planned to be played between Inverness CT and an Inverness CT Legends side in April 2020, however, it was postponed to a later date due to the COVID-19 Pandemic which had shut down all Football within Scotland.

Career statistics
As of match played 11 August 2018 [13]
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Aberdeen 1999–2000[14] Scottish Premier League 100000—10
2000–01[15] 36010102[lower-alpha 1]0400
2001–02[16] 901020—120
2002–03[17] 0000000000
2003–04[18] 200000—20
2004–05[19] 2303000—260
2005–06[20] 1800010—190
Aberdeen total 8905040201000
Shrewsbury Town 2006–07[21] League Two 6000000060
2007–08[22] 0000200020
Shrewsbury total 6000200080
Hereford United 2007–08[22] League Two 1000000010
Inverness
Caledonian
Thistle		 2008–09[23] Scottish Premier League 2102030—260
2009–10[24] Scottish First Division 36020203[lower-alpha 2]0430
2010–11[25] Scottish Premier League 3501000—360
2011–12[26] 3300000—330
2012–13[27] 1501020—180
2013–14[28] Scottish Premiership 100000—10
2014–15[29] 1604000—200
2015–16[30] 0000000000
2016–17[31] 600010—70
2017–18[32] Scottish Championship 0000000000
2018–19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Inverness total 163010080301840
Career total 2590150140502930
  1. Appearances in the UEFA Cup
  2. Appearances in the Scottish Challenge Cup

Honours
Inverness Caledonian Thistle
gollark: Our cookies are laser-cut, actually.
gollark: No, we did that ages ago, it's in the company handbook.
gollark: Our containment octahedra can protect them from this actually.
gollark: It's not like we haven't had access to the platonic realm of forms since 2007.
gollark: If they were, they would already retroactively have been.

References
  1. Hugman, Barry J. (ed) (2008). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2008–09. Mainstream. ISBN 978-1-84596-324-8.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  2. "Scotland U21 Player Ryan Esson Details".
  3. "Rangers profit from Dons' misery". BBC. 27 May 2000. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  4. "Injuries and Suspensions". www.shrewsburytown.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2006.
  5. "Retain list". Shrewsbury Town official website. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2007.
  6. "Keeper Leaves". Shrewsbury Town official website. Archived from the original on 16 June 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2008.
  7. "Hereford release player quartet". BBC Sport. 20 May 2008. Retrieved 21 May 2008.
  8. "Players leaving the Street". herefordunited.co.uk. Archived from the original on 5 February 2009. Retrieved 21 May 2008.
  9. Bannerman, Charles. "Inverness CT 1–0 Dundee". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 2 May 2010.
  10. "Statistics: Inverness CT". Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  11. "Ryan Esson relief at new Inverness Caledonian Thistle deal". BBC Sport. BBC. 17 May 2012. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
  12. "Ryan's Good Save!". ICTFC.com. Inverness Caledonian Thistle FC. 19 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  13. Ryan Esson at Soccerway. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  14. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  15. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2000/2001". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  16. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2001/2002". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  17. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2002/2003". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  18. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2003/2004". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  19. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2004/2005". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  20. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2005/2006". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  21. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2006/2007". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  22. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2007/2008". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  23. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2008/2009". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  24. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2009/2010". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  25. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2010/2011". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  26. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2011/2012". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  27. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2012/2013". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  28. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2013/2014". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  29. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2014/2015". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  30. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  31. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2016/2017". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  32. "Games played by Ryan Esson in 2017/2018". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  33. Lamont, Alasdair (30 May 2015). "Inverness CT 2–1 Falkirk". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
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