Simon Lappin

Simon Lappin
Personal information
Full name Simon Lappin
Date of birth 25 January 1983 (1983-01-25) (age 29)
Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current club Norwich City
Number 19
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1997–2007 St. Mirren 152 (9)
2007– Norwich City 106 (2)
2008 → Motherwell (loan) 14 (2)
National team‡
Scotland U21 10 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:03, 2 January 2012 (UTC).

† Appearances (Goals).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16:30, 1 February 2009

Simon Lappin (born 25 January 1983) is a Scottish professional footballer, currently playing for Premier League side Norwich City. He was capped 10 times by the Scotland national under-21 football team.

Contents

Club career

St. Mirren

Lappin began his career at St. Mirren F.C. whilst still at school. He had ambitions to stay-on, take his Highers (Scottish equivalent of A levels) and become an airline pilot, but St Mirren's Head of Youth Development at the time, Joe Hughes, who lived near to the Lappin family, persuaded his parents that Simon had the talent to make it in football and he left school to sign for the club. He was on the bench for several games during St Mirren's first season in the SPL in 2000-2001, but didn't get onto the park. However, after relegation that season he was fast-tracked into the first team where his precision crosses from the left, both in open play and from set pieces led to a few goals for team mates. He made the first of his ten Scotland Under-21 appearances during season 2003-2004. He helped the club gain promotion to the Scottish Premier League for the 2006-07 season.

Norwich City

On 31 January 2007, having made over 170 appearances for The Buddies, Lappin signed for a two and a half year deal with Norwich City for a fee of £100,000.[1] Lappin made his debut for Norwich on 3 February at Carrow Road in a 2–1 win against Leeds United, in which he earned the official sponsor's Man of the Match award. Lappin then scored his first goal for Norwich against Luton Town on 27 February. City were awarded a free-kick in the 90th minute of the game at Kenilworth Road, with the scores level at 2–2, when Lappin curled in a superb match-winning goal.

He played in most of Norwich City's games under Peter Grant in the 2007–08 season, but when Grant was replaced by Glenn Roeder, Lappin found himself out of favour after a 3–0 defeat to Plymouth Argyle. Lappin was one of six players criticised by Roeder after a 5–1 reserves defeat to Ipswich Town.

Motherwell (loan)

Lappin was loaned to Motherwell for the rest of the 2007–08 season on 31 January.[2] During this spell, he played 15 matches and scored two goals, including the only goal of the game in Motherwell's shock 1–0 win against Celtic at Celtic Park.[3]

Return to Norwich

Somewhat surprisingly, Lappin remained at Norwich through the following summer. Despite the club's poor start to the 2008–09 season, he still failed to get near the first team, even being made to train with the youths by then manager Roeder. Many Norwich fans felt Lappin was being badly treated and should have been recalled to the team[4] After Bryan Gunn's appointment as Norwich manager, Lappin made his first appearance for Norwich's first team in 16 months on 21 March 2009 (since the aforementioned defeat to Plymouth), in a 1–1 draw against Birmingham City at St Andrew's. He was, however, unable to prevent the club being relegated to League One.

On 29 June 2009, it was announced that Lappin had signed a new two-year contract with the club.[5]

When Paul Lambert took over as Norwich manager early in the 2009–10 season, Lappin began to feature more regularly and ended up starting 42 league games, more than any other player, even captaining the side when Grant Holt and Gary Doherty were both absent.

Lappin continued to play a prominent role in the Norwich City side during the 2010–11 season. Lappin was rushed into hospital on the 19 February suffering with appendicitis. He had his operation later on that day and was ruled out for a number of weeks.

Career statistics

Club Season League Cup[A] League Cup Other[B] Play-Offs Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
St. Mirren 2001–02 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - - 1 0
2002–03 34 0 1 0 2 1 2 0 - - 39 1
2003–04 24 4 2 0 0 0 2 0 - - 28 4
2004–05 34 1 3 0 1 0 1 0 - - 39 1
2005–06 35 3 4 0 2 0 3 2 - - 44 5
2006–07 24 1 2 0 0 0 2 0 - - 28 1
Total 152 9 12 0 5 1 10 2 - - 179 12
Norwich City 2006–07 14 1 1 0 0 0 - - - - 15 1
2007–08 15 1 0 0 3 1 - - - - 18 2
2008–09 5 0 0 0 0 0 - - - - 5 0
2009–10 44 0 2 0 2 0 2 0 - - 50 0
2010–11 27 0 1 0 2 0 - - - - 30 0
2011–12 1 0 0 0 1 0 - - - - 2 0
Total 106 2 4 0 8 1 2 0 - - 120 3
Motherwell (loan) 2007–08 14 2 1 0 0 0 - - - - 15 2
Total 14 2 1 0 0 0 - - - - 15 2

Honours

Club

St. Mirren

Norwich City

Notes

A. ^ Covers Scottish Cup and FA Cup.
B. ^ Covers Scottish Challenge Cup and Football League Trophy.

References

  1. ^ "Norwich net Lappin from St Mirren". BBC Sport. 2007-01-31. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/st_mirren/6314285.stm. Retrieved 2007-04-29. 
  2. ^ Norwich loan Lappin to Motherwell, BBC Sport, 31 January 2008.
  3. ^ 0-1 Celtic 0-1 Motherwell, BBC Sport, 5 April 2008.
  4. ^ "'Forgotten men' back in spotlight". Advertiser 24. 2009-03-17. http://www.advertiser24.co.uk/content/advertiser24/sport/story.aspx?brand=NOROnline&category=Sport&tBrand=AAOnline&tCategory=sport&itemid=NOED17%20Mar%202009%2008%3A05%3A37%3A700. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 
  5. ^ "Lappin signs new City contract". Norwich City F.C. 2009-06-29. http://www.canaries.co.uk/page/NewsDetails/0,,10355~1705294,00.html. Retrieved 2009-06-29. 

External links

Norwich City F.C. – current squad