Craig McAllister

Craig McAllister

Born 28 June 1980 (Age 27 at debut)

Position: Forward

(Diamonds player #278)

Total appearances 14 – 1 goal

(9 League, 3 FA Cup, 1 FA Trophy, 1 League Cup)

First spell

Debut: 12 October 2007 (Home Forest Green Rovers)

Final game: 10 November 2007 (Home Macclesfield Town)

Second spell

Debut: 24 November 2007 (Away Northwich Victoria)

Final game: 1 January 2008 (Away Stevenage Borough)

Born in Glasgow, Craig started his career with Ryman League side Basingstoke Town where he scored over 50 goals in some 100 appearances. His goalscoring exploits saw interest from various League sides, but none took the risk to sign him. He moved to Conference side Stevenage Borough in May 2004, where he had loan spells with Gravesend & Northfleet and Eastleigh. He was released by Stevenage in the summer of 2005, and he joined Woking where he spent a further two seasons. In May 2007, he joined Grays Athletic, and it was from Grays that Craig arrived at Nene Park on 11 October 2007 for a three month loan period. He was recalled by Grays briefly on 12 November for just a single game, but returned to Nene Park to complete his loan, with a view to making the deal permanent in the January transfer window. Although he impressed during his stay, Oxford United expressing an interest in him prior to the transfer window opening, and Craig decided to move to Oxford on 4 January 2008 to allow him to be closer to his family home in Southampton. During his spell at Nene Park, he made seven Blue Square Premier starts and scored one goal – in the five-nil victory over Oxford at the beginning of November 2007.

He subsequently moved to Exeter City in the summer of 2008 as they returned to the Football League, where he helped them to achieve their second successive promotion. In November 2009, he went on loan to Barnet, before joining League Two side Rotherham United on an emergency loan on 11 March 2010. He was released by Exeter at the end of the season, and joined Conference side Crawley Town on 28 June 2010, helping them win the Conference title. He rejected a new contract in the summer, and joined Conference side Newport County on 27 May 2011 on a two year deal, but failed to score in 24 League appearances for the Exiles. On 18 January 2012, Craig went on loan to Luton Town until the end of the season with a view to making a permanent move in the summer, but this was not forthcoming. On 27 June 2012, Craig joined Conference South side Eastleigh before moving to Sutton United in 2016. He returned to Eastleigh for a fourth spell before joining Gosport Borough at the start of 2018, taking on a player-manager role for the 2018-19 season. His Wikipedia page is here.

Appearances

2007/2008 – squad number 9