John Hewitt (footballer)

John Hewitt

Personal information
Full name	John Hewitt [1]
Date of birth	(1963-02-09) 9 February 1963 (age 61)
Place of birth	Aberdeen, Scotland
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) [2]
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
	Middlefield Wasps Boys' Club
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1979–1989	Aberdeen	241	(55)
1989–1992	Celtic	16	(0)
1991–1992	→ Middlesbrough (loan)	2	(0)
1992	St Mirren	14	(5)
1992	Deveronvale
1992–1996	St Mirren	75	(11)
1996–1997	Dundalk	9	(0)
1997	Ross County	7	(1)
1997–1998	Cove Rangers
1998–1999	Brantwood
Total		364	(72)
International career
1982–1984	Scotland U21 [3]	6	(1)
Managerial career
1996–1997	Dundalk (player-manager)
1997–1999	Cove Rangers (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

John Hewitt (born 9 February 1963) is a Scottish former footballer and manager, who spent the majority of his playing career with Aberdeen, but also had spells with Celtic and St Mirren among others. He also spent a short time in management in Ireland with Dundalk before retiring from the game.

He is best known as the scorer of a number of significant goals for Aberdeen, including the winning goal in the 1983 Cup Winners' Cup final. He was inducted into the Aberdeen FC "Hall of Fame" as one of the founding members in 2003.

Playing career

Hewitt was a product of Cornhill Primary and Middlefield Boys' Club in Aberdeen, and was a schoolboy international before signing for Aberdeen, the club he had supported as a boy, ^[4] in the face of competition from a number of other clubs. ^[5] He made his full debut for Aberdeen in 1979 at the age of 17, and by the 1981–82 season had become a regular in the side. ^[4] in January 1982, Hewitt scored the only goal of the game in a third round Scottish Cup tie against Motherwell. This goal, timed at 9.6 seconds, ^[4] was not only the fastest recorded in Scottish Cup history, ^[6] but proved to be the first step in Aberdeen's route to the following season's European success; the club qualified for the Cup Winners' Cup by going on to win the Scottish Cup that season.

The following season, Hewitt again featured prominently for Aberdeen, but it is for two substitute appearances in Europe that he is best known. On 16 March 1983, Hewitt came off the bench to score the winning goal in the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-final tie against Bayern Munich, and then repeated the feat by scoring the winner in extra time in the final against Real Madrid. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

Hewitt also scored twice in the 1986 Scottish Cup final against Hearts – a game in which he was named Man of the match. ^[4] In all, he won three championship medals, four Scottish Cup winners medals, one Scottish League Cup winners medal as well as the Cup Winners' Cup and the following season's European Super Cup while at Aberdeen. ^[10]

In 1989, Hewitt moved to Celtic, but failed to break into the first team on a regular basis, and subsequently spent four more successful seasons with St Mirren. A short, unsuccessful spell as player-manager of Dundalk was notable only for the fact that he scored the only goal of a pre-season friendly game against Aberdeen. ^[11] Hewitt retired from the game after a season as assistant manager to his former Aberdeen team-mate Doug Rougvie at Cove Rangers.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			National cup		League cup		Europe		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Aberdeen [12]	1979–80	Scottish Premier Division	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
	1980–81		22	2	1	0	3	1	3	0	29	3
	1981–82		25	11	6	2	8	2	6	4	45	19
	1982–83		16	5	1	0	7	1	9	5	33	11
	1983–84		32	12	5	0	10	4	10	0	57	16
	1984–85		21	4	5	1	0	0	2	0	28	5
	1985–86		23	6	4	4	5	1	6	3	38	14
	1986–87		34	11	3	1	3	2	2	0	42	14
	1987–88		37	1	5	0	5	2	4	0	51	3
	1988–89		27	3	2	0	5	2	1	0	35	5
	Total		241	55	33	8	46	15	43	12	363	90
Celtic [13]	1989–90	Scottish Premier Division	12	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	15	0
	1990–91		4	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	6	0
	1991–92		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total		16	0	0	0	5	0	0	0	21	0
Middlesbrough (loan) [14]	1991–92	Second Division	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0
St Mirren (loan) [15]	1991–92	Scottish Premier Division	14	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	14	5
St Mirren	1992–93	Scottish First Division	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1993–94		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1994–95		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	1995–96		–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	Total		75	11	–	–	–	–	–	–	87	11
Deveronvale (loan)	1992–93	Highland League	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Dundalk [16]	1996–97	Ireland Premier Division	9	0	3	0	3	0	0	0	15	0
Ross County [17]	1996–97	Scottish Third Division	7	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	1
Cove Rangers	1997–98	Highland League	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Brantwood	1998–99	League of Ireland First Division	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Career total			364+	72+	36+	8+	54+	15+	43	12	497+	107+

Honours

Aberdeen

• Scottish Premier Division: 1979–80, 1983–84, 1984–85
• Scottish Cup: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84, 1985–86, 1989–90
• Scottish League Cup: 1985–86
• Drybrough Cup: 1980
• European Cup Winners' Cup: 1982–83
• European Super Cup: 1983

References

1. "John Hewitt". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
2. "Hewitt, John Hewitt - Footballer | BDFutbol". www.bdfutbol.com. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
3. "Scotland U21 Player John Hewitt Details".
4. Smith, Paul (2007). The Legends of Aberdeen. Breedon Books. p. 83. ISBN   978-1-85983-575-3.
5. Ferguson, Alex (2000). Managing My Life. Coronet. p. 167. ISBN   0-340-72856-6.
6. "Scottish League SFAQs". Scottishleague.net. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
7. 5 of football's finest super-subs ^{[ permanent dead link ‍]}, BT Sport, 23 September 2015
8. Hewitt's glory in Gothenburg, UEFA, 19 May 2003
9. Aberdeen's glory in Gothenburg: 30 years on, BBC Sport, 11 May 2013
10. Super-sub Hewitt asks away from Pittodrie,The Glasgow Herald, 9 February 1987
11. "Dundalk FC: Results 1996–1997". Dundalk FC. Retrieved 22 January 2008.^{[ dead link ‍]}
12. "Aberdeen Football Club Heritage Trust – Player Profile". afcheritage.org. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
13. fitbastats.com
14. "11v11.com".
15. "Past Saints – H". StMirren.info. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
16. "John Hewitt | Dundalk F.C. Who's Who". dundalkfcwhoswho.com. Retrieved 11 March 2023.
17. "John Hewitt | Player Statistics | Ross County (Staggie Archive)". staggiearchive.co.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2023.