Eddie Forrest



Eddie ForrestEdinburgh born central defender Eddie Forrest began his football career with Stirling Albion, he would spent three years with the Bino’s before moving to Lanarkshire where he joined Airdrieonians. He was a player who would suffer rotten luck for the next few years as the Diamond’s would go into administration. Despite initially surviving the player and staff cull he found himself being made redundant a year later.

As the saying goes ‘every cloud has a silver lining’, Billy Davies having a massive rebuilding job on his hands as many high earners had left the club at the end of the previous season as John Boyle’s experiment to make Motherwell the third force in Scottish football had clearly failed saw the management looking around to secure some bargain basement signing. Eddie was recommended to Davies by his former boss John Philliben who was now working with the first team coaching staff, the young defender arrived at Fir Park in July 2001.

Despite Karl Ready and Greg Strong being the preferred central defensive pairing, Eddie enjoyed a consistent run in the side in the first half of the 2001/02 season, he made his debut against Kilmarnock in August which finished in a 2-2 draw, but as the side struggled to grind out results Davies lost his job as did Philliben. Forrest would soon find himself out of new manager Eric Black’s plans as he wouldn’t feature at all in the second half of the season.

For the second time in his career he would suffer a similar fate to that of which happened with Airdrie in that Motherwell were plunged into administration in April 2002 and he was one of nineteen players to be told they would lose their jobs.

Eddie would spend the majority of his career representing clubs throughout the Scottish divisions as he had spells with Berwick Rangers, Forfar Athletic, Ayr United, East Stirlingshire and Airdrie United.

In 2003 he was the victim of a hoax while playing for Arbroath. Hoping to secure a return to full time football, he received a phone call from what he thought was the chairman of First Division side Raith Rovers who were keen to sign him but as it transpired it was a footballer named Paul Browne who was earmarked as Forrest’s replacement should he leave the club. Browne was signed by Arbroath manager Paul Brownlie but as events unraveled Browne was subsequently sacked and Eddie was reinstated. Eddie however would get his return to full time football when SPL side Partick Thistle added him to their squad.

Name:
Edward Forrest
Height:
6′
Weight:
10st 10lbs
Date of Birth:
17th December 1978
Place of Birth:
Edinburgh
Position:
Defender
Nationality:
Scottish

Football Career:

Stirling Albion 1996 1999
Airdrieonians 1999 2001
Motherwell 2001 2002
Berwick Rangers 2002 2003
Arbroath 2003
Partick Thistle 2003 2004
Forfar Athletic 2004 2006
Ayr United 2006 2008
East Stirlingshire 2008 2010
Airdrie United 2010 2011

Well Career:

Apps Goals
League:
9 (4) 0
Scottish Cup:
0 (1) 0
League Cup:
1 (0) 0
Other:
0 0
Total:
10 (5) 0