The Star: October 31, 2019
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With the Canterbury<br />
United Dragons<br />
beginning their national<br />
league campaign<br />
on Sunday away to<br />
defending champions<br />
Eastern Suburbs on<br />
Sunday we continue<br />
our Canterbury sporting<br />
icon series by taking a<br />
look at one of the side’s<br />
most prominent players<br />
from their only grand<br />
final appearance in<br />
2006. Gordon Findlater<br />
caught up with Stuart<br />
Kelly<br />
GROWING UP in Glasgow,<br />
Stuart Kelly went on to be part<br />
of the youth and reserve team<br />
set-up at Rangers in the late<br />
1990s and early 2000s.<br />
At the time, Scottish football<br />
was a far bigger force than it is<br />
today. <strong>The</strong> first-team featured<br />
the likes of Brian Laudrap, Rino<br />
Gattuso, Paul Gascoigne, Andrei<br />
Kanchelskis and Giovanni van<br />
Bronckhorst. <strong>The</strong> club even came<br />
close to signing Brazil legend<br />
Ronaldo in 1997.<br />
“With the reserve team, there<br />
was five or six internationals<br />
playing for us at any given time,”<br />
said Kelly.<br />
“You don’t look at them like<br />
that when you’re there. <strong>The</strong>y’re<br />
a colleague or a friend and<br />
ultimately the competition. I’m<br />
quite proud of some of the guys I<br />
played with. Gattuso was a young<br />
boy that came in and trained with<br />
us. He got fast tracked to the firstteam<br />
pretty quickly.”<br />
During the striker/midfielder’s<br />
earliest days with the youth team<br />
he also doubled as a helper for<br />
the club’s kit man. <strong>The</strong> job gave<br />
him a front row seat for a piece of<br />
tabloid headline news at the time<br />
when Gascgoine was accused<br />
by Danish international Erik Bo<br />
Andersen for having urinated on<br />
him during a training-ground<br />
prank.<br />
“My job was to look after the<br />
first-team gear, so you’re in and<br />
out of the changing room and<br />
I remember it came out in the<br />
papers that Paul Gascgoine was<br />
p***ing on one of the guys in the<br />
showers . . . I was actually there<br />
when he was doing it. He was<br />
just talking away and p***ing on<br />
him at the same time,” he said.<br />
After not having his contract<br />
renewed by Rangers in 2001<br />
Kelly went onto play for Scottish<br />
non-league club Shetlesston<br />
FC – who had also secured the<br />
services of former Celtic and<br />
Republic of Ireland international<br />
Tommy Coyne. He then joined<br />
East Stirlingshire FC where<br />
he scored a number of goals.<br />
However, the team struggled for<br />
results at the time.<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
“It was at a time where Arsenal<br />
were ‘the invincibles.’ Everybody<br />
in the UK used to bet for [Thierry]<br />
Henry to score and for Arsenal<br />
to win and to me to score for<br />
my team, but for us to get beat . .<br />
. that was the running joke at the<br />
time, but I was loving it because it<br />
gave me exposure,” he said.<br />
In 2003 Kelly made the move<br />
to Christchurch to play for Canterbury<br />
United with the goal of<br />
staking a claim for a spot with an<br />
A-League club due to the competition<br />
being set to begin in 2005.<br />
His most memorable campaign<br />
REBUILDING:<br />
Stuart Kelly<br />
hopes to<br />
take Halswell<br />
United back to<br />
the Mainland<br />
Premier<br />
League.<br />
PHOTO:<br />
GEOFF SLOAN <br />
came in 2005/06 which saw<br />
him score a number of goals for<br />
Canterbury en route to their one<br />
and only grand-final appearance.<br />
However, Kelly says he “wasn’t<br />
a great person to be around” at<br />
the time, due to his first major<br />
relationship break-up coinciding<br />
with his team’s playoff run.<br />
After finishing third in the<br />
league, the side defeated Manuwatu<br />
on penalties. <strong>The</strong>y then<br />
went onto lose 0-3 to Auckland<br />
in the next phase.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>y absolutely spanked us.<br />
<strong>The</strong> game was over after 15 minutes<br />
and I think we were upset<br />
about that,” he said.<br />
However, they then defeated<br />
Team Wellington to set up a<br />
rematch with Auckland in the<br />
grand final.<br />
“Auckland were different then,<br />
they were a pretty direct physical<br />
team and I think within the first<br />
30 seconds there was an all-in<br />
fight. I remember Ben Sigmund<br />
slapping someone in the face . . .<br />
that ignited the game,” he said.<br />
Kelly scored two goals in the<br />
match which finished 3-3 after<br />
regular time. However, Canterbury<br />
lost agonisingly in a penalty<br />
shootout.<br />
Following the 2006-07 campaign<br />
with Canterbury, Kelly<br />
SPORT 39<br />
Global striker brings experience to Halswell<br />
BIG MOMENT: Kelly celebrates a crucial go-ahead goal<br />
for Cashmere Technical in the 2013 Chatham Cup final at<br />
English Park.<br />
Thursday <strong>October</strong> <strong>31</strong> <strong>2019</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
moved to Melbourne and played<br />
for Oakleigh Cannons and South<br />
Melbourne FC before returning<br />
to New Zealand and having<br />
short stints with Otago United<br />
and Auckland City.<br />
Kelly also had stints in Thailand<br />
and Finland before returning<br />
to Christchurch permanently<br />
in 2013 to play for Cashmere<br />
Technical in the Mainland<br />
Premier League and Canterbury<br />
United in the national league.<br />
He played a crucial role in Tech<br />
winning back to back Chatham<br />
Cup titles in 2013 and 2014. He<br />
scored the second of the side’s<br />
three goals in their 3-1 win over<br />
Waitakere City at English Park<br />
in 2013. A year later won the Jack<br />
Batty Trophy for a man of the<br />
match performance in Tech’s 2-1<br />
win over Central United.<br />
“That second year all of our<br />
games were on the road and we<br />
still won it . . . the biggest disappointment<br />
is that we were two<br />
games away from breaking the<br />
all-time record for consecutive<br />
victories,” said Kelly.<br />
Outside of football Kelly managed<br />
and owned a Frontrunner<br />
store in Northlands Shopping<br />
Centre until taking up a role as<br />
Halswell United’s director of<br />
football last year.<br />
Kelly coaches Halswell’s<br />
first-team in the Canterbury<br />
Championship League and also<br />
played a handful of games for the<br />
team. However, arthritis in his<br />
knee prevented him from being<br />
a regular.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re’s no pain or anything,<br />
but if I train and play it flares up<br />
. . . I’ve come to the conclusion I<br />
can’t train at the level I want to<br />
be and therefore won’t be playing<br />
any more,” he said.<br />
Halswell were a dominant<br />
force in Christchurch in the<br />
1990s and 2000s. However, have<br />
slumped in more recent times<br />
and were relegated from the<br />
MPL in 2016. Kelly believes the<br />
club is now putting the right<br />
pieces in place to help return to<br />
club to Canterbury’s premier<br />
competition in the coming years.<br />
Coaching appears to be a path<br />
Kelly wants to take further. He is<br />
also currently doing a masters in<br />
sports management through the<br />
Johan Cruyff Institute.<br />
Teacher's<br />
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