Steven Craig is a Scottish former professional footballer and current assistant manager of Gillingham FC. A former striker whose playing career stretched across Scottish and English football, he joined Gareth Ainsworth’s Gillingham staff on 2 June 2026. Gillingham’s staff directory still listed him as assistant manager on 31 August 2026.
Born on 5 February 1981, Craig is the son of former Celtic and Scotland forward Joe Craig. His own career took a different route, moving through a long succession of clubs before leading into youth development and coaching. Among his most notable playing moments were scoring against Celtic in Ross County’s 2010 Scottish Cup semi-final victory, helping Ross County and Partick Thistle through title-winning seasons, and converting a crucial penalty as Wycombe Wanderers escaped relegation from the Football League in 2014.
The name Steven Craig can cause confusion in search results. The footballer is not the Steven Craig who was married to actress Sally Field; that is a different person of the same name.
Early Football Career
Craig was playing senior football by 2000. A historical Falkirk match record shows him coming on as a substitute and scoring against Livingston on 30 September that year, establishing that his senior career was already under way well before his later spells at higher-profile Scottish clubs.
He subsequently played for Motherwell, where UEFA reported in June 2003 that he had signed a one-year contract extension. He then moved through clubs including Aberdeen, Dundee and Livingston as he established himself as an experienced forward in the Scottish game.
The exact location of Craig’s birth is best left unstated. Published football records disagree over whether the relevant Blackburn was in Lancashire or West Lothian, and the available authoritative material does not settle the question. His birth date, however, is consistently recorded as 5 February 1981.
Ross County and a Historic Scottish Cup Run
Ross County provided some of the clearest landmarks of Craig’s playing career.
On 10 April 2010, County faced Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park. Craig scored the opening goal in a 2-0 victory, with Martin Scott adding the second. The result sent Ross County into the Scottish Cup final for the first time in the club’s history.
County’s run ended on 15 May, when Dundee United won the final 3-0. Craig was part of the Ross County starting side, making the campaign one of the most visible periods of his career even though it did not end with the trophy.
He remained involved as County continued to make progress. Ross County won the 2010-11 Scottish Challenge Cup, with Craig listed as an unused substitute in the 2-0 final victory over Queen of the South on 10 April 2011.
The following season brought a league championship. Craig was part of the Ross County squad that won the 2011-12 Scottish First Division, securing promotion to the top flight. That success added a league title to a period already defined by cup runs and increasing club momentum.
Partick Thistle and Another Championship
Craig moved on to Partick Thistle for the 2012-13 season and again found himself in a promotion-winning side.
Partick won the Scottish First Division that season, and statistical records credit Craig with 12 league goals. His contribution gave him consecutive championship seasons with two different clubs: Ross County in 2011-12 and Partick Thistle in 2012-13.
That spell also illustrates why raw career totals can be misleading. Different football databases count appearances and goals using different competition scopes, so season-specific figures are more reliable than attempting to produce one definitive lifetime total from incompatible datasets.
Wycombe Wanderers and Gareth Ainsworth
Craig joined Wycombe Wanderers in 2013, bringing him under the management of Gareth Ainsworth. That relationship would become important again more than a decade later.
Gillingham credits Craig with 70 appearances and eight goals during his Wycombe spell, although some historical databases use a slightly different appearance total. The more significant moment came on the final day of the 2013-14 League Two season.
Wycombe travelled to Torquay United on 3 May 2014 needing both a victory and favourable results elsewhere to avoid relegation from the Football League. Craig converted a penalty in a 3-0 win. Bristol Rovers lost their own match, and the combination of results kept Wycombe in the division.
It was one of those occasions when an individual contribution had an immediate consequence for a club’s status. Wycombe survived, and Craig remained part of Ainsworth’s squad into the following season.
After leaving Wycombe, his later playing career included spells with Dumbarton, Forfar and non-league clubs. Craig has said that he retired in 2017, ending a professional career that had lasted about 17 years.
Moving from Playing into Coaching
Retirement did not take Craig away from football.
In a first-person account published through Broxburn United Sports Club, he described developing a coaching operation called Planet Soccer and working in youth development after his playing career. Broxburn United has separately listed a Planet Soccer partnership and Craig as a contact, providing organizational support for that part of his post-playing work.
Craig has also said that he spent three years coaching Dundee United under-15 and under-16 players and that he holds a UEFA A Licence. Those details come from his own published account rather than an independently accessible Dundee United or UEFA record, so they are best understood as credentials Craig has publicly stated himself.
His progression into senior coaching was more directly documented in January 2022, when Gala Fairydean Rovers announced that Martin Scott had taken charge and that Craig would serve as his assistant.
Gillingham later described Craig as arriving in Kent after roughly four and a half years associated with Gala. Public records also point to a period connected with Hutchison Vale around 2024-25, although the exact boundaries of that role and how it overlapped with his Gala work are not fully clear. The safest summary is that his years after retirement combined youth development with coaching roles in Scottish football before his move back into the English professional game.
Becoming Gillingham Assistant Manager
On 2 June 2026, Gillingham announced Craig as the club’s new assistant manager.
The appointment reunited him with Gareth Ainsworth, the manager he had previously played for at Wycombe. That earlier relationship gives the move a clear continuity: Craig had first worked under Ainsworth as an experienced forward during a difficult League Two period, and more than a decade later joined his coaching staff.
Gillingham’s announcement described Craig as moving south after his work with Gala Fairydean Rovers and highlighted both his playing experience and his subsequent coaching background. The club did not publicly specify a contract length in the material announcing his appointment.
As of 31 August 2026, Gillingham’s official staff directory continued to list Steven Craig as the first-team assistant manager. That is the most recent confirmed public status for his career.
Career Highlights
Craig’s public record is best understood through a handful of well-documented moments rather than an inflated list of statistics.
He was scoring senior football for Falkirk by September 2000, later represented clubs including Motherwell, Aberdeen, Dundee and Livingston, and became an important figure in Ross County’s rise at the end of the decade. His goal against Celtic in April 2010 helped take County to their first Scottish Cup final.
He then formed part of Ross County’s 2011-12 First Division championship squad before scoring 12 league goals for Partick Thistle as they won the same division in 2012-13. At Wycombe, his penalty against Torquay in May 2014 contributed directly to the result that preserved the club’s Football League place.
After retiring in 2017, Craig moved deeper into coaching and player development, eventually progressing from Scottish youth and lower-league work to his 2026 appointment at Gillingham.
Why His Career Still Has Relevance
Craig was never defined by a single long spell at one major club. His public career instead connects several different levels of British football: top-flight and lower-league Scottish clubs, a historic cup run with Ross County, a promotion season with Partick Thistle, a relegation battle in England and, later, grassroots and senior coaching.
The link with Gareth Ainsworth provides the clearest thread between the playing and coaching phases. In 2014, Craig was one of Ainsworth’s players as Wycombe fought to preserve their Football League status. In 2026, he returned to work alongside him as an assistant manager at Gillingham.
That progression gives context to Craig’s current role. His coaching career did not begin with a sudden appointment in the professional game; it followed years of work after retirement and eventually brought him back into an English Football League environment he already knew as a player.
Conclusion
Steven Craig is best known as a Scottish former striker whose career included Ross County’s memorable 2010 Scottish Cup run, championship-winning seasons with Ross County and Partick Thistle, and a key role in Wycombe Wanderers’ 2014 escape from relegation.
His later career has shifted from playing to coaching and player development. The strongest current evidence places him at Gillingham FC, where he became Gareth Ainsworth’s assistant manager on 2 June 2026 and remained listed in that position as of 31 August 2026. More than a decade after the two worked together at Wycombe, their reunion at Gillingham connects one of the most consequential periods of Craig’s playing career with the latest stage of his life in football.
