Lilley: Derek Symon (Derek)

1997-1999 (Leeds Player Details) (Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Paisley: 09-02-1974

Debut: v Blackburn Rovers (h) (substitute): 07-04-1997

5’11” 12st 6lb (1997)

Lilley began with Everton Boys Club but never made the breakthrough and returned to join Greenock Morton after a year there in August 1991. He soon gained Scotland recognition at Youth level. He stayed at Chappielow for five seasons and was a prolific striker, scoring fifty-six times in one hundred and eighty Scottish League appearances, of which twenty-three were as substitute. Additionally he scored five times in ten starts and four substitute appearances in the Scottish Cup four goals in five starts and one game from the bench in the Scottish League Cup and five goals in six starts and four games as a substitute in other competitions. He hit a splendid goalscoring seam of form in the 1996-97 season when he failed to score just once in fifteen games and in that period he hit the back of the net twenty times. It awoke the attentions of the scouts and just before the transfer deadline George Graham signed him for Leeds United in exchange for a cheque for £500,000 in March 1997. His stay was not a happy one as he failed to live up to Graham’s expectations and his only goal for the first team came in a 3-2 away win over Barnsley, on George Graham’s birthday, 29th November 1997, when he came on as a seventy-seventh minute substitute and scored five minutes later for Leeds' third and winning goal to complete a remarkable comeback after trailing 0-2. However, he was restricted to the odd start but more often than not he games were as a substitute but more often than not he sat on the bench unused or was given very little time to show his capabilities. Lilley was loaned out to Hearts, in late December 1998 and had a scoring debut for them on 30th December in a 1-2 loss to Dundee at Tynecastle. He failed to improve on that and after five Scottish games ending with a 0-3 beating at Parkhead from Celtic on 6th February 1999 he returned to Elland Road. In late March 1999 he was loaned out to Division One side, Bury, making his debut at Stockport County on 3rd April 1999 in a 0-0 draw. He opened his goal account in his third game for the club a week later, when he got the only goal of the game in the twenty-ninth minute at Oxford United. It proved to be his only goal of his Gigg Lane stay and he came off after fifty-eight minutes in his final game in a 0-0 draw with Grimsby Town at Blundell Park on 17th April 1999. A fee of £75,000 saw him move onto Division Two side, Oxford United, on 5th August 1999, where he spent a season and a half. He made his debut on 7th August 1999 in a 2-1 win at Stoke City, and started to make regular appearances. The goals initially were hard to come by and he did not register his first until 19th February 2000 in a 2-1 home win over Chesterfield, when he got the winner in the last minute after coming on as a seventy-second minute substitute. He played sixty-three League games, including twelve from the bench, and scoring nine goals. He also scored once in six starts in the F.A. Cup but could not find the net in seven League Cup games, four of which were as a substitute, and one Football League Trophy game. Lilley was snapped up by Dundee United’s Alex Smith midway through the 2000-01 season for £100,000 in December 2000, and he scored on his debut with a thirty-second minute equalizer against Rangers at Tannadice in a 1-1 draw on 17th December 2000. United were struggling at the bottom of the table, but along with other new signings Charlie Miller and Jim Lauchlan, Lilley helped turn things around as United reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup and only lost three League games in the second half of the season. Lilley finished as United's top scorer, scored he second goal in the eightieth minute in a 2-0 win at Ibrox on 31st March 2001 and scored the late winner, with just two minutes left on the clock, in the second last game of the season at McDiarmid Park as United fought back from two goals down against St Johnstone on 12th May 2001 to stay in the Premier League. Lilley wasn't as prolific over the next couple of seasons, scoring only ten more goals, but returned to McDiarmid Park to score a hat-trick in a 4-1 win on 22nd January 2002. When his contract ran out after the 2002-03 season, Lilley left for Livingston on 4th July 2003. In his two and a half seasons at Tannadice, he scored fourteen goals in seventy-seven Scottish League games including eleven from the bench. He also scored one in the Scottish Cup in eight games, which included one game as a substitute, and two goals in the Scottish League Cup in five starts. A rejuvenated Lilley scored twelve League goals in his first season with Livingston and supplemented this with four in the League Cup, including the opening goal in the final at Hampden Park in the 2-0 win over Hibernian on 14th March 2004 and a hat-trick in the Scottish Cup in a 4-0 away win over Spartans on 8th February 2004. He did sign for Boston United in May 2004 but never played a game as he returned north of the border at the behest of his wife. He rejoined Livingston in July 2004 and after spending a further season there, in which he only managed three goals and his contract was not renewed. In his two years at Livingston he scored fifteen goals in the Scottish League goals from fifty-one starts and fifteen substitute appearances, three goals in seven starts in the Scottish Cup and three mire in six starts and two games from the bench in the Scottish League Cup. He signed once again with former club Morton on a free-transfer on 3rd June 2005. He stayed there for a season and a half and in total he clocked up over two hundred and thirty games with Morton, but in his last sojourn he scored sixteen goals times from forty-one starts and ten substitute appearances in Scottish League games, scored twice in two starts in the Scottish Cup, once in one start and one game from the bench in the League Cup, no goals in two starts in the Play-offs and three goals in seven starts and one game from the bench in the Scottish C Cup. After Morton cancelled his contract, he moved on to St Johnstone on 26th January 2007, making his debut for them at home to Gretna on 27th January 2007 as a fifty-fourth minute substitute, to try and bolster the Saints attacking options. However, he found starts hard to come by and was released at the end of the season, having failed to score in any of his fourteen substitute appearances in the Scottish League. Lilley was snapped up by Alan Moore in anattempt to bolster Stirling Albion’s strike-force on 1st July 2007. He made his debut in the 1-1 opening day draw against Partick Thistle on 4th August 2007, but he failed to score for the Binos after twenty-three Scottish League games of which eleven were as a substitute and he had similar luck in one Scottish Cup game as a substitute and one start in the Scottish League Cup. He joined Forfar Athletic on 1st July 2008 and stayed for a year and scored twice in twenty-six Scottish League appearances of which three were from the bench. He scored once in the Scottish League Cup in his only appearance but failed to score in two Scottish Cup starts and one Scottish League C Cup start. Lilley was one of ten players released by Loons' Manager Dick Campbell at the end of the 2008-09 season. In a football sense he is presently unemployed. In February 2009 he gave up his job with HBOSbank and became employed by Cadbury's as a salesman.