Stewart: David Steel (David)

1973-1978 (Player Details)

Goalkeeper

Born: Glasgow: 11-03-1947

Debut v Wolverhampton Wanderers (h): 09-01-1974

6’1 1/2” 12st (1977)

Stewart was brought up in the Wellshot and Shettleton area of Glasgow and played Junior Scottish football with Kilsyth Rangers, where he won the Scottish Junior Cup in the 1966-67 season when they beat Rutherglen Glencairn 3-1 at Hampden, in a replay after the final had finished in a 1-1 draw at the same venue on 20th May 1967. He worked as an upholsterer and carpet-fitter in those days and joined Ayr United in June 1967 as a part-timer. He soon became a regular for the Scottish Division 2 side, missing just one game in his first two seasons with the Honest Men, which saw them finish as runners-up to Motherwell and gain promotion to the Scottish Division One. This was followed by being ever-present in their first season back in the top flight and his form and consistency had been such that he was called up to the Scotland Under-Twenty-three side on 14th January 1970 at Pittodrie for the 1-1 draw with Wales. Ally McLeod was showing good management skills as he led his team higher and higher in the League ladder, with Stewart missing just three games in the 1970-71 season. However, injury saw him miss twelve games in the 1971-72 season, before he missed just four games in the 1972-73 season when his team finished sixth. He had played five more games for the Somerset Park side before Don Revie signed him for £30,000 in early October 1973 as a replacement for Gary Sprake, who, after losing his first-team place to David Harvey, had been sold for £100,000 to Birmingham City a couple of days before. In his just over six seasons at Ayr he made one hundred and ninety-three League appearances. It was Stewart's lot to play second fiddle to Scottish International David Harvey for most of his five seasons at Elland Road. He arrived at Leeds as they were in their long unbeaten run in the 1973-74 season which saw them win their second championship, and for a while it seemed that they might complete the season undefeated. It looked as though Stewart would have to bide his time as Harvey was known for his consistency. He did not have to wait for long before Harvey failed a late fitness test as Leeds were due to play Wolverhampton Wanderers in the replay of the Third Round F.A. Cup replay at Elland Road, which was forced to kick off at 1.30pm due to the prospect of electricity cuts with the country in the midst of a power crisis. Stewart kept a clean sheet and received plaudits for his display as Leeds won 1-0. AS Harvey again failed a late fitness test, for the home League game with Leicester City on 26th February 1974 and so Stewart made his League debut in a poor Leeds performance which saw them concede a late goal to draw 1-1. Harvey's injury had not been cured and Stewart played the ensuing two games, which were also at Elland Road. United again let a lead slip away as they drew 1-1 with Newcastle United, in a game which Stewart drew praise for a fine reflex save from a Malcolm MacDonald header and in the third game he kept a clean sheet as a Peter Lorimer penalty gave Leeds the points from Manchester City. With the exit of Don Revie to take up the England job, Stewart had to go through a very unstable part of Leeds history, with Brian Clough, Jimmy Armfield, Jock Stein and Jimmy Adamson taking charge. David Harvey was still first choice under Clough and Armfield, but Harvey missed the League Cup Third Round tie at Bury on 9th October 1974 and the League games with Tottenham Hotspur at Elland Road on 4th December 1974, which Leeds won 2-1 and at Leicester City on 28th December 1974 that they also won, this time by 2-0. But in early February 1975 Harvey was injured in a car crash which sidelined him for the rest of the season. This made Stewart the Leeds first-team goalkeeper for the rest of the season as they were still involved in the F.A. Cup, the European Cup and re-establishing themselves in the First Division under Jimmy Armfield, after the disaster left behind by Brian Clough. Stewart, a marvellous reflex goalkeeper, played in United’s 1974 European Cup run, including the Final against Bayern Munich in Paris, after a patient wait for more than a year as understudy to David Harvey. He missed just one game, the final League home game with Ipswich Town, as he played fourteen League, one League Cup, five F.A. Cup and five European Cup ties in the season. He made an outstanding contribution to United's success and was in impressive form in the away leg of the European Cup Semi-Final at Barcelona when his saves were inspirational in taking United through to the Final in Paris. Armfield kept faith with Harvey as he returned from injury at the start of the 1975-76 season and Stewart had to be content with just two appearances in the season, in a 1-2 home defeat by Manchester United on 11th October 1975 and a 2-1 home win over Burnley on 3rd April 1976. His patience and consistency was finally rewarded in March 1977 when he displaced Harvey as first choice for Jimmy Armfield and he played the remaining sixteen League and two F.A. Cup games as Leeds finished tenth in the League and were beaten 1-2 in the F.A. Cup Semi-Final at Hillsborough on 23rd April 1977. He remained first choice at the beginning of the 1977-78 season and his good form was rewarded when he was selected for his first full international for Scotland by his former manager, Ally McLeod. It was in a friendly against East Germany at Stadion der Weltjugend, East Berlin, on 7th September 1977, as a build-up to the World Cup Qualifiers. It meant that Leeds had now two current Scottish International goalkeepers. The game was played before a capacity 50,000 crowd and the Scottish team also included Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan, with Arthur Graham coming on later from the bench as a fifty-ninth minute replacement for Willie Johnston. The physical East German team, though sometimes outplayed by the classier Scotland team, used their strength to create more chances than the visitors and it took an outstanding display by Stewart to thwart their efforts. His heroics kept them at bay until the sixty-sixth minute when Hartmut Schade scored the only goal of the game. But Stewart's night was not yet done, as the East Germans were awarded a penalty with just over ten minutes left on the clock. Hans-Jurgen Dorner, the East German captain, stepped up to seal the game but it was saved by the relexes of the in-form Stewart. While he sat on the bench at Anfield as Scotland qualified for the World Cup Finals by beating Wales 2-0 on 12th October 1977, the game in Berlin was to be his only one for Scotland as he did not make the final squad for Argentina. Soon afterwards Harvey regained his first team position and Stewart finished the 1977-78 season with seventeen League and two League Cup appearances as Leeds again ninth. He had played three League and two League Cup games as Harvey's understudy in the 1978-79 when Leeds accepted an offer from West Bromwich Albion of £70,000 in November 1978. Although he remained at the Hawthorns until February 1980, he found being understudy to Tony Godden even less rewarding than David Harvey, as he did not appear in a single League game. He played fifteen League games for Second Division Swansea in the 1979-80 season and then was ever-present as the Swans finished third and gained promotion to Division One and also won the Welsh Cup. In the two-legged final, they beat Hereford United in the first leg at the Vetch Field on 4th May 1981, before playing out a 1-1 draw at Edgar Street a week later. Swansea brought in Dai Davies as goalkeeper and Stewart once more was an understudy and did not play one game in their first season in the top flight, finishing with having played fifty-seven League games for the Welsh side. He left the club at the end of that season to join Hong Kong team Ryoden FC where he played for two seasons before retiring and returning to Swansea where he became the manager of a carpet store for a number of years before starting his present job as a goldsmith in a jewellery shop. He was inducted into the Ayr United Hall of Fame in 2008.