Matthew Taylor (footballer)

Matt Taylor

Taylor in 2012
Personal information
Full name	Matthew Simon Taylor[1]
Date of birth	27 November 1981[1]
Place of birth	Oxford, England
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)[2]
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	Burnley
Number	15
Youth career
0000–1999	Luton Town
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1999–2002	Luton Town	129	(16)
2002–2008	Portsmouth	178	(23)
2008–2011	Bolton Wanderers	123	(23)
2011–2014	West Ham United	76	(2)
2014–	Burnley	37	(4)
National team^‡
2002–2003	England U21	3	(0)
2007	England B	1	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:45, 20 April 2016 (UTC). † Appearances (goals) ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 22:00, 9 September 2011 (UTC)

Matthew Simon Taylor (born 27 November 1981) is an English footballer who plays for Burnley. He has previously played for Luton Town, Portsmouth, Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United.

Club career

Luton Town

He began his career at Luton Town, making his debut as a 17-year-old at the beginning of the 1999–2000 season. He soon made the left wing-back slot his own and won the Young Player of the Year award in his first ever season as a professional. His success at Luton came after an initial trial at his local side, Oxford United.

Portsmouth

His displays led to interest from Premier League clubs, but he instead decided, in July 2002, to sign for First Division side Portsmouth for £750,000.^[3] The fee was set averting the need for a tribunal, causing Luton manager Joe Kinnear to lament: "at least Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask".^[4]

Usually playing as a left wing-back in a 3–5–2 formation, his speedy breaks down the left flank in support of the attack were a feature of Portsmouth's play as they won the First Division title in May 2003. As well as being a regular in the team during the season, he also scored seven goals in the League.

An injury picked up in the later stages of the previous season meant that Taylor was unavailable for the start of Portsmouth's first Premiership season. After returning to fitness, Taylor struggled to win his place in the side back due to the side's good early season form and Harry Redknapp's switch to the 4–4–2 formation. Taylor eventually won a place in the Pompey team at left back, where he was a regular in the second half of the 2003–04 season and appeared to be regaining form. Despite failing to score a league goal in his Premiership debut season, Taylor did hit the equaliser in an FA Cup tie at Anfield on 15 February 2004, when he ran the length of the pitch to celebrate with the supporters after a forceful right-footed finish at the Kop End.

Taylor's first Premiership goal came against Middlesbrough on 1 February 2005.^[5] The summer signing of David Unsworth from Everton meant Taylor only became a regular in the side in the second half of the season.

New manager Alain Perrin utilised Taylor as a left midfielder during the 2005–06 season. On 29 October 2005, he scored from 40 yards at Sunderland's Stadium of Light, winning the BBC Goal of the Month.^[6] Spotting the goalkeeper Kelvin Davis off his line, Taylor hit a dipping left-footed half-volley over Davis' head and into the back of the net. Portsmouth had been trailing Sunderland 1–0 in the crucial "six pointer" but Taylor inspired a second half comeback with two goals and two assists in a 4–1 victory.^[7] When Harry Redknapp returned, Taylor initially retained his attacking role but the arrival of Andrés D'Alessandro on loan and Redknapp's disapproval of Perrin's left-back, Grégory Vignal, meant that Taylor returned to full-back for the latter stages of the season. 2005–06 could be considered Taylor's breakthrough season as a Premiership footballer. In all he played 34 league games, scoring six goals. Two of these were crucial penalties; one in the last minute against Sunderland to secure a 2–1 win, and another in an away game at Wigan Athletic on 29 April 2006 to clinch another 2–1 win and survival from relegation.

His good form for Portsmouth attracted interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham, but he signed a long term contract with Portsmouth in July 2006.^[8] In the 2006–07 season, Taylor was a regular in the Portsmouth side on the left of midfield. Despite the team's good form, it took until early December for him to score his first league goal, in a game against Aston Villa.^[9][10] He then added a second from the penalty spot in the same match before going on to score spectacular volleys in the next two games against Everton and Arsenal.^[11][12]

His first-half goal against Manchester United at Fratton Park in April 2007 sent Portsmouth on their way to a 2–1 victory over the Premier League champions. His final goal for Portsmouth was a penalty kick in August 2007, in a 3–1 win over Bolton Wanderers, the club he moved to five months later.

Bolton Wanderers

Taylor training with West Ham United in 2012

After losing his place in the Portsmouth team to Niko Kranjčar in the first half of the 2007–08 season, Taylor moved to Bolton Wanderers on Thursday 17 January 2008 for an undisclosed fee, after rejecting an offer from Sunderland.^[13] On 29 March 2008 Taylor scored his first goals for Bolton with a brace in the 3–2 home defeat to Arsenal. On 11 May 2008 Taylor scored his first away goal for Bolton with a last minute equaliser, gaining Bolton a 1–1 draw against Chelsea on the last day of the 2007–08 Premier League season. In July 2008, having previously worn number 32, Taylor was given the number 7 shirt previously worn by Stelios Giannakopoulos. Taylor scored the 50th goal of his career in a 3–1 win at West Ham United on 5 October 2008^[14] and reached double figures in the league for the first time when scoring against Chelsea on 11 April 2009.^[2] In July 2009 he signed a new long term contract at Bolton Wanderers. In the 2009–10 season, after the Blackburn Rovers game blood tests showed that Taylor had developed glandular fever.^[15]

West Ham United

On 23 July 2011, Taylor signed for West Ham United for an undisclosed fee on a three-year contract.^[16] He made his competitive debut on 7 August 2011 in 1–0 home defeat to Cardiff City^[17] and scored his first goal in West Ham's 4-3 win over his former club, Portsmouth, on 10 September.^[18]

Burnley

On 4 July 2014, newly promoted Premier League club Burnley confirmed that they had signed Taylor from West Ham United on a two-year deal, on a free transfer.^[19] Taylor played in Burnley's first three games of the 2014-15 season but sustained an Achilles' heel injury for which he underwent surgery in October 2014.^[20] Taylor returned to the first team on 11 April 2015, coming on as a late substitute in a 0-1 home defeat to Arsenal.^[21] In his third game back he missed a penalty kick which would have put Burnley 1-0 up in an important game against Leicester City to avoid relegation from the Premier League. Leicester won the game 1-0 scoring 59 seconds after Taylor had missed his penalty.^[22]

Career statistics

As of match played 19 April 2016.

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Luton Town	1999–2000[23]	Second Division	41	4	5	1	1	0	—		0	0	47	5
	2000–01[24]	Second Division	45	1	4	0	4	0	—		1[lower-alpha 1]	0	54	1
	2001–02[25]	Third Division	43	11	1	0	1	0	—		0	0	45	11
	Total		129	16	10	1	6	0	—		1	0	146	17
Portsmouth	2002–03[26]	First Division	35	7	1	0	2	0	—		—		38	7
	2003–04[27]	Premier League	30	0	5	3	3	1	—		—		38	4
	2004–05[28]	Premier League	31	1	1	0	4	0	—		—		36	1
	2005–06[29]	Premier League	34	6	2	0	1	1	—		—		37	7
	2006–07[30]	Premier League	35	8	2	0	2	1	—		—		39	9
	2007–08[31]	Premier League	13	1	0	0	2	0	—		—		15	1
	Total		178	23	11	3	14	3	—		—		203	29
Bolton Wanderers	2007–08[31]	Premier League	16	3	0	0	0	0	3[lower-alpha 2]	0	—		19	3
	2008–09[32]	Premier League	34	10	1	0	0	0	—		—		35	10
	2009–10[33]	Premier League	37	8	3	0	3	0	—		—		43	8
	2010–11[34]	Premier League	36	2	4	0	2	0	—		—		42	2
	Total		123	23	8	0	5	0	3	0	—		139	23
West Ham United	2011–12[35]	Championship	28	1	0	0	1	0	—		3[lower-alpha 3]	0	32	1
	2012–13[36]	Premier League	28	1	2	0	2	0	—		—		32	1
	2013–14[37]	Premier League	20	0	0	0	6	1	—		—		26	1
	Total		76	2	2	0	9	1	—		3	0	90	3
Burnley	2014–15[38]	Premier League	10	0	0	0	1	0	—		—		11	0
	2015–16[39]	Championship	27	4	0	0	1	0	—		—		28	4
	Total		37	4	0	0	2	0	—		0	0	39	4
Career total			543	68	31	4	36	4	3	0	4	0	617	76

1. Appearance in Football League Trophy
2. Appearances in UEFA Cup
3. Appearances in Football League Championship play-offs

Honours

Club

Portsmouth

• Football League Division One (1): 2003
• Barclays Asia Trophy (1): 2007

West Ham United

• Football League Championship play-offs (1): 2011–12

References

1. Hugman, Barry J. (ed) (2008). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2008–09. Mainstream. ISBN 978-1-84596-324-8.
2. "Premier League Player Profile". Premier League. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
3. "Pompey seal Taylor switch". BBC Sport. 3 July 2002. Retrieved 29 August 2007.
4. Burt, Jason (20 December 2003). "FOOTBALL: Taylor fights to keep career and Portsmouth afloat". The Independent (UK). Retrieved 24 July 2011.
5. "Portsmouth 2–1 Middlesbrough". BBC Sport. 1 February 2005. Retrieved 25 April 2009.
6. "Goal of the Month". BBC Sport. 16 May 2006. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
7. "Sunderland 1-4 Portsmouth". www.skysports.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
8. "Pompey pair agree long-term deals". BBC Sport. 4 July 2006. Retrieved 19 January 2008.
9. Sport, PA (3 December 2006). "Portsmouth 2 Aston Villa 2: Angel swoops in to deny Pompey a Taylor-made victory". www.theindependent.co.uk. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
10. "Soccerbase Matt Taylor Season 2006-07". www.soccbase.com. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
11. "Portsmouth 2–0 Everton". BBC Sport. 10 December 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
12. McNulty, Phil (16 December 2006). "Arsenal 2–2 Portsmouth". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
13. "SKY SPORTS: Taylor makes Bolton move". Sky Sports. 17 January 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
14. Hughes, Ian (5 October 2008). "West Ham 1-3 Bolton". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
15. "Illness affected my form – Taylor". BBC News. 19 April 2010.
16. "West Ham sign Bolton midfielder Matt Taylor". BBC Football. 23 July 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
17. Da Silva, Michael (7 August 2011). "West Ham 0 – 1 Cardiff". BBC Sport. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
18. "West Ham 4 - 3 Portsmouth". BBC Sport. 10 September 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2011.
19. "Clarets Lay Out The Welcome Matt". Burnley F.C. 4 July 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
20. "Taylor goes under the knife to fix Achilles problem". Burnley Citizen. 21 October 2014. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
21. "Burnley 0-1 Arsenal". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
22. "Burnley 0-1 Leicester City". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
23. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
24. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2000/2001". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
25. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2001/2002". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
26. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2002/2003". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
27. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2003/2004". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
28. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2004/2005". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
29. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2005/2006". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
30. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2006/2007". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
31. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2007/2008". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
32. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2008/2009". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
33. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2009/2010". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
34. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2010/2011". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
35. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2011/2012". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
36. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2012/2013". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
37. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2013/2014". Soccerbase. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
38. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2014/2015". Soccerbase. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
39. "Games played by Matt Taylor in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Retrieved 8 August 2015.

External links

• Matthew Taylor career statistics at Soccerbase
• Matt's Life With The Stars, But They're No Big Time Charlies