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Date and Place of Birth 18th September 1980 - MANSFIELD
Transfers to and from Burnley from CREWE ALEXANDRA - 22nd June 2006 to BARNSLEY - 24th August 2007 (£100,000)
First and Last Burnley Games LEICESTER CITY (a) - 8th August 2006 sub: replaced Andy Gray
GRIMSBY TOWN (a) - 14th August 2007
Other Clubs CREWE ALEXANDRA ---------------------------------------- BARNSLEY |
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 2006/07 | 7(10) | - | 1 | - | 1 | - | - | - | 9(10) | - |
| 2007/08 | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - | 1 | - |
| Total | 7(10) | - | 1 | - | 2 | - | - | - | 10(10) | - |
Profile by Tony Scholes
Stephen Foster's Burnley career lasted fourteen months during which time he played just twenty first team games, with half of them coming on from the subs bench. With more than enough cover in the centre of defence he was something of a surprise signing in June 2006, the last of the close season signings.
He arrived at Burnley on the day the 2006/07 season fixtures were released and manager Steve Cotterill admitted: "I have been looking around to try to find a right back. I have been in Spain and I've been to Germany, watching something like six games to try to identify a right back we could do something with.
"It's all been to no avail because they are no better than I've already got. Therefore, we have had to go down the route of another central defender to be able to shuffle our back four around a little. Stephen is a free transfer, but more than that he's a proven defender, a good lad with excellent character."
Foster's career to date had all been spent with Crewe. He'd joined them as a youngster, and like many before him he graduated to the first team, making his first team debut in August 1998 in a 1-0 defeat at Bury at the age of seventeen. That was as a sub, and his first start in the first team was also against Bury just two years later. This time they came from two goals behind to draw 2-2 and Foster scored the first of them with just six minutes to go.
After close to a decade with Crewe, he decided to move on and looked all set to join Barnsley before accepting a two year deal at Turf Moor. He certainly impressed during the pre-season games and looked as though he might well claim a place in the side for the opening day of the season alongside new captain Wayne Thomas, but it wasn't the case and when the season did get underway he wasn't named in the squad.
He did make early substitute appearances but it was October before he won his first league start at Plymouth, and it was hardly an impressive debut. On his next start, at Luton, he was somewhat unfortunately sent off and from then he was only ever in the side as cover and always seemed to struggle.
There was perhaps some surprise at the end of that first season when he wasn't made available for transfer, and with defenders at a premium he featured heavily in the pre-season games and was even allocated the number two shirt.
However, he wasn't in the squad when we kicked off against West Brom although he played the full game in the Carling Cup tie at Grimsby. That proved to be his last action for the Clarets and with the season less than two weeks old we accepted a £100,000 offer for him from Barnsley, the club he had looked all set to join back in 2006.
With David Unsworth and Clarke Carlisle having signed for the Clarets since the start of the season his chances of getting into the first team had diminished even further and he made the move to Oakwell after agreeing to a two year deal. Foster became captain at Barnsley and scored an important goal for them in the 2007/08 season, the winner at Anfield in the FA Cup during a run that saw them reach the semi-final. After five years with the club, he agreed a new deal in April 2012 to remain at Oakwell.
It was to be one more season at Oakwell where, for much of it, he was still very much a first choice. It was a fight against relegation won on the last day of the season but Foster's last game came three weeks earlier when they were heavily beaten at home by Charlton. On 9th May 2013 he was one of four players released by manager David Flitcroft.
Links
Good and bad news for Foster, Gray and McEveley at Barnsley (01/05/12)
More ex-Clarets released by clubs (09/05/13)