On this day in Irvine, Ayrshire, Ross Cameron Stewart came into this world. He wasn’t caught in Loch Ness at all – he was, in fact, human. Although some of his contributions on the pitch would have had many fans wondering. Of course, the moniker was an affectionate term, with a nod to his Scottish heritage and comparisons to the physical playing style of Chelsea striker Didier Drogba.
His first step into senior football came at Albion Rovers in July 2016 before, a season later, he signed for St Mirren.
He failed to break into the first team there and, in December 2017, was loaned out to Alloa Athletic for the remainder of the season. In August 2018, he signed for Ross County, and this was where he started to draw attention from Sunderland’s astute scouting department. They won promotion at the end of that first season, with Ross scoring 11 goals. In a total of 63 appearances, he scored 15 goals – enough potential for the Black Cats to take a chance on the 6ft 2in striker.
In 81 appearances for the Lads, he scored an astonishing 40 goals – a 50% scoring rate, unseen since the days of Super Kev.
He joined the club on 31 January 2021. A month later, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus took a minority stake in the club. So, officially, Stewart’s signing had little to do with KLD and his revolution. However, it can still be argued that the sale of Ross to Southampton was a masterstroke by the club, and he is largely regarded as the first major profit generated during KLD’s reign. Jack Clarke, Jobe Bellingham, Tommy Watson and, latterly, Eliezer Mayenda (to name the major sales) followed suit.
We will all have our own special memories of Ross Stewart. Of course, there was the second and decisive strike in the 2022 League One play-off final against Wycombe Wanderers, a season in which he finished as the league’s joint-top scorer and won the PFA Player of the Year award.
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Ross is that hat-trick against Sheffield Wednesday on a cold December night at the Stadium of Light. We signed the year off to chants of, “We’re top of the league…” He was to have further success against the Owls later that season when he grabbed the only goal of the first leg to take a vital, if slender, lead to Hillsborough.
Another of my personal memories that springs to mind (and I’ve never had the chance to see this incident again) was during the Covid period, when once again we had made it to the League One play-offs. We had lost the first leg away at Sincil Bank, where people were actually allowed to watch the game, and it was all hands to the pump for the return leg.
Stewart scored early on and I thought, “Here we go.” The lucky few thousand who were able to see the game made a heck of a racket. We then levelled the tie on aggregate after just 18 minutes with a Charlie Wyke strike. But unfortunately, early in the second half, Lincoln clinched it with an away goal to make it 3 – 2 on aggregate.
I remember watching it on TV. It seemed like there was wave after wave of Sunderland attacks without the breakthrough. But here’s the thing – in my recollection, Stewart was scythed down in the box and virtually upended, but the referee wasn’t interested. I could well be wrong, but it was a stonewall penalty in my opinion and could have knocked the stuffing out of Lincoln before half-time.
On a wider point – how far has this club come since those League One battlefield days? Wow.
In January 2023, during an FA Cup tie away at Fulham, he suffered an Achilles injury. He was to miss the remainder of the season. It also marked the beginning of a series of injury problems for Ross. I don’t think he ever got back up to speed again.
In September 2023, we sold him to Southampton for a fee reported, including add-ons, to be in the region of £10 million. Had it not been for the fact Stewart was still on the treatment table, there may have been a bigger backlash from supporters, who were only just getting used to Sunderland selling players for profit.
As I write, Ross has been on duty with Scotland at the World Cup but has since been released by Southampton, making him a free agent. Quite astonishing, really.
At 30 years of age, I don’t think he has been given the chance to show his full potential in a team built to suit him. He is certainly cut from the Niall Quinn mould and, whilst I think his Premier League chances have passed, I still believe he is good enough for the top tier. He was certainly a handful in the air, surprisingly quick for such a long-legged forward and also very skilful with the ball at his feet.
It would be sad if his one full season for us were to prove the pinnacle of his career.
But for the season and a half when he wasn’t injured, he was an idol on Wearside, and we all wish him a very happy 30th birthday and every success for the future.
