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Date and Place of Birth 20th September 1973 - Nottingham
Transfers to and from Burnley from Nottingham Forest - 1st August 1997 (£125,000) to Chesterfield - 1st December 1998 (£50,000)
First and Last Burnley Games Watford (a) - 9th August 1997
York City (h) - 22nd August 1998 replaced by Matt Heywood
Other Clubs Nottingham Forest, Wycombe Wanderers (loan), Hereford United (loan), Reading (loan), Chesterfield (loan from Burnley) ---------------------------------------- Chesterfield |
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 1997/98 | 13(8) | - | 1(1) | - | 3 | - | 3 | - | 20(9) | - |
| 1998/99 | 3 | - | - | - | 2 | - | - | - | 5 | - |
| Total | 16(8) | - | 1(1) | - | 5 | - | 3 | - | 25(9) | - |
Profile by Andy Ashworth
During his school years Blatherwick excelled in both football and cricket and apparently could have followed either discipline as a career. He chose football though and signed on as a junior at Notts County. He was only with the club for a year, making no appearances, before making the short hop across the River Trent to sign for Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest.
Although Clough had seen something in the young centre-back he was still some way off the standard required by the then Premiership club. A handful of appearances for Forest were punctuated by loan moves to several clubs as they sought to toughen up the big defender.
Perhaps Forest had decided Blatherwick would never attain the necessary level to make it on the top stage when they accepted a bid from new Burnley manager Chris Waddle. Waddle had been tracking the defender for the previous season and had targeted him as a player he would sign as soon as he had taken up a managerial role and he snapped him up for a fee which could rise up to £200,000.
His Clarets debut came in a friendly against Crusaders where he was said to have had a promising game, even though both opposition goals came from set pieces. As the season started he was first choice but injury 10 games in halted his career with us and he never really managed to establish himself from that point on.
Steve's time with Burnley was short and unspectacular and had it not been for the manner of his departure he could have been another of those players who came and went, swiftly forgotten. His 2nd season saw him start as one of Stan Ternent's first choice centre-halves. However, a handful of games saw the arrival at the Turf of York City and Blatherwick never pulled on the shirt again.
He moved on loan to Chesterfield and while there was used mainly as a substitute, more often than not in attack. The Spirites enquired about his permanent availability and were quoted £75,000. With his contract up in 8 months Chesterfield refused and Stan recalled the defender. The move was resurrected as Lincoln showed an interest and a deal was thrashed out with the Saltergate outfit paying £25k upfront, with the same amount at some time in the future.
Blatherwick was not immediately 1st choice with Chesterfield but when Mark Williams took advantage of the Bosman ruling he slotted into their back four and over the years established himself as their top defender.
He racked up over 250 games at the club, surviving the wrath of what he called their infamous chairman and playing under a number of managers. At the start of last season he was awarded a new one year contract but during pre-season he aggravated a long standing back problem and, under specialist advice, he was forced to retire from the game in October 2006.
Chesterfield offered him a benefit game in recognition of the 8 years he served them well and he will see former club Nottingham Forest visit Saltergate. Now looking at life after football he has taken and completed a course in sports science, giving him a level 3 Personal Trainer, Nutritionist and Sports Therapist qualification. His intention is to offer specialist training to amateur footballer to help give them a better platform to push on from and advance in the game.
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