| Craig Hinchliffe |
 Craig Peter Hinchliffe was born on Friday, 5th May, 1972, in Glasgow. The 6' 0 (12st 6lbs) goalkeeper signed for Ian McCall's Thistle on Monday, 4th June, 2007, having most recently been with St Mirren. Aged 35, he made his debut appearance on Wednesday, 11th July, 2007, in a 2-0 friendly defeat away to Montrose. Craig kept his first clean-sheet on Thursday, 19th July, 2007, in a 2-0 friendly win at home to Falkirk. He registered the last of his 6 clean-sheets on Sunday, 7th September, 2008, in a 2-0 win away to Livingston in the Challenge Cup. He played his last game for the club on Tuesday, 13th July, 2010, in a 2-1 friendly defeat away to Dumbarton, having appeared as a Jag on 30 occasions. Craig's club-list included Cumbernauld United, Albion Rovers, Elgin City, Arbroath, St Mirren, Queen of the South and Partick Thistle. |
| Craig Hinchliffe's Summary Totals |
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 |
 |
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 |
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| League | 12 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 0 |
| Competitive | 18 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 0 |
| All Games | 30 | 12 | 5 | 13 | 0 |
 ‘Hinchy’ was playing with Cumbernauld United in the early 90s and got his first senior call up when he featured for the struggling Albion Rovers in May 1992 as a trialist. The 20-year-old switched to Highland League football in October 1992, signing for Elgin City. He continued with the Borough Briggs side until August 1995 when he signed for Arbroath. He initially featured during pre-season as a trialist before signing early on in August for a tribunal decided fee of £11,000. After spending his first few months at the club as first choice, he lost his place in the team to Gordon Dunn for the majority of the 1995-96 season before regaining it for the following campaign and continuing for the vast majority of the next seven seasons as first-choice keeper for the Red Lichties, despite good competition from Craig Wight for the spot during the late 90s. In his final two seasons at Gayfield, with the club having won promotion to the First Division, Hinchy put in some superb performances which culminated in full-time St Mirren signing him up at the end of the 2002-03 campaign. He spent four seasons with the Paisley side, including a brief loan with Queen of the South. In the summer of 2007, he signed for Partick Thistle as goalkeeper and goalkeeper coach. Thistle's manager, Ian McCall, had also signed him (on loan) for Queen of the South. Remarkably, Craig's Grandfather, Fred, had played for the Jags way back in the 1930s, a super-rare occurrence. In fact, the Hinchliffe boys became just the second-known Grandfather & Grandson pairing in Thistle history, following on from John & John Harvey! Craig was released at the end of the 2009/10 season, but rejoined in a player-coach role in time for the 2010/11 season. In April 2011, he continued his role under the new management team of Jackie McNamara and Simon Donnelly. McNamara and Donnelly left Partick Thistle in January 2013, with the club sitting in 2nd place, to join Dundee United. Craig then worked closely with new caretaker manager Alan Archibald. Archibald guided Thistle to the Championship title, gaining the Jags promotion to the Scottish Premiership with a 16-game unbeaten run. Despite Thistle's attempts to secure Craig's services, he opted to rejoin Jackie McNamara and Simon Donnelly at Dundee United, signing a three-year deal in time for season 2013–2014. Craig left Dundee United in September 2015, following McNamara's departure. In November 2015 he was appointed as goalkeeping coach at Airdrieonians, but a month later reunited with McNamara at League Two club York City. Returning to Scotland, he became goalkeeping coach at Motherwell in June 2017. On 13 May, after 5 successful seasons at Motherwell working with Trevor Carson, Mark Gillespie and Liam Kelly, Craig returned to Dundee Utd for a second spell under Thomas Courts. Before the 22/23 SPFL season began Courts left the club. Craig had a full season as St Johnstone's goalie coach in 2023-24, before switching to a similar role at Aberdeen in the summer of 2024. |
| (ARB/WIK/WS/SD) |
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