PLAYER PROFILE

Steven Taylor

Position: Defence

Height: 6'2

Weight: 12st 11lbs

Date of Birth: 1986-01-23 Newcastle, England

Steven Taylor

Young defender Steven Taylor made his Newcastle debut in March 2004 in their 1-0 defeat at Bolton Wanderers, finding himself at the centre of the action for Henrik Pedersen's winning goal.

Taylor had been preparing to head the ball back to keeper Shay Given, but felt that Pedersen had pushed him in the back before looping the ball over the retreating Newcastle United keeper. However, Sir Bobby Robson absolved his youngster from blame and insisted that he was happy with his performance.

A product of the Magpies' youth system, Taylor had previously been on a month's loan at Wycombe earlier in the 2003/04 season, where he played six games.

The 2004/05 season saw him make a full breakthrough into first-team football under new boss Graeme Souness. He played 22 games in the Newcastle defence all in all and impressed in most of them.

2005/06 saw him make a further 13 appearances and in 2006/07 he enjoyed over 40 starts for the club. He is now one of the first names on the teamsheet.