Joe Cardle

Born in Blackpool, Cardle played for Lytham Juniors in his youth alongside Joe Anyon. Both players signed for Burnley as schoolboys. In July 2003, 16-year-old Cardle signed for League One club Port Vale as an apprentice. Cardle made his senior debut on 10 September 2005, in a 2–0 defeat to Scunthorpe United. He made nine appearances in the 2005–06 campaign, and ten appearances in 2006–07. In May 2007, he signed a one-year extension to his contract.[3]

In August 2007, Cardle signed on loan for Scottish First Division outfit Clyde until Christmas.[4] He made his debut on 1 September against Dundee, but was sent off 25 minutes into the game.[5] He made ten appearances in all competitions, the final one being against Montrose in the Scottish Cup in November 2007. He was taken off with an injury, and failed to recover before his loan spell ended. Back at Vale Park, he played nine games in 2007–08.

Cardle was released by new Vale manager Lee Sinnott in May 2008,[6] and subsequently returned to Scotland to join Airdrie United.[7] He played for Airdrie in the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup at McDiarmid Park, helping his new club to beat Ross County on penalties to claim their first trophy.[8]

Cardle was red-carded in his final match for Airdrie, against Livingston on 7 March 2009, after an on-field incident with captain Marc Smyth.[9][10] Cardle later said that "Big Marc got me mixed up with another Airdrie player who had lost possession which led to their [Livingston] fourth goal... Marc's verbal onslaught mistakenly directed at me, made me lose it".[5] Cardle left the Excelsior Stadium by mutual consent four days later, having made a total of 24 appearances on the right side of midfield for the "Diamonds", scoring three goals in cup competitions along with one league goal.

In May 2009, Cardle signed with Airdrie's First Division rivals Dunfermline Athletic. On 23 January 2010, Cardle scored a hat-trick in Dunfermline's 4–1 win at Partick Thistle, after coming on as a substitute. He scored eight goals in 31 games over all competitions in the 2009–10 campaign. In 2010–11, he helped Jim McIntyre's "Pars" to promotion into the Scottish Premier League as First Division champions.[5] He also scored past Rangers at Ibrox in Dunfermline's 7–2 defeat in the League Cup.[11] However Athletic were relegated straight back out of the SPL in 2011–12, despite a late managerial change in putting Jim Jefferies in charge at East End Park.[12] He was made redundant by Dunfermline in March 2013 after the club suffered a financial crisis.[13]

On 31 March 2013, he joined Raith Rovers until the end of the season, after manager Grant Murray acted quickly to beat the player registration deadline.[14] In July 2013, Cardle signed a new contract to stay at Stark's Park for another year.[15] In February 2014, Cardle stated he had "fallen back in love with football" at Stark's Park.[16] He played in the final of the Scottish Challenge Cup at Easter Road as Rovers beat Rangers 1–0 in extra-time to claim his second winners medal in the competition.[17]

Cardle signed a one-year deal with Scottish Premiership club Ross County in May 2014 as manager Derek Adams felt that he was "an out and out winger... very creative and direct which will suit our style of play."[18] He made his debut for Ross County on 10 August 2014, in a 2–1 home defeat against St Johnstone in the opening game of the season.[19] At the end of the 2014–15 season, Cardle was released by the "Staggies".[20]

After appearing and scoring for now League One side Dunfermline Athletic as a trialist against Berwick Rangers, Cardle re-signed for his former club in July 2015.[21] On his return, Cardle's first competitive goal came in a 6–1 defeat of Brechin City in the first league match of the season.[22] He scored a further 10 goals in 15 matches, including an important goal in the Scottish League Cup against Scottish Premiership side Dundee[23] and a hat-trick against Forfar Athletic.[24] In December 2015 however, he was sent-off against title rivals Ayr United for receiving a straight red card for violent conduct, shortly after he received a yellow card for simulation.[25] However, after appealing against referee Andrew Dallas' decision on the basis that there was no actual contact with Ayr player Peter Murphy, the card was rescinded.[26] He helped the "Pars" to win promotion as divisional champions in the 2015–16 season.[27] He scored a hat-trick in a 4–3 victory over Dumbarton at East End Park on 6 August 2016.[28] Athletic finished in fifth-place in 2016–17, with Cardle claiming five goals in 21 games.

Cardle was named as SPFL Championship Player of the Month in August 2017 after scoring five goals from four league games.[29] He stated that "My confidence is high just now and I'm thriving on that. It can't get any higher, when you're scoring goals and making goals every week. It's fantastic – every day of life is amazing".[30] However soon after picking up the award he was sidelined for six weeks with a hamstring injury.[31] He ended the 2017–18 campaign with ten goals in 34 appearances as Allan Johnston's Dunfermline qualified for the play-offs with a fourth-place finish, going to lose to Dundee United at the quarter-final stage.[32] He left the club in June 2018.[33]

After 10 years playing in Scotland, Cardle returned to England in July 2018, signing for National League club AFC Fylde on a two-year deal.[34][35] He scored two goals in 17 appearances for the "Coasters" , however he left the club on 6 November; manager Dave Challinor said that this was because the player was unsettled after his wife and children were unable to relocate from Scotland.[36]

On 4 January 2019, Cardle signed a deal with Partick Thistle to keep him at the Firhill Stadium until the end of the 2018–19 season after training with Gary Caldwell's side for a number of weeks.[37] Cardle said that he was surprised to see the "Jags" struggling in the Scottish Championship and went on to say "I'm an experienced player and I know the division, so I know for certain that we have enough here to drag ourselves up the table".[38] Cardle made his first appearance for Thistle in a 1–1 draw away to Dundee United, where he entered as a substitute, and scored his first goal in his third appearance; a 4–1 victory in the Scottish Cup against Stranraer.[39] He scored his first league goal the following week in a 2–1 home win against Queen of the South.[40] After helping the "Jags" to safety with a sixth-place finish, Cardle signed a new one-year deal with the Glasgow club in May 2019.[41] He scored four goals in 32 games in the 2019–20 season, which ended in relegation when the season was declared early with nine games left to play due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Scotland.[42] Cardle complained that Thistle were only two points behind Queen of the South with a game to play, saying "the whole thing just doesn’t feel right... Partick are too big a club to be relegated into League One and we believe we would have prevented it happening".[43]

• Airdrie United
  • Scottish Challenge Cup: 2008[8]
• Dunfermline Athletic
  • Scottish First Division: 2010–11[5]
  • Scottish League One: 2015–16[63]
• Raith Rovers
  • Scottish Challenge Cup: 2014[17]

• Dunfermline Athletic
  • SPFL Championship Player of the Month: August 2017[29]