Steve Flack

Steven Richard Flack (born 29 May 1971) is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League for Cardiff City and Exeter City.

After playing amateur football as a teenager in Cambridgeshire, he attracted attention from several Football League clubs and signed for Cardiff City in November 1995 for £10,000. However, after making eleven appearances for the side, he was sold to Exeter City for the same price the following year. Flack remained with Exeter for ten years, making over 400 appearances in all competitions and becoming the club's fourth highest league goalscorer of all time. He later briefly played for non-league sides Tiverton Town and Dorchester Town.

Career Early career Born in Cambridge, Flack grew up in the village of Orwell and played youth football for several local clubs before joining the village's football team Orwell, where his father Richard had played his entire amateur career. Making his senior debut as a left-back at the age of sixteen, he later converted to playing as a striker and finished as the club's top scorer in two seasons. The Orwell senior side was disbanded soon after and he instead joined Foxton where his prolific goalscoring attracted the attention of Cambridge City, joining the club in July 1995.

While playing for Cambridge, he attracted attention from several Football League clubs, including Cambridge United, Lincoln City and Barnet, He made his professional debut for the club on 13 January 1996 in a 1–0 defeat to Northampton Town, before scoring his first goal during a 3–1 defeat to Wigan Athletic on 16 March 1996. He made ten appearances in his first season of professional football, five coming as a substitute, but the arrival of Steve White at the start of the 1996–97 season saw Flack struggle to break into the first-team. Following their relegation, several clubs, including Hull City and Bristol Rovers who put in six-figure offers for the striker, made approaches to sign Flack but he rejected them in order to stay in Exeter where his family were settled. Flack took a pay cut in May 2005 and turned down a potential move to Stockport County in order to stay at Exeter, citing his desire to work with manager Alex Inglethorpe.

The following season, Flack was mainly used as a substitute, although he did score the only hat-trick of his Exeter career in eleven minutes during a win over Southport on 4 March 2006, the fastest ever hat-trick scored for the club. but on 7 December of the same year he joined Conference South club Dorchester Town on non-contract terms. He made his debut in a 0–0 draw with Braintree Town two days later, before scoring his first goal for the club in their following fixture, a 2–2 draw with Lewes. During his time at Dorchester, he scored twice in six appearances for the club. Flack was released on 1 March 2007 but complained that the club had done so without his knowledge, stating that he only discovered he had been released when an opposition manager contacted him and that he was owed wages by the club. However, Dorchester chairman Chris Pugsley refuted the claims.

Flack later had further player-coach roles at Tipton St. John and Axminster Town. After retiring from playing professionally, Flack returned to the building trade and set up his own construction business.