The Thistle Archive

Born in Rutherglen, the 6' 2" defender began his youth career at Queen’s Park before joining Motherwell in 2008. He made his senior debut as a substitute against Aberdeen on 29 November 2008, aged 17, and quickly established himself under managers including Mark McGhee, Jim Gannon, and Craig Brown. He featured regularly at both centre-back and right-back, scored his first goal against Hearts in April 2010, and made European appearances. A highly rated prospect, Saunders earned Scotland caps at U19 and U21 levels and won his sole full international cap on 16 November 2010, coming on as a substitute in a 3–0 friendly win over the Faroe Islands. His progress was severely hampered by a serious Achilles tendon injury sustained while playing for the Scotland U21s in August 2011, which sidelined him for most of the 2011–12 season; further injury issues limited him thereafter. He left Motherwell at the end of the 2012–13 season after 56 league appearances and 2 goals.

He subsequently played for Ross County (2013–15), Dumbarton (2015–16) and The New Saints (2016–18), where he won the Welsh Premier League and League Cup in both seasons and was named in the 2016–17 Welsh Team of the Year. After leaving the Park Hall side in the summer of 2018, the 27-year old joined Livingston where first team football was hard to come by and, as such, he was delighted to sign an 18-month contract with Gary Caldwell's Thistle in January 2019. In just his 3rd game, he scored his first goal for Thistle in a 4–1 Firhill victory against Stranraer in the Scottish Cup. Season 2019-20 was a bit of a disaster all round. Gary Caldwell was sacked in September, replaced by Ian McCall. The Covid pandemic stopped play 3/4 of the way through the season and Thistle were demoted to the third tier when the SPFL decreed that the Championsip would be called on a points-per-game basis. In August 2020, with the lower leagues yet to commence due to the pandemic, Steven announced his retirement from full-time football at the age of 29 to pursue a career as a financial advisor. However, he had brief spells with Gartcairn and East Kilbride before fully hanging up his boots in early 2022.

Across his career he made over 200 senior appearances and scored around 16 goals. Injuries prevented him from fully realising his early promise, but he still amassed more than 100 top-flight Scottish appearances and played in European competition. After gaining coaching experience in the youth set-ups at Morton, Kilmarnock, Partick Thistle and Kilwinning Rangers, Saunders was appointed manager of Albion Rovers in June 2026 with John McGowan as assistant.

Steven is included in our feature piece, The Definitive Who's Who Of The Partick Thistle Internationalists →