Dean Lyness

Dean James Lyness (born 20 July 1991) is an English footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Scottish League One club Hamilton Academical.

Lyness began his career as a youngster with Birmingham City, but never played for the first team.

By February 2007, still only 15 years old, he had made his reserve-team debut.

He was a regular on the bench for the reserves in the 2007–08 season, behind either Artur Krysiak or Colin Doyle, and picked up a Birmingham Senior Cup-winners' medal as an unused substitute.

He signed for Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian in 2009, and spent a spell on loan at East Fife of the Scottish Second Division, but again, never played first-team football.

In February 2009, he was named on the bench for Championship matches against Coventry City and Crystal Palace when regular substitute Doyle was struggling with a back problem.

He kept goal as Birmingham reached the semifinal of the FA Youth Cup, and his third and last appearance in the first-team matchday squad came when Maik Taylor was suspended for the visit to Watford.

Taylor described him as a "level-headed lad, gets his head down, works extremely hard", and was "sure he will definitely have a good career ahead of him if he keeps progressing."

A few days later, Lyness was one of several youngsters told their future lay elsewhere.

Lyness joined Scottish Premier League club Heart of Midlothian in the 2009 close season.

He played for their under-19 team, and was in goal when they beat South of Scotland League side St Cuthbert Wanderers 18–0 in the Scottish Youth Cup.

Lyness was an unused substitute for the last four matches of the 2009–10 Scottish Premier League season, and came close to making a first-team debut in the Edinburgh derby against Hibernian in April 2010, but Jamie MacDonald declared himself fit to play despite a virus that had prevented him from training ahead of the match.

In 2010–11, Lyness had no matchday involvement with Hearts' first team.

On returning to England in 2011, he spent a season with Conference Premier club Kidderminster Harriers, playing ten matches, and then joined Burton Albion, with whom he made his first appearance in the Football League.

In January 2011, he joined Scottish League Second Division club East Fife on loan, to gain experience but, as at Birmingham and Hearts previously, he appeared on the first-team substitutes' bench but never on the field.

He was released by Hearts at the end of the season, and returned to the Midlands.

Lyness signed a one-year contract with Conference club Kidderminster Harriers, as competition for the club's player of the year, Danny Lewis.

When a knee injury broke Lewis's run of 60 consecutive Conference appearances, Lyness "produced one fine save on a more than satisfying Harriers debut" in a 1–0 win away to Kettering Town.

Lyness played six Conference matches and two in the FA Cup, the second of which was a 4–1 defeat to Conference North club Corby Town, but when Lewis's injury was confirmed as serious, Kidderminster brought in the more "streetwise" goalkeeper Tony Breeden, who went straight into the starting eleven for the Conference win against Tamworth.

A hip injury prevented Lyness replacing the cup-tied Breeden for FA Trophy matches against Vauxhall Motors, but he came back in for the next two rounds, and saved a penalty, albeit in a losing cause, against Luton Town.

Hopes that his performance might earn him selection in the Conference team were in vain, as Breeden retained the starting place for the remainder of the season.

Lyness signed a new contract with Kidderminster at the end of the season, but was happy to take the chance to move into the Football League when League Two club Burton Albion offered him a two-year deal.

He had previously worked with Burton's goalkeeping coach Kevin Poole at Birmingham.

He made an eventful debut.

Football League Trophy rules restricting the number of team changes from the previous match prevented manager Gary Rowett from including Lyness from the start of Burton's visit to Coventry City, but he was brought on at half-time to replace Ross Atkins.

He kept a clean sheet in the second half and then through extra time.

In the penalty shootout, the first nine players from each team scored before Burton's tenth penalty was saved.

Lyness then saved Coventry's tenth kick to keep his team in the contest, but when his own attempt was saved by Joe Murphy, he was unable to reciprocate, and Murphy's successful kick put Coventry through to the next round.

He made his Football League debut on 23 October 2012, again as a substitute, replacing the injured Stuart Tomlinson with 11 minutes plus stoppage time left in a 1–1 draw with Port Vale.

On his first League start, against Dagenham & Redbridge, he conceded a first-half penalty, which he then saved by turning it onto the post, but was unable to stop the shot from the rebound; Burton won 3–2.

He kept his place until mid-January, when a positional error left him unable to deal with a looped shot from Adebayo Akinfenwa that gave Northampton Town a win.

Although Rowett was unwilling to blame Lyness, he selected Tomlinson for the next match, and Lyness regained a starting place only after a 7–1 defeat to Port Vale in April looked like derailing Burton's promotion chances.

He played three matches – two wins and one loss – before Tomlinson came back in for the last match of the regular season and the playoff semi-final defeat to Bradford City.

Loanee Jordan Pickford began the 2013–14 season in goal for Burton, but Lyness took over when injury forced Pickford's return to parent club Sunderland in mid-August.

After two spells on loan to Blackpool and a season with the club on a permanent basis, Lyness spent the 2017–18 season with Nuneaton Town of the National League North.

He returned to the Scottish top flight with St Mirren on a short-term contract in September 2018, and spent the second half of the season with Scottish League One club Raith Rovers before rejoining St Mirren.

Over the next three seasons, he was the regular backup goalkeeper but made only seven first-team appearances, and signed for Airdrieonians in October 2022.

In international football, Lyness was capped four times for England at under-17 level.

Lyness was born in Birmingham and raised in Halesowen, where he attended Leasowes Community College.

He joined Birmingham City at the age of nine after playing for Warley Boys and for Halesowen Town Colts.