Liam Kelly

Kelly made his return for Kilmarnock in a match against St Mirren coming on as a substitute for James Fowler in the 87th minute.

Following this, both sets of fans gave Kelly a standing ovation given and both sets of fans were praised by Shiels.

Kelly provided assist for Kenny Shiels's son Dean Shiels to score in a 89th minutes as Kilmarnock lost to St Mirren 4–2.

After the match, St Mirren manager Danny Lennon expressed condolence for Kelly.

On the final day of the season, Kelly scored his first goal of the season in a 2–1 win over Dunfermline Athletic.

The following season, Kelly maintained first team status in the first half of the season, having played all twenty two matches for Kilmarnock until leaving for Bristol City.

Liam Mark Kelly (born 10 February 1990) is a professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for and captains EFL Championship club Coventry City.

At the end of the 2007–08 season, he left the club with a number of other young players when a promised one-year contract was withdrawn, as the club could no longer afford them.

As a youth player Kelly played for Milton Keynes Dons, but did not make a professional appearance before leaving in 2008.

Following his departure he moved to Scotland to play for Kilmarnock where he stayed for 4 seasons until a transfer to EFL Championship club Bristol City.

Kelly struggled with injury in Bristol, and only managed 21 appearances in two years with the team before moving to Oldham Athletic.

Kelly made his first appearance for Kilmarnock as a substitute in a match against Hamilton Academical on 26 January 2010.

This was quickly followed by his first start, in a 4–4 draw with Dundee United four days later.

On 6 February, he scored his first professional goal in a 3–0 Scottish Cup fifth round win against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

On 24 March 2010, Kelly provide his first assist to let Chris Maguire score the only goal for Kilmarnock in the match as they lost 2–1 to Hamilton Academical.

On 5 May 2010, Kelly scored his first professional league goal in the 69th minute of a 2–1 victory over Aberdeen.

In the 2010–11 season, Kelly provided his first assist of the season for David Silva to score in a 2–1 loss against Hibernian.

Kelly scored his first goal of the season and second league goal of his career in a 3–0 win over St Johnstone on 6 November 2010.

Kelly signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Kilmarnock on 17 December 2010.

A day later, Kelly scored both goals for Kilmarnock as they won 2–1 against Hibernian at Rugby Park.

Following the match, manager Mixu Paatelainen praised his performance as showing "excellent work rate and willingness".

Kelly scored further goals against Inverness Caledonian Thistle (twice), St Mirren and Motherwell.

In his first full season, Kelly made league 32 appearance along with 7 goals and provided 4 assists.

Later in the 2010–11 season, Paatelainen left the club to manage the Finland national team and was replaced by Kenny Shiels.

In the 2011–12 season, Shiels played Kelly into the various position in midfield.

On 18 March, Kelly played in the 2012 Scottish League Cup Final which Kilmarnock won after beating Celtic 1–0.

Shortly before Kilmarnock were due to celebrate lifting the cup, Kelly's father suffered a heart attack next to the Kilmarnock dugout and the player left the ground to go to hospital with him.

Kelly's father later died in hospital and his teammates, who had not been informed of the situation celebrated winning the trophy.

They were informed as they presented the trophy to the fans in an open-top bus parade.

Several players commented that this news had taken a lot of the joy of winning the cup final away, and that because they were a close group of players they all felt the effect of Kelly's loss.

Manager Kenny Shiels was visibly upset and said "I'm sounding a bit sombre because I've gone from one emotional high to a low. It's tough to go from one of the best moments of our lives to this. The dressing-room is very despondent. We are really thinking more about Liam than our triumphalism."

Shiels revealed he and the entire Kilmarnock squad would attend the funeral of Kelly's father Jack the following week in Kelly's home town of Milton Keynes.

Kelly did not play for a while after the death of his dad.

While not playing, many Kilmarnock players including Paul Heffernan, Gary Harkins and Dieter Van Tornhout wore a shirts saying "We Are All With You" in support of Kelly ahead of Kilmarnock's match against Motherwell which they won 2–0 thanks to a brace from Heffernan.

Kelly, along with newly signed Cillian Sheridan, were on target as Kilmarnock won at Celtic Park for the first time since 1955, on 27 October 2012.

After the match, Shiels praised Kelly performance's. Kelly, himself, says his teammates helped him to cope with his father death.

He was made captain at Oldham and played there for two years until July 2016 when Leyton Orient made him their new club record signing.

Orient finished bottom of League Two in Kelly's first season, and he left the club in the summer to join Coventry.

Kelly currently captains the Coventry side, having made over 100 appearances and contributed to two promotions during his tenure at the club.

Kelly began his career at Milton Keynes Dons.