Rob Hulse

Robert William Hulse (born 25 October 1979) is an English former footballer who played as a striker.

He had primarily spent his career at second tier level, playing there with Crewe Alexandra, West Bromwich Albion, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Derby County, Queens Park Rangers and Charlton Athletic.

When Hulse returned to fitness, he was given a three-month loan to then-Northern Premier League side Hyde United, where he scored 9 goals in 11 appearances during the 1999–2000 season.

The successful loan spell led to Hulse's first team debut for Crewe, in their 1–0 win over Norwich City.

It took Hulse a further three appearances to score his first goal for the club, which was in the club's 2–0 away win over Barnsley.

Hulse quickly became a fans' favourite at Crewe, thanks to his high work-rate and finishing the 2000–01 and 2001–02 seasons as the club's top goalscorer with 11 and 12 goals respectively.

The club were relegated at the end of the 2001–02 season, but Hulse, along with Dean Ashton and Rodney Jack, proved to be too much for fellow Division Two defences to handle in 2002–03.

Hulse finished as the club's top goalscorer for the third season in succession, scoring 23 goals.

His performances during the season earned him the club's Player of the Year award, as well as appearing in the PFA Division Two Team of the Year.

Despite Crewe's promotion back to Division One, Hulse rejected a new contract and manager Dario Gradi decided to sell him instead of letting him go on a Bosman.

A whole host of clubs were interested in Hulse.

Fellow promoted club Cardiff City were close to signing Hulse for a fee believed to be in a region of £750,000, but Hulse did not wish to sign for the Blue Birds.

West Bromwich Albion signed Hulse for a fee of £750,000.

He made his debut for West Brom in their 4–1 opening day defeat at Walsall, and scored his first goal for the club in a 4–0 home win over Brentford in the League Cup 1st Round.

Hulse played a prominent role in the first team before suffering a stomach during the Christmas period.

He scored two goals in a 4-3 win against West Ham at the Boleyn Ground in November, which saw Albion come back from 3-0 down.

After recovering from this injury, Hulse made a further 19 appearances and finished the season as the club's top scorer in all competitions with 13 goals, helping Albion secure promotion back to the Premier League.

Despite his influential role in the previous year's promotion campaign, Hulse was given little chance to prove himself in the top flight and was largely kept out of the first team by summer signings Robert Earnshaw and Nwankwo Kanu.

Hulse only played seven games for West Brom during the 2004–05 season, scoring no goals.

Having played a relatively small number of games in comparison to his fellow strikers at West Brom, Hulse decided to join Leeds United on loan for the final three months of the 2004–05 campaign instead of a £1.2 million switch to Stoke City.

His debut was spectacular, scoring two individual goals struck from outside the box against Reading.

The success of the loan spell led to a £1.1 million transfer to Leeds.

Hulse scored 20 goals in 51 games.

He was the club's top scorer with 14 goals in the 2005–06 season despite being in competition with several forwards including Robbie Blake, David Healy and Richard Cresswell for a place in the side as well as playing with an ankle injury during the start of the season.

He has won promotion on three occasions twice to the top flight and had his most notable spell in the Premier League with Sheffield United, where he finished as the club's top scorer in the 2006–07 season, despite his season finishing early due to injury.

With Leeds failing to gain promotion to the FA Premier League, Hulse's ambition led elsewhere and in July 2006, Leeds accepted a bid of £2.2 million from Sheffield United although the fee could have risen to £3 million, beating Norwich to Hulse's signature.

Hulse scored on his debut for the club against Liverpool; scoring the first goal of the 2006–07 FA Premier League season, although Liverpool managed to equalise through a Robbie Fowler penalty.

He went on to be the club's top scorer for the season, netting regularly until March.

On 17 March, Hulse and Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech challenged for the ball in a league game at Stamford Bridge, resulting in a horrific injury.

Hulse almost turned in a low Keith Gillespie cross but Čech raced out to smother his effort and in the collision Hulse's ankle appeared to snap beneath him.

After a five-minute delay Hulse was carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital with what was thought to be a double fracture.

On 20 March, it was confirmed that Hulse had fractured his left leg in two places, for which he underwent surgery.

His season over, he still finished up as United's top scorer in the Premier League with eight league goals.

Hulse eventually returned to the first team in December 2007 after 9 months out, but despite making 24 appearances for the Blades over the course of that season he was unable to find full fitness and failed to score a goal ending his Blades career on a disappointing note.

Following the end of the 2007–08 season, Hulse was strongly linked with a move away to United's Championship rivals Derby County.

The deal was completed on 21 July 2008 for £1.75 million.

He scored his 100th career league goal with a penalty against Sheffield Wednesday for Derby on 3 October 2009.

Hulse was a part of QPR's Championship winning team in the 2010–11 season.

Born in Crewe, Cheshire, Hulse began his career at Crewe Alexandra, having been part of the club's youth system since he was nine years old.

A sudden spurt in height during his late teens left Hulse with a serious back injury, sidelining him for 12 months.