Ross Turnbull

Ross Turnbull (born 4 January 1985) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Between 2002 and 2015 he made 148 league appearances for a number of clubs, notably Middlesbrough, Chelsea, Crewe Alexandra and Doncaster Rovers.

He is a former England U19 international.

Turnbull attended Byerley Park Primary School and Woodham Community Technology College.

He played as a midfielder for his hometown team Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre AFC but was turned into a goalkeeper by coach Arthur Vickerstaff.

He had trials with North-East sides Darlington and Sunderland but instead joined Middlesbrough's Academy.

After coming through the club's youth ranks, Turnbull signed a professional contract with Middlesbrough in 2002.

He represented England U20 in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.

In July 2007, Turnbull signed a season-long loan deal at Football League Championship side Cardiff City.

He was signed as a replacement for long-serving Neil Alexander, who left the club after a contract dispute, and began the season as first choice goalkeeper for the club.

However, due to some errors in his opening games he was replaced for the 2–2 draw with Preston North End by Michael Oakes and spent the remainder of his loan spell on the bench before he was recalled by Middlesbrough on 5 October 2007 following an injury to second choice keeper Brad Jones.

The recall was made by mutual consent between the teams.

After being recalled, Turnbull played in two of Middlesbrough's games in the absence of first choice goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer who had broken his thumb in training.

One was the win over Arsenal at the Riverside Stadium on 9 December 2007, the score being 2–1.

After more than 11 years with Middlesbrough, Mark Schwarzer left the club during the summer of 2008 to join Fulham.

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate decided not to buy a new goalkeeper and allow Turnbull and Jones to fight it out for the number one position.

Although Jones played the first game of the season, Turnbull was in goal for Middlesbrough's 2–1 defeat at Liverpool the following week, when Jones injured himself in the warm-up.

In June 2009 Turnbull rejected a contract offer from Middlesbrough, and informed the club that he would leave when it expired at the end of the month.

On 2 July 2009, Turnbull joined Chelsea on a free transfer, signing a four-year contract.

Turnbull announced that he would not sit by as a permanent second place keeper to regular starting goalkeeper Petr Čech and that he would fight for his own first team place.

His first involvement in the first team was after being named on the bench for Chelsea's first game of the 2009–10 season against Hull City at Stamford Bridge, which finished 2–1 in favour of Chelsea.

Turnbull had a Chelsea reserves debut to forget when he made a series of blunders as the team lost 4–0 to Aston Villa.

He made his first team debut against Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup, coming on for the injured Henrique Hilário after 23 minutes, a game which Chelsea won 4–0.

He made his first start in the UEFA Champions League 2–2 draw against APOEL.

He made his Premier League debut against West Ham United in a 4–1 win as Petr Čech and Henrique Hilario respectively were both injured.

The following Tuesday, he started for Chelsea against Inter Milan at Stamford Bridge, in which he conceded a goal with Inter winning 1–0 but otherwise had a decent performance.

He made another Premier League appearance against Blackburn Rovers in a 1–1 draw on 21 March 2010.

He was not part of the matchday squad who defeated Portsmouth in the 2010 FA Cup Final, but still received a winner's medal.

He did not play enough games that season to earn a Premier League medal.

Turnbull made his first appearance of the 2010–11 season when he played in the League Cup third round against Newcastle United as Chelsea went on to lose 4–3.

On 23 November 2010, Turnbull made another appearance in the Champions League Matchday 5 group stage against Slovakian side MŠK Žilina as Chelsea won 2–1 when they came from a goal down to beat them.

For the most part of the season, Turnbull remained second choice keeper behind Čech.

In the 2011–12 season, Turnbull began to get some more playing time.

His first appearance of the 2011–12 season came he played in the League Cup third round against Fulham.

The game finished 0–0 after extra time, and Chelsea subsequently beat Fulham 4–3 on penalties to go through to the next round.

During normal time, Turnbull saved a penalty from Pajtim Kasami after Alex gave away the penalty (which resulted in a red card for Alex).

In the penalty shootout, Turnbull saved two penalties from Mousa Dembélé and Bryan Ruiz.

His next appearance in the League Cup was in the last 16 match against Everton.

With 58 minutes gone, he conceded a penalty and received a red card.

Čech took his place after coming on for Romelu Lukaku and saved the penalty from Leighton Baines.