Conor Pepper

Conor Pepper (born 4 May 1994) is an Irish professional association football player, who plays as a midfielder or full-back for NIFL Premiership club Cliftonville.

Conor Pepper

Personal information
Date of birth	(1994-05-04) 4 May 1994 (age 31)
Place of birth	Dublin, Ireland
Position(s)	Midfielder, defender
Team information
Current team	Cliftonville
Number	2
Youth career
	Portmarnock
	Cherry Orchard
2011–2012	St Patrick's Athletic
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2012	St Patrick's Athletic	0	(0)
2012–2014	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	12	(2)
2014–2017	Greenock Morton	47	(2)
2018–2020	Glentoran	57	(0)
2020–2023	Linfield	34	(0)
2023–	Cliftonville	23	(0)
International career
2012–2013	Republic of Ireland U19
* Club domestic league appearances and goals as of 15:40, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

Career

Born in Dublin, Pepper played youth football with Portmarnock AFC and Cherry Orchard. He played for St. Patrick's Athletic Under 19s and also made one first team appearance in the Leinster Senior Cup in a Dublin derby away to Shamrock Rovers, before signing for Scottish Premier League club Inverness Caledonian Thistle in July 2012.^[1]

He made his first competitive appearance for Inverness on 18 August 2012. During this appearance he scored a late equalising goal in a 2–2 draw against Hearts at Tynecastle.^[2] He made an assist in his second match, a 4–2 loss against Celtic. Then scored his second goal for the club in his first start away at Hibernian.

Pepper has represented the Republic of Ireland at youth international levels.^[3]

Despite a promising first campaign with Inverness with Terry Butcher, Pepper failed to feature during his second season and was subsequently released by the club in May 2014 by manager John Hughes.^[4]

However, Pepper stayed in Scottish football by signing for Greenock Morton.^[5] He agreed a new deal with Morton in May 2016.^[6] Pepper was part of the team that won the Scottish league One title in his first season at Greenock Morton. Pepper featured in every game up of his second campaign until February 2016 when suffered a knee injury and didn't feature again for the first-team. After 3 seasons with Morton, Pepper left the club in May 2017 at the end of his contract.^[7]

After spending 2 years without playing first-team football, still recovering from injury, Pepper moved to Belfast to sign for NIFL Premiership side Glentoran.^[8] In his first month as a Glentoran player, Pepper won the Glentoran Supporters Player of the Month Award for August 2018 with 85% of the vote.^[9] Pepper was praised by his manager Mick McDermott, who said "I have said it before, and I will say it again, that we have the best two full-backs in the league"^[10] After two seasons with Glentoran, Pepper signed for Big Two rivals Linfield.^[11]

Honours

Morton

• Scottish League One: 2014–15^[12]

Glentoran

• Irish Cup: 2019–20^[13]

Linfield

• NIFL Premiership: 2020-21^[14]
• Irish Cup: 2020-21^[15]

Cliftonville

• Irish Cup: 2023-24^[16]

Career statistics

As of match played 28 January 2023^[17]

Club	Season	League			National Cup		League Cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
St Patrick's Athletic	2012	LOI Premier Division	0	0	0	0	0	0	0[a]	0	1[b]	0	1	0
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	2012–13	Scottish Premiership	12	2	0	0	3	0	—		—		15	2
	2013–14		0	0	0	0	0	0	—		—		0	0
	Total		12	2	0	0	3	0	—		—		15	2
Greenock Morton	2014–15	Scottish League One	25	2	2	0	2	0	—		2[c]	0	31	2
	2015–16	Scottish Championship	22	0	3	0	4	0	—		1[c]	0	30	0
	2016–17		0	0	0	0	0	0	—		0[c]	0	0	0
	Total		47	2	5	0	6	0	—		3	0	61	2
Glentoran	2018–19	NIFL Premiership	34	0	0	0	2	0	—		—		36	0
	2019–20		23	0	1	0	1	0	—		—		25	0
	Total		57	0	1	0	3	0	—		—		61	0
Linfield	2020–21	NIFL Premiership	17	0	5	0	—		1[d]	0	1[e]	0	24	0
	2021–22		7	0	0	0	0	0	2[f]	0	0[e]	0	9	0
	2022–23		10	0	2	0	2	0	2[g]	0	5[h]	0	21	0
	Total		34	0	7	0	2	0	5	0	6	0	54	0
Cliftonville	2023–24	NIFL Premiership	23	0	2	0	1	0	—		2[i]	0	28	0
	Career Total		173	4	15	0	15	0	5	0	12	0	220	4

1. Appearances in UEFA Europa League
2. Appearances in Leinster Senior Cup
3. Appearances in Scottish Challenge Cup
4. Appearances in UEFA Champions League
5. Appearances in County Antrim Shield
6. 1 appearance in UEFA Champions League & 1 appearance in UEFA Europa Conference League
7. 1 appearance in UEFA Champions League & 1 appearance in UEFA Europa League
8. 3 appearances in County Antrim Shield, 1 appearance in NIFL Charity Shield & 1 appearance in Scottish Challenge Cup
9. 1 appearance in County Antrim Shield & 1 appearance in Scottish Challenge Cup