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Lewis Shay McGugan (born 25 October 1988) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. A player with excellent natural stamina, technical skills and mental attributes, he represented England at under-17 and under-19 levels.
He came through the youth-team at Nottingham Forest to make his first-team debut at the age of 17 in October 2006, and secured a regular place in the starting line-up by the end of the 2006–07 season. He helped Forest to secure automatic promotion out of League One at the end of the 2007–08 season and went on to establish himself as a EFL Championship player the following season, despite struggling with his weight and fitness. He found first-team opportunities limited in the 2009–10 campaign due to injury and the form of other players. The following season he re-established himself in the starting eleven, finishing as the club's top scorer with a total of 13 goals in 45 appearances. However he lost form the next season, only rediscovering his form at the end of the 2012–13 campaign. He joined Watford on a free transfer in July 2013, but fell out of the first-team by the end of the 2013–14 season. He enjoyed two loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday the following season, and joined the club on a permanent basis in July 2015. However he was dropped by the end of the 2015–16 season and was dropped from the first-team entirely for the 2016–17 campaign. He signed a three-month contract with Northampton Town in October 2017.
McGugan missed the start of the 2007–08 campaign due to an ankle injury that required surgery. He scored his first league goal of the season with a 20-yard strike in Forest's 2–2 draw with Northampton Town. He scored his fourth goal of the season, in the second minute of stoppage time, in the New Year's Day 2–1 home win over Huddersfield a goal; the strike would win him the club's goal of the season for the second year running. Manager Colin Calderwood went on to say that "he's a young player with a wonderful future ahead of him." McGugan signed a new three-and-a-half-year deal in February. He did not score again until April, but then scored three goals in Forest's last four matches of the season, including a free-kick against Yeovil Town in the "Reds" 3–2 win on the last day of the campaign, which saw Forest promoted into the EFL Championship as runners-up of League One.
He missed two months at the start of the 2008–09 season with a thigh injury sustained in a 3–1 defeat at Swansea City on 16 August. He scored his first goal in the Championship with a "fine free-kick" in a 2–1 defeat at Queens Park Rangers on 18 October. On 2 November, he was sent off for a rash tackle in a 1–1 draw at East Midlands rivals Derby County. He was voted the 16th best player outside the Premier League in January 2009. However two months later new manager Billy Davies dropped him from the starting eleven after feeling McGugan was unfit and overweight.
Despite being complimented by Davies for his much improved fitness, McGugan found himself on the bench in the first half of the 2009–10 season, with Paul McKenna, Guy Moussi and Radosław Majewski all being preferred ahead of him. He also missed six weeks after sustaining a fractured cheekbone in a defeat to Watford. He was limited to just six league starts over the campaign, and though Forest qualified for the play-offs, McGugan made only a cameo appearance in the semi-final defeat to Blackpool.
Again on the bench at the start of the 2010–11 season, his marked his first start with a brace in a 2–1 victory at Preston North End on 14 September. He claimed another brace 11 days later, in a 3–1 win over Swansea that was Forest's first home win of the campaign. After this he also went on to score in a 3–1 defeat away at Barnsley on 16 October and a 1–0 home win over Middlesbrough three days later. This left him as the club's top-scorer despite only starting seven matches; teammate Chris Cohen said that "Lewis has made himself more versatile this season and has been fantastic so far. If it wasn't for his goals at the moment we'd be in a lot of trouble". On 23 October, McGugan continued his fine goal-scoring form with a "superb long-range free-kick" against Ipswich Town; this would later be voted as the Championship Goal of the Season. Speaking on his good form he stated that "I've worked hard in the summer, made sure I had a good pre-season and waited for my chance. And I've taken it". His impressive form and spectacular long range efforts were seen again on 6 November when he scored from 25 yards to secure a 1–1 draw at Watford. On 20 November, McGugan added to his great start to the season with the opening goal and assist for the second in a 2–0 win at Cardiff City, who were the league leaders at the time. He continued to score goals and ended the season as the club's top scorer with a total of 13 goals in 45 appearances. Forest finished in sixth-place to secure a play-off berth, but were beaten 3–1 on aggregate by Swansea at the semi-final stage.
McGugan scored his first goal of the 2011–12 campaign in a EFL Cup match against Nottingham derby rivals Notts County on 9 August, in what was Steve McClaren's first win in his short reign as Forest manager. He scored from the penalty spot in a 2–2 home draw with East Midlands rivals Leicester City on 20 August. However he went on to suffer a loss of form; Birmingham City made an approach to sign McGugan on loan in February, but were rejected by Forest manager Steve Cotterill, who commented on the player's lack of form by saying "Lewis is one of our most creative, gifted players. But the fact is that creative players cannot be creative every five minutes".
New manager Sean O'Driscoll came into the club as a fan of McGugan, having previously tried to sign him on loan at Doncaster Rovers; he stated that "When I came in and told him about it, I said 'You keep falling out with managers' and he said: 'No, they fall out with me'". However he only scored two goals under O'Driscoll and no goals at all under his successor Alex McLeish, before rediscovering his form under returning manager Billy Davies. McGugan scored in six successive matches from 5 March to 6 April, earning seven points for the club's ultimately unsuccessful play-off push.
He featured seven times at the start of the 2014–15 campaign, before he was allowed to leave the club on loan after telling manager Slaviša Jokanović of his desire for first-team football.
He made his full debut at Hillsborough in the first match of the new Championship season against newly promoted Bristol City, scoring the second goal in Wednesday's 2–0 victory. On 23 September, he scored from outside the box at St James' Park in what was the only goal of the game against Premier League club Newcastle United in the League Cup third round. On 3 October, he scored the third goal for the Wednesday in their 3–1 victory against Preston North End from more than 35 yards in the 96th minute. He found first-team appearances increasingly rare however, despite scoring a brace in an FA Cup defeat at Shrewsbury Town on 30 January. He ended the 2015–16 season with six goals in 17 appearances and was not in the matchday squad for the play-off final defeat to Hull City.
Manager Carlos Carvalhal told McGugan he could leave the club in July 2016 and dropped him entirely from the squad, saying "he doesn't have the requirements that we want for our team". On 31 August 2017, having missed the entirety of the 2016–17 campaign, McGugan left the club after having his contract cancelled by mutual consent.
During the 2018–19 season he had unsuccessful trials at St Mirren, Bradford City and Port Vale, where he failed to prove his fitness.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | ||||||||||||
| Nottingham Forest | 2006–07 | League One | 2 | |||||||||
| 2007–08 | League One | 7 | ||||||||||
| 2008–09 | EFL Championship | 5 | ||||||||||
| 2009–10 | Championship | 4 | ||||||||||
| 2010–11 | Championship | 13 | ||||||||||
| 2011–12 | Championship | 5 | ||||||||||
| 2012–13 | Championship | 8 | ||||||||||
| Watford | 2013–14 | Championship | 11 | |||||||||
| 2014–15 | Championship | 0 | ||||||||||
| Sheffield Wednesday (loan) | 2014–15 | Championship | 3 | |||||||||
| Sheffield Wednesday | 2015–16 | Championship | 6 | |||||||||
| 2016–17 | Championship | 0 | ||||||||||
| 2017–18 | Championship | 0 | ||||||||||
| Northampton Town | 2017–18 | League One | 1 | |||||||||
| Loughborough Dynamo | 2022–23 | Northern Premier League Division One Midlands | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
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