Career
He usually plays as a winger. Carson started his senior career in the Scottish Premier League with Rangers. After only a handful of first team appearances, he moved to Dundee United in August 2001 for a transfer fee of £150,000, but he struggled to command a regular place in the team
After leaving United in 2003, Carson had brief spells with Barnsley and Hartlepool United prior to his return to Northern Ireland to join the club he supported as a boy, Coleraine.
Stephen Carson is also Youth development officer at Coleraine. In May 2009, he received his first call-up to the Northern Ireland squad for the friendly against Italy on 6 June.
In July 2009 it was reported on the British Broadcasting Corporation SPORT website that Carson was in talks with A-League side Newcastle United Jets Football Club about a possible transfer. Carson went on a trial in Australia but the transfer did not take place.
Carson revealed on 11 April 2011, that he would be leaving Coleraine to join Glentoran at the end of the 2010-2011 season.
After two seasons in total, however, Carson returned to his boyhood favourites, Coleraine Football Club, where he resumed the position of winger and continues to play there currently.