John Gregory
John enjoyed a distinguished career which saw him play for several top clubs. Starting his career as an apprentice at Northampton Town he signed for Aston Villa in 1977, where he spent two years before moving onto Brighton. John then went to QPR in 1981, before a final move to Derby County in 1985, where he stayed for two years before effectively hanging up his boots.
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As a tireless midfielder, he made 600 appearances in his career scoring 83 goals, the highlight winning six full international caps for England.
John served his managerial apprenticeship at a variety of clubs, firstly as a young manager at Portsmouth, then briefly at Plymouth and then joined Brian Little as a Coach at Leicester City. When Little moved onto Aston Villa John joined him again and was appointed First Team Coach at Villa Park in November 1994. He left Villa to become Manager of Wycombe Wanderers in October 1996, and made a dream return after being appointed Manager by Chairman Doug Ellis following Brian Little’s departure.
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After an unbeaten start to the season in 1998, John led Villa to the top of the Premiership which lasted a club record twelve matches. In his four years in charge of Villa, they qualified for the UEFA Cup, and finished in the top eight on each occasion, 7th in his first half-season as manager, 6th in 1999 and 2000 and 8th in 2001.
John was most recently Manager of Derby County, being appointed on January 30 2002, after resigning from Aston Villa.
Kerry Dixon
Kerry started his footballing career as a trainee Tottenham before signing for Reading for £20,000. A big move followed in 1983 when he was signed by Chelsea for £175,00 where he went on to become one of all time Stamford Bridge Legends by scoring 193 times for the blues.
He won eight England International caps, scoring a memorable brace against Germany in a friendly in Mexico in 1985. He finished his playing career as Player/Manager of Doncaster Rovers.
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CLUBS
- Tottenham Hotspur (apprentice)
- Reading 51 goals in 116 appearances
- Chelsea 1983-92 League Appearances 331+4
- League Goals 147
- Total Appearances 413+7
- Total Goals 193
- Southampton 2 goals in 9 appearances
- Luton Town 20 goals in 88 appearances
- Millwall
- Watford
- Doncaster Rovers
INTERNATIONAL
- England 8 Caps
- England U21 1 Cap
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Kevin Lynch
Kevin retired from refereeing in May 2000 after a career lasting 33 years. For the last 15 years, he officiated at Professional Level, the last 8 of which was spent as a Football League Referee.
HE WAS PROBABLY THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL REFEREE SEEN IN THIS COUNTRY FOR MANY YEARS During a distinguished career, he was Assistant Referee for Semi-Finals of both the FA and Football League Cups, and the highlight of his overseas appointments was the 1992 UEFA Cup Final between Torino and Ajax. Kevin was the Fourth Official at the Football League Centenary Challenge Match between Sunderland and Liverpool at Wembley in 1999.
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The highlight of his domestic career was his appointment as Referee for the 2000 Auto Windscreen’s Shield Final between Stoke City and Bristol City. He was also appointed as an official at Wembley on a further 2 occasions, being 4th Official at the 1989 FA Charity Shield - Arsenal versus Liverpool; and As sistant Referee at the 1992 4th Division Play-Off Final - Blackpool versus Scunthorpe United.
Some of the more memorable and controversial moments of his career included:
- A 21-man brawl in a game between Norwich City and Crystal Palace
- Sending off 5 players (a Football League record) during a game between Wigan Athletic and Bristol Rovers - 4 of them from the Bristol team!
- Being under threat from the Football League after bowing to the crowd, and the conducting their singing, in a match between Leyton Orient & Brentford.
Kevin is a former President of the Association of Premier League and Football League Match Officials, and the Football Association currently employs him as a Professional Referee Coach.
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Clayton Blackmore
After retiring from professional football in 2000, Clayton started playing in the Welsh League and is still playing to this day at the tender age of 44! He is still heavily involved at Manchester Utd with various hospitality and TV work when he’s not on the golf course.
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Wales
- Caps- 19 U16 schoolboy
- 5 U18 youth
- 2 U21
- 39 full international
Man Utd
- Played over 260 games 29 Goals scored
- Won 1st Premier league
- FA Cup 1990
- Cup winners cup 1991
- Supercup 1992
- League cup finalist 1991
Middlesborough
- 1st Division champions
- League cup finalist
- FA cup finalist
Fully qualified UEFA B and A Licence holder. Had a taste of management for the Wales U16’s schoolboys and Wales U21’s.
Frank Clark
As a player, Frank will best be remembered for being part of the Nottingham Forest European Cup Winning side in 1979, but he had a long and successful career with Crook Town, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest. Frank lies 4th in the all time appearances chart for Newcastle, where he played over 450 games in over 13 years at St James Park.
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In addition to the European Cup, he also won an FA Amateur Cup Winners medal with Crook Town, two League Cup Winners medals and a First Division Championship at Nottingham Forest, and won a Second Division Championship and was a losing FA Cup finalist whilst with Newcastle United.
He managed Leyton Orient, where he achieved promotion via the play-offs, Nottingham Forest, where he won promotion back to the FA Carling Premiership in his first season, followed by third place and qualification for the UEFA Cup the following year, and then Manchester City.
Frank is currently the Vice-Chairman of the League Managers Association and is the Association’s representative on the Football League Appeals Committee and the Kick it Out campaign.
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Martin O’Neill
The current Aston Villa Manager began his playing career in his native Northern Ireland for Derry City, before he was signed by Brian Clough for Nottingham Forest in 1971. The useful midfielder was part of the fantastic side built by Brian Clough that went on to win the First Division Championship in 1978, and the European Cup in both 1979 and 1980. Moving on from Forest Martin then went on to play for Norwich City, Man City, Notts County, Chesterfield and Fulham.
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Martin played 64 times for Northern Ireland scoring 8 goals, the highlight being Captaining his side in th 1982 World Cup Finals in Spain.
His managerial career began at Grantham Town In 1987, and after a brief spell at Shepshed Charterhouse, he was appointed Manager of Wycombe Wanderers in 1990. In just over 5 years he totally transformed the non league club, they initially won The Vauxhall Conference gaining promotion to the Football league, and then a further promotion took them into the 3rd Division.
He left Wycombe to take charge of Norwich City, but left shortly after a disagreement with the Chairman, and almost immediately took up the reigns at Leicester City in 1995. In is first season he achieved promotion via the Play Offs to the Premier League, followed by 3 Wembley appearances in the Carling Cup, winning 2 of them to take Leicester into Europe for the first time in decades.
Martin left Filbert Street for Celtic in 2000 where he immediately became a hero, transforming the fortunes of the club by winning The Scottish League In 2001 And 2002. A year later Celtic reached the Final of The Uefa Cup and Ii 2004 Celtic Won The League And Cup Double. He left Celtic after the Scottish Cup Final in 2005 due to personal reasons, and a year later he was appointed Manager of Aston Villa.
Martin was awarded The OBE In 2004.
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Malcolm Macdonald
As a prolific goal scorer for Second Division Luton Town, Malcolm was signed by Newcastle United for a fee of £180,000. He scored a hat–trick on his debut against Liverpool that secured a 3-2 victory for the Magpies, making him an instant cult hero.
Malcolm had his finest moments in an England shirt in 1975. Within 5 special weeks firstly he scored one of the goals that helped his country to an excellent 2-0 Wembley win over World Cup holders West Germany. Then in a home European Championship qualifier against Cyprus, he wrote his name into football history, equalling the England individual scoring record of notching all 5 goals in a 5-0 triumph.
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Clubs
- Fulham - 13 Appearances 5 Goals
- Luton Town - 88 Appearances 49 Goals
- Newcastle United - 187 Appearances 95 Goals
- Arsenal - 84 Appearances 42 Goals
International
- England Under 23’s - 4 Appearances 4 Goals
- Full 14 Appearances 6 Goals
Other Honours
- FA Cup Finalist 1974, 1978
- League Cup Finalist 1976
Nobby Stiles
Nobby proudly received an OBE in 2000 for his his huge contribution as part of the famous England side that won the World Cup at Wembley in 1966. His famous jig at Wembley after collecting his winners medal has for ever endeared him to the English public.
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Famous for his toothless grin, and20no nonsense tough tackling, playing for his boyhood heroes he went on to win Two League Championships and The European Cup for Manchester United in an 11 year spell between 1960 - 1971. Nobby moved to Middlesbrough for £20,000 in 1971 where he stayed for 2 seasons, before joining up with his old mate and former England and Manchester United Legend Bobby Charlton at Preton North End, in a player coach role, and later Manager.
After 3 years in Canada at Vancouver Whitecaps, Nobby returned to England to become Manger of West Bromwich Albion. Nobby joined Manchester United again as youth team coach in 1989, where for the following 4 years he worked with the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Pauls Scles and the Neville brothers.
Nobby is now a very popular and established figure on the After Dinner Speaker circuit.
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Graham Taylor
Former England, Watford, Aston Villa, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Linclon City Manager Graham returned to his beloved Watford as Non Executive Director in January 2009. He is one of the most well respected and well-known faces in English football and it was his vision and hard work that prompted the formation of the League Managers Association during his spell as national team boss. Graham is one of a very small number of people to have clocked up over 1000 games as a Manager.
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Grahams Management career started with Lincoln City after he was forced to retire from playing due to injury. He had played for Grimsby for six years before moving to Lincoln in 1968, taking up the managerial reins in 1972 aged just 28. In 1975/76 he led them to the Fourth Division Championship with the team scoring a record breaking 111 goals. He then dropped down to Division 4 with a move to Watford after being inspired by their vision for the club.
Watford were promoted as Champions in his first season in charge and they went on to win promotion to Division Two the following season. He then took the Hornets into the First Division for the first time in their history in 1981/82 season. The next season, 1982/83, saw them finish second in the league behind Liverpool, earning them a place in the UEFA Cup, Graham had totally transformed the club in the space of five years. In 1984 he led them to the FA Cup Final , eventually losing out to Everton at Wembley.
Aston Villa chairman Doug Ellis recognised Taylor’s obvious abilities and after guiding Watford to top-half finishes in the league for the next three seasons, Taylor decided to take up a new challenge at Villa Park with a club that had just been relegated from the top division. He immediately returned the club to Division One and after keeping Villa up the following season, just, he was again beaten to the league title by Liverpool.
After the 1990 World Cup, where Bobby Robson had led the team to the semi-finals, Graham was given the honour of managing England. Like many before him, he was to find the England manager’s post something of a poisoned chalice and despite an encouraging start to his international career, England’s poor performance in the 1992 European Championships and subsequent failure to qualify for the 1994 World Cup led to his resignation.
He returned to management with Wolves and was unlucky to miss out on promotion after taking them into the play-offs after just two months at the helm. Graham returned to Vicarage Road in February 1996 but was unable to prevent them being relegated to Division Two. However, he was able to rebuild the team once again and he led The Hornets back to Division One in 1997/98 and achieved a successive promotion with a dramatic play-off win in 1998/99, taking Watford into the top division once more. Watford were relegated back to Division One after j ust one season, Graham stayed for a further year, serving his 1000th league game as a manager in January 2001, before handing the reins over to Gianluca Vialli and retiring from club management.
He remained in ‘retirement’ for just 8 months and having returned to Aston Villa as a non-executive director, he resumed his role as Villa boss for one last stint in the hot-seat for one more season before resigning from his post.
Graham is now a respected media pundit working for BBC Radio 5 Live.
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Managerial Honours:
- Watford: Nationwide Football League Division Two Champions (1997-98)
- Watford: Football League Division Four Champions (1977-78)
- Lincoln City: Football League Division Four Champions (1975-76)
- Watford: Manager of the Month, Coca-Cola Championship, October 2000
- Watford: Manager of the Month, Coca-Cola Championship, September 2000
