Willie Donachie

William Donachie (born 5 October 1951) is a Scottish former professional footballer. Donachie had a long playing career, the majority of which was with Manchester City. He also played for Norwich City, Burnley, Oldham Athletic and Portland Timbers. Donachie played 35 times for Scotland and was selected in two FIFA World Cup squads (1974 and 1978). Towards the end of his playing career Donachie became a player-coach at Oldham, working with Joe Royle. Donachie has since worked for numerous teams in coaching roles.

Willie Donachie
Personal information
Full name William Donachie[1]
Date of birth (1951-10-05) 5 October 1951[1]
Place of birth Glasgow,[1] Scotland
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[2]
Position(s) Left back[1]
Youth career
1965–1968 Manchester City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1968–1980 Manchester City 351 (2)
1980–1981 Portland Timbers 60 (2)
1981–1982 Norwich City 11 (0)
1982 Portland Timbers 31 (0)
1982–1984 Burnley 60 (3)
1984–1990 Oldham Athletic 169 (3)
Total 682 (10)
National team
1972–1978 Scotland 35 (0)
Teams managed
2006–2007 Millwall
2008 Antigua and Barbuda
2011–2014 Newcastle United Reserves
2015 Temecula FC
2018– Montserrat
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Playing career

Donachie was born in Glasgow (originally from the Gorbals, he grew up in Castlemilk and attended King's Park Secondary School),[3] but began his football career in England as a junior with Manchester City, turning professional in December 1968. He made his first team debut in February 1970 and replaced Glyn Pardoe at left-back in City's side and quickly established himself as a regular in the side. He won the 1972 FA Charity Shield,[4] played in two League Cup finals for City and went on to make 347 appearances before leaving in 1979 to play for NASL side Portland Timbers. He returned to England in September 1981, joining Norwich City for a fee of £200,000, but rejoined Portland in March 1982. In November the same year he joined Burnley.

In April 1972, he made his full debut for Scotland against Peru at Hampden Park, having previously made two appearances for Scotland's Under-23 side. He went on to win 35 full caps for Scotland and played in the 1978 World Cup finals.

Coaching career

In July 1984, Donachie joined Oldham Athletic where he became player-assistant manager to Joe Royle. Under Royle and Donachie Oldham enjoyed considerable success at Boundary Park, taking the unfashionable minnows to the Premier League, League Cup Final and epic FA Cup semi-finals against Manchester United in the early 1990s.

When Royle left to manage Everton in 1995, Donachie followed as his assistant. Donachie then had a stint as first team coach at Sheffield United. Towards the end of the 1997–98 season he rejoined Royle at Manchester City. In May 2001, Royle was sacked, but Donachie opted to stay at Manchester City as first team coach under new manager Kevin Keegan. In November 2001 he left City to become assistant to Terry Yorath at Sheffield Wednesday.[5] He resigned from his post at Hillsborough on 28 October 2002 to link up again with Joe Royle, who by now was manager of Ipswich Town.[6] Ipswich paid Wednesday £50,000 compensation for this move.[6]

Donachie left Portman Road in June 2006 after Jim Magilton was appointed as manager, this coming after Donachie had stated his interest in the job himself,[7] and joined Millwall as assistant to Nigel Spackman. He was appointed manager of Millwall on 22 November 2006, after being caretaker manager following Spackman's sacking on 25 September 2006. Millwall had been in the relegation zone when Spackman left, but Donachie steadied the ship and Millwall finished the 2006–7 season in mid-table.[8] On 19 March 2007, Donachie signed a two-year deal as manager. He was sacked by Millwall in October 2007, after a run of poor results left the club bottom of Football League One.[9] He then took charge of the Antigua and Barbuda national team for a couple of games against Cuba in late 2008.[10]

In December 2009, Donachie was appointed assistant director at Newcastle United's academy. In December 2010 he was promoted to development coach. On 6 February 2014, Donachie resigned after it was alleged that he had hit reserve player Remie Streete following a 2–0 defeat against Sunderland in an under-21s match.[11][12]

In October 2014, Donachie was appointed assistant manager at Hartlepool United.[13] On 6 December 2014 Donachie and manager Paul Murray were sacked by Hartlepool, following an FA Cup defeat to non-league Blyth Spartans. Donachie then became the head coach for Temecula FC in the National Premier Soccer League.[14]

In 2018, Donachie was appointed as manager of the Montserrat national football team, ahead of the 2019–20 CONCACAF Nations League qualifying campaign.[15]

Career statistics

International
Appearances and goals by national team and year[16]
National teamYearAppsGoals
Scotland 197270
197330
197410
197510
197660
197790
197880
Total350

Managerial record
As of Match played 19 November 2019
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Millwall[17] 25 September 2006 9 October 2007 55 24 11 20 043.64
Montserrat 2018 present 10 5 2 3 050.00

References
  1. "Willie Donachie". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  2. Dunk, Peter, ed. (1987). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88. London: Queen Anne Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-356-14354-5.
  3. Photo archive: 1964 - football team, King's Park Secondary School
  4. "1972/73 Charity Shield". footballsite.co.uk. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  5. "Owls appoint Yorath". BBC Sport. 15 November 2001. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  6. "Owls agree Donachie fee". BBC Sport. 29 October 2002. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  7. "Ipswich post interests Donachie". BBC Sport. 12 May 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  8. "Donachie gets permanent Lions' job". BBC Sport. 22 November 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  9. "Donachie axed as Millwall manager". BBC Sport. 8 October 2007. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  10. "Donachie attempts success with Antigua". The Telegraph. 30 May 2008. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
  11. "Willie Donachie understood to have been suspended by Newcastle United". Evening Chronicle. 6 February 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  12. "Newcastle United: Willie Donachie quits as reserve team boss". BBC Sport. BBC. 6 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  13. "Hartlepool name former player Paul Murray as their new manager". Press Association. 23 October 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  14. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. Savvas, Laura (14 September 2018). "Rising from the ashes: Tiny Montserrat return to world football, with an ex-Man City player in charge". BBC Sport. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  16. Willie Donachie at the Scottish Football Association
  17. Soccerbase
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