Keith Downing

Keith Downing
Personal information
Full name Keith Gordon Downing
Date of birth (1965-07-23) 23 July 1965
Place of birth Oldbury, West Midlands, England
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
Chelsea
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1983–1984 Mile Oak Rovers
1984–1987 Notts County 23 (1)
1987–1993 Wolverhampton Wanderers 191 (8)
1993–1994 Birmingham City 1 (0)
1994–1995 Stoke City 16 (0)
1995 Cardiff City 4 (0)
1995–1999 Hereford United 45 (0)
Total 280 (9)
Teams managed
2007–2008 Cheltenham Town
2013–2014 West Bromwich Albion (caretaker)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Keith Gordon Downing (born 23 July 1965) is an English former footballer and football manager. He made the vast majority of his appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he was nicknamed "Psycho" for his robust style playing in central midfield.

A former Chelsea youth team player, he moved from Mile Oak Rovers into the Football League with Notts County in 1984. Three years later he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers. He spent six years with Wolves, winning the Football League Trophy in 1988 and successive Fourth Division and Third Division titles in 1987–88 and 1988–89. He joined Birmingham City in 1993, before moving on to Stoke City the following year. In 1995 he joined Hereford United via Cardiff City, and retired in 1999. He went on to become a coach, and also spent September 2007 to November 2008 as Cheltenham Town manager, and served West Bromwich Albion as caretaker-manager for a brief spell in the 2013–14 Premier League season.

Playing career

Downing was a junior player at Chelsea, but left Stamford Bridge at the end of the 1982–83 season. He went on to spend a season with Mile Oak Rovers. He began his professional career in 1984 at Richie Barker's Notts County, who went on to be relegated out of the Second Division at the end of the 1984–85 season. The "Magpies" finished eighth in the Third Division in the 1985–86 season and then seventh in 1986–87 under the stewardship of Jimmy Sirrel.

He left Meadow Lane and moved on to Graham Turner's Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1987. Wolves won promotion as champions of the Fourth Division in 1987–88, and Downing also played in the 1988 Football League Trophy final victory over Burnley at Wembley Stadium. Wolves won a second successive promotion in the 1988–89 season, winning the Third Division title by an eight-point margin. The club made a push for promotion out of the Second Division in 1989–90, but ended up in tenth place, seven points outside of the play-off places. Downing appeared 35 times in both the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons, as Wolves finished in 12th and then 11th position. He played 37 times in the 1992–93 campaign before leaving Molineux in the summer.

In July 1993 Downing moved to Birmingham City. However he featured only twice for the "Blues" in the 1993–94 season, and left St Andrew's in the summer. He remained in the Midlands and the First Division for the 1994–95 season, playing 24 games for Stoke City. He began the 1995–96 season with Cardiff City, before being reunited with Graham Turner at Hereford United in September 1995. The "Bulls" finished sixth in the Third Division in the 1995–96 campaign, losing to Darlington in the play-offs. He made 13 appearances in the 1996–97 campaign as Hereford dropped out of the Football League with a last place finish. He became player-coach in 1998 and subsequently returned to Wolves as a youth team coach in March 1999.[1]

Coaching career

Downing joined Cheltenham Town as assistant manager in July 2004, working alongside manager John Ward, who he had met through his time at Wolverhampton Wanderers where Ward had been assistant manager.[1] When Ward left the club to join Carlisle United in October 2007, Downing stepped in as caretaker manager, before being given the position on a full-time basis on 2 November. He left the club by mutual consent on 13 September 2008 with the "Robins" bottom of League One.[2]

In February 2009, he was appointed assistant manager at League Two side Port Vale.[3] This was a temporary appointment to help manager Dean Glover, and both men left the club in May 2009.[4]

In July 2009, Downing was appointed the academy coach at West Bromwich Albion.[5] He served as joint-assistant head coach for the "Baggies" under Steve Clarke and in December 2013 temporarily took over first team duties at the Premier League club after Clarke was sacked and before Pepe Mel was appointed as manager early the following month.[6] He was not a popular figure with fans at The Hawthorns due to his years of service at Black Country derby rivals Wolves.[7] However his UEFA Pro Licence and popularity with the players made him a serious candidate to replace Mel in the summer.[8] Alan Irvine got the job however, and Downing left the club in January 2015 following a backroom reshuffle by new boss Tony Pulis.[9]

Personal life

Downing married in 1993, and has two sons from that marriage, James and Thomas. He is a cousin of Judas Priest guitarist K. K. Downing.[10] He has an interest in criminology and history, specifically the history of World War II.[11]

Statistics

Playing statistics

Club Season Division League FA Cup Other[A] Total
AppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Notts County 1984–85 Second Division 1200000120
1985–86 Third Division 30000030
1986–87 Third Division 81000081
Total 2310000231
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1987–88 Fourth Division 3413191463
1988–89 Third Division 3211060391
1989–90 Second Division 3131040363
1990–91 Second Division 3110040351
1991–92 Second Division 3200031351
1992–93 First Division 3122140373
Total 19187230222812
Birmingham City 1993–94 First Division 10000010
Stoke City 1994–95 First Division 1601071241
Cardiff City 1995–96 Third Division 40001050
Hereford United 1995–96 Third Division 2903040360
1996–97 Third Division 1600030190
Total 4503070550
Career Total 280911246333714
A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Football League Cup, Football League Trophy, Football League play-offs and Full Members Cup.

Managerial statistics

Team From To Record[12]
GWLDWin %[13]
Cheltenham Town 26 September 2007 5 November 2008 50 14 12 24 28.00
West Bromwich Albion 14 December 2013 9 January 2014 6 1 2 3 16.67
Total[14] 56 15 14 27 26.79

Honours

with Wolverhampton Wanderers

References

  1. 1 2 "Downing earns Robins post". BBC Sport. 3 July 2004. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  2. ↑ "Manager Downing leaves Cheltenham". BBC SPORT. 13 September 2008. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
  3. ↑ "Downing will replace Brightwell". BBC SPORT. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
  4. ↑ "Downing expecting to leave Vale". BBC Sport. 3 May 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  5. ↑ "Downing handed Baggies youth role". BBC SPORT. 10 July 2009. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  6. ↑ "Steve Clarke sacked as West Brom head coach". BBC Sport. 14 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  7. ↑ Howell, Bill (30 December 2014). "West Bromwich Albion: Under fire coaching duo Rob Kelly and Keith Downing placed in caretaker charge". Birmingham Mail. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  8. ↑ "Keith Downing backed for West Brom job". Express & Star. 14 May 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  9. ↑ "West Brom: Rob Kelly, Keith Downing and Dean Kiely depart". BBC Sport. 5 January 2015. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  10. ↑ "Keith Downing tipped to succeed at West Brom by music star cousin". Express & Star. Wolverhampton. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  11. ↑ "Keith Downing profile". BBC Stoke & Staffordshire. April 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
  12. ↑ Includes all Premier League, Football League, FA Cup, League Cup and Football League Trophy games.
  13. ↑ Winning percentage is correct to two decimal places.
  14. ↑ Keith Downing management career statistics at Soccerbase
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