Tommy Wright (footballer, born 1963)

Thomas "Tommy" Wright (born 29 August 1963 in Belfast) is a former football goalkeeper and current manager of St Johnstone.

Wright represented Northern Ireland 31 times as a player. At club level he played for Grange Rangers, Linfield, Newcastle United, Hull City, Nottingham Forest, Reading, Manchester City, Wrexham and Bolton Wanderers. Since retiring as a player he has worked as a coach or manager for Limavady United, Ballymena United, Shamrock Rovers and St Johnstone.

Playing career

After playing in his native Northern Ireland until he was 25, Wright entered English football with Newcastle United in the 1988-89 season and had a spell as first choice goalkeeper after Dave Beasant was sold to Chelsea in January 1989, but Newcastle went down to the Second Division that season.

After losing his place to Pavel Srnicek in the early 1990s, he eventually moved to Nottingham Forest where he went straight into the starting line-up, however after an injury absence he failed to regain his place from Mark Crossley. He also saw relatively little first team action in later spells at Manchester City and a number of clubs where he played on loan. Early in the 1999-2000, he returned to Newcastle on a loan deal and played for them three times.

Wright won 31 caps for Northern Ireland in a ten-year period from 1989 to 1999. The high point of his Northern Ireland career was his performance in Nuremberg in 1996, as Northern Ireland earned a 1–1 draw against reigning European champions, Germany, in a 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification match. Wright had not played an international match in over two years prior to that point and had just returned to club action, on loan at Reading, after a prolonged injury absence.

Management and coaching career

Wright was first a goalkeeping coach for Norwich City but left when Glenn Roeder resigned. He was then appointed Youth Development Officer at Ballyclare Comrades. In November 2003 he made his first move into management at Limavady United^[1] and stayed for a couple of years. Wright was then appointed manager of Ballymena United and reached the County Antrim Shield against Linfield at Seaview. Wright resigned at the end of the 2007–08 season.

He was a full-time goalkeeping coach at Shamrock Rovers for the 2009 League of Ireland season under his former team mate Michael O'Neill. In September 2009 he was appointed manager of Lisburn Distillery.^[2] His first game was against his former club Ballymena United, which Lisburn won by a single goal.

St Johnstone

Wright left Distillery in November 2011 to become assistant manager of Scottish Premier League club St Johnstone.^[3]

After Steve Lomas left the Perth club to manage Millwall in June 2013, Wright was promoted to manager.^[4] Wright's first game in charge was a UEFA Europa League tie in Norway against Rosenborg. St Johnstone won 1–0, their first-ever away victory in European competition.^[5] The second leg ended in a 1–1 draw, putting St Johnstone through 2–1 on aggregate, and through to the third round of the qualifying stages for the first time.^[6] Despite winning 1-0 win against Minsk in the first leg of the next round, they went on to lose on penalties.^[7] After the match, Wright criticised Minsk, believing they lacked class in victory.^[8] After winning two games and drawing once in October, Wright won the Scottish Premiership Manager of the Month award.^[9]

In March 2014, Wright was involved in a touchline incident with Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara.^[10] This resulted a one-match ban for Wright.^[11] A few days later, Wright was taken to hospital after suffering stomach pains.^[12] Despite being in the hospital, Wright was still involved in the squad selection ahead of a match against Hibernian.^[13] The operation was a success, and Wright made his return in a match against Partick Thistle.^[14][15]

After Wright led the club to a top-six position in the Premiership, he guided them to their first Scottish Cup Final after a 2-1 win over Aberdeen.^[16] They were victorious in the May 17 Final meeting with Dundee United at Celtic Park. It was St Johnstone's first major trophy win.^[17] Wright signed a new contract with St Johnstone in August 2014.^[18] He signed another contract with St Johnstone in October 2015, soon after the club had rejected an approach from Dundee United for Wright.^[19]

Media Work

Wright from time to time does co-commentary work for BBC Northern Ireland's football coverage ^[20] as well as some punditry work for BT Sport's Scottish football coverage.^[21]

Managerial statistics

As of match played on 3 December 2016

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
G	W	D	L	Win %
Limavady United		November 2003	May 2005	7001540000000000000♠54	7001230000000000000♠23	7001150000000000000♠15	7001160000000000000♠16	7001425900000000000♠42.59
Ballymena United		May 2005	April 2008	7002117000000000000♠117	7001440000000000000♠44	7001290000000000000♠29	7001440000000000000♠44	7001376100000000000♠37.61
Lisburn Distillery		September 2009	November 2011	7001970000000000000♠97	7001360000000000000♠36	7001160000000000000♠16	7001450000000000000♠45	7001371100000000000♠37.11
St Johnstone		June 2013	Present	7002159000000000000♠159	7001700000000000000♠70	7001340000000000000♠34	7001550000000000000♠55	7001440300000000000♠44.03
Total				7002428000000000000♠428	7002173000000000000♠173	7001940000000000000♠94	7002161000000000000♠161	7001404200000000000♠40.42

Honours and Achievements

As a player

Newcastle United

• Football League Division One (1): 1992-93

Bolton Wanderers

• Football League Division One play-offs (1): 2000-01

As a manager

Lisburn Distillery

• Irish League Cup: (1) 2010–11

St Johnstone

• Scottish Cup: (1) 2013–14

References

External links

• Tommy Wright career statistics at Soccerbase