Damien Richardson
Personal information
Full name	Damien John Richardson
Date of birth	2 August 1947(1947-08-02)
Place of birth	Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	None
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1963-1972 1972-1981	Shamrock Rovers Gillingham	00? (41) 323 (94)
National team
1971 - 1979 1968	Republic of Ireland League of Ireland XI	003 0(0)
Teams managed
1989-1992 1993-1995 1995 1995-1998 1999-2002 2005-2007	Gillingham Cork City Cobh Ramblers Shelbourne Shamrock Rovers Cork City
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Damien John Richardson (born 2 August 1947, Dublin) is an Irish football manager and former player. He currently has no club attachments, having left Cork City at the end of the 2007 season.^[1] Richardson formerly managed Gillingham in England and Cobh Ramblers, Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers in Ireland.

His father George managed St. Patrick's Athletic in the 1970s.

Contents 1 Player 2 Manager 3 Outside of professional football 4 Honours 4.1 As a player 4.2 As a manager 5 References

[edit] Player

As a player Richardson's career was divided between Shamrock Rovers and Gillingham. He made his Rovers debut in a 2-1 friendly win over Sunderland at Roker Park on 10 August 1963. His competitive debut came eight days later as Rovers beat Shelbourne 3-0 at Tolka Park in a Dublin City Cup clash. While at Rovers he twice won the FAI Cup in 1968 and 1969 (scoring in the final replay) as well as getting an Inter League cap and represented the club 5 times in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup. He received the first of three international caps for the Irish national team while at Shamrock Rovers, making his debut against Austria in Linz in October 1971. He scored in his final appearance for Rovers on 22 October 1972 at Milltown.

He moved to the English Fourth Division side Gillingham at the age of 25. He played for the Priestfield Stadium side for the next nine years before being released in 1981. During his time there he scored 100 goals.^[2]

[edit] Manager

Richardson's managerial career began in 1989 where he managed Gillingham, having previously served as the club's youth team manager. A rather lacklustre career there ended in 1992, and he returned to Ireland in 1993 to manage Cork City. He proved an instant success bringing the club within striking distance of retaining the league title. However, after 18 months he left the club after a dispute with then chairman Pat O'Donovan.

Following Cork City, he moved on another Cork side Cobh Ramblers before taking up the management position at Shelbourne. His time at Shelbourne saw two Cup successes (1995/96 and 1996/97), one League Cup (1995/96) and a runner up position in the League (1997/98) in three seasons. His failure to win the league ultimately cost him his job.

He moved to his old club Shamrock Rovers, where his tenure for three seasons failed to result in a trophy. Ultimately, Richardson and club chairman Joe Colwell disagreed on the direction of the club, and parted ways. Colwell wanted to focus on building a new stadium for the club, while Richardson wanted to focus on a full-time panel of players.

In 2005 Richardson returned to League of Ireland management when Cork City's manager Pat Dolan was dramatically sacked before the start of pre-season friendlies. Cork City Chairman Brian Lennox signed the 57 year old Richardson to a two year contract at Turners Cross 15 days before the first competitive match of the season. Richardson commented that the Cork City job was the only one that could have brought him back to League of Ireland management.^[3] Despite being hospitalised in September [2] in his first season in charge Cork City were crowned Eircom League Champions for the second time in the club's history. Cork City also reached the final of the FAI Cup but were defeated by Drogheda United. The 2006 and 2007 seasons saw 4th place positions for his club in both years. In 2007 Richardson led Cork City to FAI Cup victory, but left shortly afterwards following some controversy, and a financial settlement agreement.^[4]

[edit] Outside of professional football

In 2002, Richardson left football management to become a TV soccer pundit with TV3 in Ireland, before returning to the game in 2005. Richardson has also supported Red FM's national award winning "Break the Cycle" anti-speeding campaign. Richardson is a regular pundit on Monday Night Soccer on Raidió Teilifís Éireann, and is also a regular contributer to RTE Radio's coverage of Republic of Ireland international matches.

Richardson writes a regular blog for the RTE / MNS website, and continues to write a weekly column for a Cork newspaper since his time as manager of Cork City. His imaginative and often abstract style of writing has led to him being referred to as the MNS studio's "resident poet".

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

• FAI Cup: 2
  • Shamrock Rovers 1968, 1969
• Top Four Cup
  • Shamrock Rovers 1966
• Dublin City Cup
  • Shamrock Rovers 1966/67
• Blaxnit Cup
  • Shamrock Rovers 1967-68
• Leinster Senior Cup
  • Shamrock Rovers 1968/69

[edit] As a manager

• League of Ireland Championship: 1
  • Cork City 2005

• FAI Cup: 3
  • Shelbourne F.C. 1996, 1997
  • Cork City 2007

• League of Ireland Cup: 1
  • Shelbourne 1995/96

• SWAI Personality of the Year
  • Cork City F.C. - 2005

[edit] References

• The Hoops by Paul Doolan and Robert Goggins (ISBN 0-7171-2121-6)
• Triggs, Roger (2001). The Men Who Made Gillingham Football Club. Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-2243-X. 

Preceded by Colin Murphy

Shelbourne Manager 1995-1998

Succeeded by Dermot Keely

v • d • e Shamrock Rovers F.C. – Managers Dunne (1937–42) · Fullam (1942–45) · Dunne (1947–49) · Coad (1949–60) · Murphy (1960–61) · Thomas (1961–64) · Tuohy (1964–69) · Fitzsimons (1969) · O'Neill (1969–71) · Young (1971–71) · Ambrose (1971–72**) · Tuohy (1972–73) · Keogh (1973) · Wood (1973–74**) · Meagan (1974–76) · Thomas (1976–77) · Giles (1977–1983) · Campbell (1983) · McLaughlin (1983–86) · Keely (1986–88) · King (1988–92) · Treacy (1992–96) · O'Neill/Eviston (1996) · Byrne (1996–97) · Byrne (1997–99) · Richardson (1999–02) · Buckley (2002–04) · Synnott (2004) · Collins (2004–05) · O'Neill (2005**) · Scully (2006–08) · Crawford (2008**) · O'Neill (2009–) **=In a caretaker role

v • d • e Gillingham F.C. – Managers Groombridge (1896–1906) · Smith (1906–08) · Groombridge (1908–13) · Gilligan (1913–15) · Collins (1919–20) · Brown (1920) · McMillan (1920–22) · Groombridge (1922–23) · Curtis (1923–26) · Hoskins (1926–29) · Hendrie (1929–31) · Maven (1932–37) · Ure (1937–38) · Harvey (1938–39) · Clark (1939–58) · Barratt (1958–62) · Cox (1962–65) · Boswell (1966) · Hayward (1966–71) · Nelson (1971–74) · Ashurst (1974–75) · Summers (1975–81) · Peacock (1981–87) · Paul Taylor (1987–88) · Burkinshaw (1988–89) · Richardson (1989–92) · Roeder (1992–93) · Flanagan (1993–95) · Smillie (1995) · Pulis (1995–99) · Peter Taylor (1999–2000) · Hessenthaler (2000–04) · Gorman (2004) · Hare/Roberts/Smith (2004) · Ternent (2004–05) · Cooper (2005) · Jepson (2005–07) · Docherty/Onoura (2007) · Stimson (2007–)