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Ronald David "Ronnie" Moore (born 29 January 1953 in Liverpool) is an English football manager and former player. He is widely considered one of the greatest Rotherham United players of all time, and went on to manage the millers for seven years. His time in charge saw unprecedented success, gaining two successive promotions and, against all odds, maintaining Championship football for three years. After spells at Oldham and Tranmere, he made his return to Rotherham United on 24th September 2009. He is also the father of Tranmere Rovers striker Ian Thomas-Moore.

[edit] Playing career

Ronnie Moore was born in Liverpool and he began his playing career with local side Tranmere Rovers as a centre-half, before making a successful switch to centre-forward.

He also played for Cardiff City where his somewhat disappointing goalscoring record of six goals led some fans to sport badges bearing the legend "I Saw Ronnie Moore Score".^{[citation needed]}

He later played for Rotherham United, Charlton Athletic and Rochdale, before returning to Tranmere, where he finished his career.

In a recent poll, Moore was voted as Rotherham's greatest ever player, beating the likes of Mark Robins and Paul Hurst.

[edit] Managerial career

Moore's first managerial post was a two-month caretaker spell at Tranmere, while still acting as a player. After later acting as assistant manager to John King, he replaced Steve Joel as the manager of Conference side Southport in the 1996/1997 season, before beginning his first full-time managerial role in 1997 at Rotherham United. He proved a success at Millmoor, taking the club from the Third Division to the First Division in successive seasons. Moore helped keep Rotherham at this level for three years but left the club early in 2005.

Moore then joined Oldham Athletic in March 2005, and the club did enough to avoid relegation in his first season. He achieved a mid-table place the following year but parted company with Oldham because of poor season ticket sales.^[1] Moore soon returned to management with former club Tranmere Rovers in June 2006, just eight days after leaving Oldham..^[2]

He started in charge of Rovers by bringing in 9 players in the close season, including Chris Shuker and Paul McLaren. In his first year at Rovers he guided his team to a 9th place finish in League One, after looking set for a play off place for most of the year. Again he shuffled things around in the summer with Kevn Ellison and Jason McAteer amongst the departures. In came goalkeeper Danny Coyne, defenders Antony Kay & Ben Chorley and midielder Adnan Ahmed. In his second year it was another near miss, this time Rovers finished 11th after being top in mid-October. Injuries seemed to be against Ronnie also as his two key wingers Chris Shuker & Steve Davies were ruled out for long spells. He did enough in his first two years at the club to earn a new contract in May 2007. His first signing of the summer was Gareth Edds, a midfielder from MK Dons, who signed on the 10th June 2008.

After spending most of the 2008/9 season in mid-table, Tranmere made a late surge and went to Scunthorpe in their final match, needing a win to reach the play-offs. They led 1-0 until conceding an equaliser two minutes fron time. Scunthorpe went on to win the play-offs and earn promotion to the Championship. Despite this, Ronnie was surprisingly sacked by Tranmere on the 5th of June 2009 - again due to falling attendances.^[3]

A press conference was called for 10.30am Friday 25 September 2009 to confirm Moore's return as Rotherham United manager, assisted by former teammate Jimmy Mullen. The following day, Ronnie was unveiled to the millers faithful at the home game against Barnet, to a massive standing ovation. This inspired a 3-0 victory, which saw the South Yorkshire side dominate from start to finish. His first win came just a week later against Crewe, after a shock defeat at the hands of Northampton Town midweek.

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a Manager

[edit] Promotions

• 1999–00: Division 3 Runner Up (promotion to Division 2) - Rotherham United
• 2000–01: Division 2 Runner Up (promotion to Division 1) - Rotherham United

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Manager stats at Soccerbase.com