| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1946-12-31)31 December 1946 (age 79) | ||
| Place of birth | Belfast, Northern Ireland | ||
| Position | Midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1964–1966 | Distillery | ||
| 1966–1971 | Linfield | ||
| 1971–1976 | Ipswich Town | 153 | (43) |
| 1976–1977 | Everton | 41 | (5) |
| 1977–1978 | Millwall | 49 | (6) |
| 1978–1980 | Swindon Town | 24 | (1) |
| 1980–1985 | Tranmere Rovers | 109 | (6) |
| Total | 376 | (61) | |
| International career | |||
| 1968–1980 | Northern Ireland | 50 | (4) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1980–1985 | Tranmere Rovers | ||
| 1985–1986 | Wigan Athletic | ||
| 1986–1987 | Leicester City | ||
| 1989–1993 | Wigan Athletic | ||
| 1994–1998 | Northern Ireland | ||
| 2000 | Norwich City | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Bryan Hamilton (born 31 December 1946)[1] is aNorthern Irish former professional football player and manager. He gained 50 caps for Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1980, and later managed the national team for four years. He later became Technical Director at Antigua Barracuda F.C.
Born inBelfast, Hamilton began his career atDistillery, before moving on toLinfield. He was namedUlster Footballer of the Year andNorthern Ireland Football Writers' Association Player of the Year for the 1970/71 season, also finishing asIrish League top goalscorer.[2] In 1971, he signed forIpswich Town,[3] where he spent five years and made over 150 appearances for the club. In 1976, he signed forEverton, before moving onto short spells atMillwall andSwindon Town.
In theFA Cup semi-final of 1977, full-time was looming in the clash betweenEverton andlocal rivalsLiverpool atMaine Road, with the score at 2–2, when Hamilton put the ball into the back of the net. However, infamously, his goal which should have stood was disallowed by refereeClive Thomas and the match went to a replay, which Everton lost 3–0.[4] This echoed an incident in the1975 FA Cup semi-final replay, when Thomas had similarly disallowed a potentially match winning goal by Hamilton.
Hamilton became player/manager ofTranmere Rovers in 1980. The club remained in the Fourth Division throughout this period, with three top half finishes during his five-year period in charge, culminating in a finish of 6th in 1984–85.
He was appointed manager ofWigan Athletic in March 1985.[5] Shortly after joining he led them to victory in the1985 Associate Members' Cup Final.[6] The 1985–86 season saw Wigan emerge as contenders for promotion to the Second Division, a feat which looked likely for virtually the entire campaign. However, when Wigan had completed their fixturesDerby County had three games in hand, two of which would be won to pip the Latics by a single point. His achievements with Wigan did not go unnoticed, and he moved toLeicester City soon afterwards. However, he was unable to keep Leicester in the First Division and soon left the club, and returned to Wigan as manager from 1989 to 1993.
Hamilton was appointed manager ofNorthern Ireland in 1994, succeedingBilly Bingham. In theEuro 96 qualifiers, Northern Ireland were in contention for qualification and were only narrowly pipped to second place by theRepublic of Ireland. The1998 World Cup qualifiers provided a far worse return despite a promising early draw withGermany – who would later beat Northern Ireland for the first time in two decades – and Hamilton left the job at the end of the qualifiers.
In April 2000 he was appointed manager ofNorwich City, but resigned on 4 December. He returned to Ipswich as coach in 2001, but left the club in 2002.[7] In November 2006, he was appointed Technical Director of theAntigua and Barbuda Football Association.
Hamilton is now a media pundit working mainly withEurosport,BBC Radio 5 Live,Setanta Sports,Today FM,Sky Sports andAnglia Television.
Individual
