| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1961-03-24)24 March 1961 (age 64) | ||
| Place of birth | Birkenhead, England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[1] | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1980–1982 | Cammell Laird | ||
| 1982–1986 | Nottingham Forest | 118 | (54) |
| 1986–1988 | Manchester United | 92 | (22) |
| 1988–1990 | Middlesbrough | 59 | (7) |
| 1990–1993 | Sunderland | 99 | (15) |
| 1993–1994 | Airdrieonians | 38 | (8) |
| 1994–1995 | St Johnstone | 22 | (4) |
| 1995 | Stockport County | 6 | (1) |
| 1995–1997 | Southport | 58 | (18) |
| 1997–2000 | Macclesfield Town | 20 | (7) |
| 2001 | Congleton Town | 2 | (0) |
| 2001–2004 | Bangor City | 8 | (0) |
| Total | 497 | (130) | |
| International career | |||
| 1984 | England B | 1 | (0) |
| 1985 | England | 1 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2000 | Macclesfield Town | ||
| 2001–2005 | Bangor City | ||
| 2006–2007 | Colwyn Bay | ||
| 2007–2008 | Southport | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Peter Davenport (born 24 March 1961) is an English former professionalfootballer and manager who has managed teams in both the Welsh and English leagues. Born inBirkenhead, Cheshire, he won one fullcap forEngland, against theRepublic of Ireland in 1985. Most recently, he was assistant manager atBradford Park Avenue.
Davenport was born inBirkenhead and was spotted by scouts fromNottingham Forest while playing forCammell Laird in the West Cheshire league. Forest offered Cammell Laird a brand new football kit if they could sign Davenport, to which they reluctantly agreed.[citation needed] In the1983–84 and1984–85 seasons, Davenport was Forest's leading goalscorer. Davenport also played in theUEFA Cup semi-final clash with Anderlecht in 1984, which Forest lost 3–2 on aggregate.
While a Forest player, Davenport won his only senior cap for England in a 2–1 friendly win over the Republic of Ireland on 26 March 1985.[2]
Davenport completed a transfer to Manchester United on 12 March 1986 for a fee of £750,000.[3] By this stage of the season, United were falling behindEverton andLiverpool in the league title race which they had looked so certain to win after a 10-match winning start to theseason. A hectic fixture schedule followed, with 10 games being played between Davenport's arrival on 12 March leading up to his first goal in a 4–0 win overLeicester City on 26 April. By then, however, the impressive win was too late to revive United's title challenge as it had become a three-horse race between Everton, Liverpool andWest Ham United, with Liverpool eventually winning.
United managerRon Atkinson had signed him as a successor toMark Hughes, who would be signing forBarcelona at the end of the season. He started 11 league games for United at the end of the1985–86 season, but only scored once and United finished fourth.
Davenport himself did not have a bad start to the1986–87 season, but United's performances in the league were some of their worst since relegation in the1973–74 season. By the beginning of November, Davenport had scored five goals in the league and another goal in theFootball League Cup, but United were second from bottom in the league and battling against relegation when just months earlier they had been title contenders. Davenport scored his seventh goal of the season on 4 November 1986, but it came as United were thrashed 4–1 bySouthampton in the fourth round replay of the League Cup. Ron Atkinson was then sacked and replaced byAlex Ferguson.
Ferguson was intent on building a new side, but there were few changes to the line-up while the 1986–87 season wore on and Davenport was undoubtedly one of the best players in the side that season. In December, he scored twice in successive 3–3 draws with title challengersTottenham Hotspur and fellow strugglersAston Villa. On 20 April 1987 he scored the only goal in a 1–0 home win over deadly rivalsLiverpool which helped end Liverpool's defence of the league title, which was won by Everton. By now, United's relegation worries had long gone and they finished a healthy 11th in the final table. Davenport finished the season as United's top goalscorer with 16 goals (14 in the league and two in the League Cup) and for the1987–88 season he would have a new strike partner in the shape ofBrian McClair following the departure ofFrank Stapleton.
McClair's arrival took the pressure off Davenport as the Scotsman was top scorer for a United side who finished second behind Liverpool in the league in 1987–88, scoring 24 goals in the league and 31 in all competitions. Davenport played in 34 out of 40 league games (13 as a substitute) and scored five league goals. In all competitions he made 40 appearances and scored six goals, vying withNorman Whiteside (normally a midfielder) for the role of United's second striker.
However, the 1988 close season saw the return ofMark Hughes to Old Trafford after two years away and it was widely expected that Davenport would leave, but he began the1988–89 season still a United player, and with a regular place in the first team. He scored in successive league games in September and was also on the scoresheet in a League Cup tie but he was then sold to newly promoted Middlesbrough in November 1988 for a fee of £750,000.[4] He had scored his last goal for United on 28 September 1988, finding the net in a 1–0Football League Cup second round first leg win overRotherham United atMillmoor.[5]
Davenport walked straight into theAyresome Park first team under managerBruce Rioch but it took him 11 games to get off the mark, netting in a 1–0 victory against his previous employersManchester United at Ayresome Park on 2 January 1989. However, he managed just four goals from 24 games in 1988–89 as Boro slipped back into theFootball League Second Division just one season after promotion.1989–90 was even tougher as Boro narrowly avoided a second successive relegation and Davenport managed a mere three goals from 35 league games, and by the end of the season Rioch had gone and Boro were now managed byColin Todd.
In July 1990, he signed for their local rivals Sunderland who had just been promoted to the First Division.[6]
Davenport signed for nearbySunderland in the summer of 1990, and formed an effective strike partnership withMarco Gabbiadini in the first half of the season. Despite this, Sunderland were relegated at the end of the season. In the 1991–92 season, Davenport continued to be a prominent player for Sunderland, scoring in the Wear-Tees Derby atRoker Park on 20 April 1992 with a first time volley from outside the 18-yard box, a goal that has been regarded as being one of the best scored at Roker Park in recent memory. In the same season, he played in the1992 FA Cup final at Wembley againstLiverpool. Davenport scored the first goal in a famous 2–1 quarter-final victory overChelsea during the road to Wembley and formed a partnership with strikerJohn Byrne (who scored in every round bar the final itself).
He played one more season for Sunderland, in the new Division One, before moving north of the border to sign for Airdrieonians, who had just been relegated from theScottish Premier Division.
Despite the fact that he had played for Manchester United and Nottingham Forest in the 1980s, both teams who fairly regularly won trophies around that time, this was Davenport's first and only appearance in a major cup final.
He finished his playing career with spells at several lower division and Scottish League clubs includingAirdrieonians,St Johnstone,Stockport County andSouthport where he also held post as caretaker manager, during which time Southport were unbeaten. After leaving Southport he joinedMacclesfield as a player scoring his 100th league goal at Exeter City F.C in May 1998. After his football career finished, Peter Davenport went on to coach rugby and teach at St Anselm's College in Birkenhead. He has since stayed on at St Anselm's and acted as a substitute teacher and general organiser and liaison for school trips and finance.
After progressing as a coach and assistant manager he was appointed as manager afterSammy McIlroy left to become Northern Ireland manager in January 2000. However, he was sacked in December 2000 after refusing to work alongside newly appointed joint managerGil Prescott.[7]
In June 2001, Davenport was appointed as manager ofBangor City in the Welsh Premiership, where he took the team to three third-place finishes in four years qualifying for European competition 3 times.[8] Bangor City memorably beatFK Sartid (Yugoslavia) in the UEFA cup first round in 2002. Davenport resigned from his post in December 2005 citing a lack of progress in the Welsh premier league and Bangor's unsuccessful application to build a new stadium as his reasons.[9]
He was appointed manager ofColwyn Bay on 24 May 2006,[10] resigning on 15 January 2007 to once again become manager of Southport.[11] However, in April 2008 he was sacked as manager despite vying for a place in theConference North playoff positions.[12] His sacking an acrimonious one, blaming the chief executive, Haydn Preece, personally for his demise quoting that he felt he was "stabbed in the back".[13]
On 11 May 2010, he found himself back in management as he was appointed as the assistant manager atBradford Park Avenue[14] only to find himself without a job by August the same year due to a change in personal circumstances.[15]