Richard O'Kelly
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| Richard O'Kelly | ||
 |
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Richard Florence O'Kelly | |
| Date of birth | January 8, 1957 | |
| Place of birth | West Bromwich, England | |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | |
| Playing position | Forward | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Doncaster Rovers (assistant manager) | |
| Senior career1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| – 1979–1986 1986–1988 1988 1988–1989 |
Alvechurch Walsall Port Vale Walsall Grimsby Town |
? (?) 204 (56) 28 (4) 12 (1) 39 (10) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Richard Florence O'Kelly (born 8 January 1957 in West Bromwich) is an English former footballer. After retiring due to injury in 1989 he took up coaching and in 2002 landed his first management position as an assistant, since then he has continued in that capacity for numerous clubs and is currently the assistant manager at Doncaster Rovers.
[edit] Playing career
O'Kelly started his career with Alvechurch before moving into the Football League with Walsall in 1979. He remained at Fellows Park for the next seven years, racking up over 200 appearances with a goal rate of one goal every four games. In July 1986 the cultured striker joined fellow West Midlands and Third Division side Port Vale for a £6,000 fee.[1]
His Vale Park career started with a bang as he scored on his debut in a 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough on 23 August 1986. After playing the next three matches he was struck down with an injury to his knee ligaments, which requred an operation the following January. Sidelined for the rest of the 1986-87 season he returned to the first team at the beginning of the 1987-88 season. In January 1988 he returned to Walsall on a free transfer,[1] before moving on to Grimsby Town later in the year.
O'Kelly finished his playing career in 1989 following a bad injury sustained playing for Grimsby in an encounter with Doncaster Rovers.
[edit] Coaching career
After finishing his playing career, O'Kelly worked as Port Vale's community officer from August 1990 to May 1991 before returning to Blundell Park as a youth team coach.[1] He left Grimsby for the same position at West Bromwich Albion in 1994. He spent seven years at The Hawthorns as youth team coach, and then six months at Aston Villa, before joining Hereford United in 2002 as assistant manager to Graham Turner.
He was appointed assistant manager of Bournemouth in the summer of 2004 and two years later followed manager Sean O'Driscoll to Doncaster Rovers. Under the pair's first full season at Rovers the club gained promotion into the Championship after winning the League One play-off final in 2008 against Leeds United.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Kent, Jeff (1996). Port Vale Personalities. Witan Books. p. 219. ISBN 0952915200. http://www.amazon.ca/Port-Vale-Personalities-Jeff-Kent/dp/0952915200.
