Darren Patterson
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- This article is about the real-life Darren Patterson. For information about the character, see Darren Patterson (character).
Darren Patterson (born 15 October 1969 in Belfast) is a Northern Irish former footballer who is currently among the coaching and management staff at Oxford United. As a player he was primarily a central defender who could also play at full back or as a defensive midfielder.
Patterson began his playing career with West Bromwich Albion but failed to make much impact on the club and was signed by Bryan Hamilton for Wigan Athletic early in the 1989-90 season. Patterson proved a success in defence for Wigan, making 30+27 League appearances and scored 5 League goals before being transferred to Crystal Palace at the end of the 1991/92 season. Patterson enjoyed a longer spell at Palace and played for the club in the FA Premier League before joining Luton Town in a £230,000 deal in August 1995. He made 66 appearances for Luton (and also had a loan spell at Preston North End) before leaving on a Bosman ruling free transfer in the Summer of 1998 to join Dundee United. He finished his career with spells at York City, whom he joined in December 2000 and Oxford, whom he signed for in February 2002.
After his move to Crystal Palace Patterson made his debut for the Northern Ireland national team. He went on to win 17 caps whilst at Palace, Luton and Dundee United.
After retiring from the game Patterson remained at Oxford as youth team coach. He served as caretaker manager of the club following the departure of Graham Rix, although he was ultimately overlooked for the job in favour of Ramón Díaz. He was finally appointed manager of the club on a full-time basis in March 2006 following the departure of Brian Talbot. However, no sooner had Patterson been appointed than he lost the job to Jim Smith following the sale of the club by Firoz Kassam to Nick Merry. Patterson managed the club for only eight days, and in doing so became perhaps the shortest-serving manager in the history of the English league (Bill Lambton and Tim Ward both had periods in charge of a club that lasted three and seven days respectively, but neither man actually signed a contract to manage the club, whereas Patterson did).
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Categories: 1969 births | Crystal Palace F.C. players | Dundee United F.C. players | Living people | Luton Town F.C. players | Northern Irish footballers | Oxford United F.C. managers | Oxford United F.C. players | Preston North End F.C. players | West Bromwich Albion F.C. players | Wigan Athletic F.C. players | York City F.C. players
