Bobby Williamson

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For the poker player, see Robert Williamson III

Bobby Williamson (born 13 August 1961) is a football manager, most recently of Plymouth Argyle F.C., from where he was dismissed by the directors on 6 September 2005 after a poor start to the 2005/2006 football season. He was the first league manager to be dismissed in the 2005/06 season.

Born in Glasgow, as a player he was a striker with an impressive goalscoring record at all teams. He began his career at Clydebank and his 35 goals in 85 matches earned him a move to Rangers. However, after an injury-hit spell with the Glasgow club he moved to England, where he had spells with West Bromwich Albion and Rotherham United. He returned to Scotland in 1990 to join Kilmarnock, which proved to be his last club as a player.

Williamson became the manager of Kilmarnock in 1997 following the departure of Alex Totten. He had a quick impact and in his first season guided them to a Scottish Cup win beating Falkirk 1-0 in the final. Kilmarnock finished highly in the Scottish Premier League and he guided them into Europe, playing sixteen ties. He also attracted high profile players such as former Scotland internationals, Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant as well as former French international, Christophe Cocard.

In February 2002 the Scottish Premier League's longest serving manager took up a new challenge at Hibernian. He was again under huge financial constraints but produced several excellent young players and Hibernian became known throughout the UK for developing talented youngsters; with many top English clubs sending scouts to Hibs on a weekly basis.

In the 2003/04 season, he guided his young team to the Scottish League Cup final, beating both Old Firm clubs, Rangers and Celtic, along the way. They were, however, beaten by Livingston 2-0 in the final.

Williamson moved to Plymouth Argyle on 20 April 2004, and won his first match in charge of them, which gave Argyle promotion to the Football League Championship and the Division Two title, having built on the success of previous manager, Paul Sturrock. However, a poor run of results at the start of the 2005-06 season led to his dismissal on 6 September 2005. Financial constraints at Plymouth Argyle resulted in a number of signings which contributed to his demise, most notibly Taribo West. He was replaced by Tony Pulis, who had recently been sacked by fellow Championship side Stoke City.

He has since struggled to get a managerial position and appears as a football pundit on BBC Scotland radio.

[edit] Management record

Club	From	To	Games	Wins	Draws	Losses
Kilmarnock	7 December 1996	25 February 2002	242	89	86	87
Hibernian	25 February 2002	20 April 2004	93	34	38	21
Plymouth Argyle	20 April 2004	6 September 2005	58	19	12	27