Dick Campbell

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Dick Campbell is a former Scottish football player and former manager of Partick Thistle Football Club. He has also previously managed Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline Athletic and Brechin City.

Campbell's low-profile playing career was mainly spent in the lower echelons of Scottish football. Having started out with Dundee United's youth system he then played for Cowdenbeath, Ross County, Brechin City and East Stirlingshire. He then started coaching at Brechin before eventually moving to Dunfermline Athletic to become Bert Paton's assistant.

Campbell's first managerial experience was brief: a short spell at the helm of Cowdenbeath in the 1980s, after which he returned to coaching at Brechin. However, he was afforded a second opportunity when Paton resigned his position at Dunfermline in early 1999 and he was given temporary control. After a 3-month probationary period Campbell was made permanent manager at East End Park. However he left before the end of the year, with his Dunfermline side struggling to match promotion ambitions. After several months out of the game, Campbell was appointed manager of Brechin City in 2000, with Paton this time acting as his assistant. Over the following 5 seasons he helped Brechin rise from the depths of the Third Division to the First Division, despite their status as a part-time club. The chance to work with full-time players again tempted him to move to Partick Thistle in 2005.

Campbell took over as Partick manager after the end of Gerry Britton's and Derek Whyte's reign as joint player managers. Initial success was gained, and he won a Manager of the Month award within a month of taking over at the club. Despite this early success, Thistle finished 9th at the end of the 2004-05 season, and were therefore relegated to the Second Division. In the 2005-06 season, he guided the Partick Thistle team to promotion through the play-offs into the First Division, after finishing fourth in the Second Division.

Dick Campbell has been praised in recent times for his negotiation skills, with particular reference to the signing of Simon Donelly at the start of the 2006-07 season. However, despite a decent start, a string of poor results sees Thistle languishing in the bottom half of the table and his tenure was ended on 27 March 2007. [1]

[edit] Family links

Dick Campbell has a twin brother Ian who is also a former football player and manager. They worked together for many years at both Dunfermline, where Ian was a coach, and Brechin City, where Ian was Dick's joint-assistant. When Dick left to manage Partick Thistle, Ian took over the Brechin managerial reigns.

Dick's son Iain is also involved in football, currently playing as a left back for Kilmarnock.