Harry McNally
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Harry McNally (born 7 July 1936, died 12 December 2004) was a football player, coach and manager, noted for his spells as manager of Wigan Athletic and Chester City.
His playing career was spent as an amateur at Skelmersdale United. Upon retirement as a player, he became coach at the club, and later became manager at Altrincham and Southport. He joined Wigan as a coach in 1981, becoming assistant manager the following year. The club's manager, Larry Lloyd quit to become the manager of Notts County at the end of the 1982-83 season, and at about the same time, owner Ken Bates pulled his investment out of the club, forcing the sale of most of the first team. McNally was appointed manager and rebuilt the squad with youth players and lower-league signings (one of them being Paul Jewell, the side's current manager), leading the side to a creditable 13th place finish the following season. He ended up having to sell his new squad at the end of the season to alleviate the continuing financial problems, forcing another rebuild. This one was not as successful, and McNally was sacked in February 1985 with the side several points adrift at the bottom of the table.
McNally only stayed out of work for a few months before being given the manager's job at Chester, who had finished bottom of the entire league in 1984 and hadn't made much progress the following season. It therefore came something as a shock when he took Chester through the best season in their history (only later surpassed when they won the Conference in 2004) to runners-up in the Fourth Division, only being kept off top by Swindon's own record-breaking season. Chester stayed in the Third Division (later becoming the Second Division) for seven years, during which the club were forced out of their stadium and had to play in Macclesfield for two years. McNally was sacked in 1992 following a bad start to the season. The chairman alleged that McNally had a severe drinking problem, something which virtually all of the club's players and coaching staff denied was true.
He didn't manage another club, but frequently offered his services as a scout to other clubs, and did some hospitality work at Chester after his sacking. McNally was one of the biggest critics of Terry Smith's ownership of the club, and resigned after only a few days as a consultant at the club in 2000.
McNally died in Chester on December 12, 2004, aged 68. While he had no surviving close relatives, several notable footballing figures attended his funeral. [1]
Chester City Football Club have now opened a stand to honour their former manager, known as the Harry McNally Terrace. This was opened on December 26, 2006 by current chairman Stephen Vaughan with a plaque also presented the same day on behalf of the fans by Chester City Supporters' Trust.
