Chris Nicholl

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Chris Nicholl
Personal information
Full name	Christopher John Nicholl
Date of birth	12 October 1946 (1946-10-12) (age 61)
Place of birth	Wilmslow, England
Playing position	Centre Back
Youth clubs
1963-1965	Burnley
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1965-1966 1966-1968 1968-1969 1969-1972 1972-1977 1977-1983 1983-1984	Burnley Witton Albion Halifax Town Luton Town Aston Villa Southampton Grimsby Town	000 0(0) 042 0(3) 097 0(6) 210 (11) 228 0(8) 070 0(0)
National team
1974-1983	Northern Ireland	051 0(3)
Teams managed
1986-1991 1994-1997	Southampton Walsall
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Christopher John "Chris" Nicholl (born 12 October 1946 in Macclesfield is an English-born former footballer and manager of Northern Irish ancestry.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Management 2.1 Southampton 2.2 Walsall 2.3 Northern Ireland 3 Playing Honours 3.1 Halifax Town 3.2 Aston Villa 3.3 Southampton 4 External links

[edit] Playing career

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He played for Witton Albion, Burnley (1965-1968) (no league appearances), Halifax Town (1968-1969) (42 league appearances, 3 goals) and Luton Town (1969-1972) (97 league appearances, 6 goals), before establishing himself as a centre-half with Aston Villa (1972-1977) (210 league appearances, 11 goals). He captained the side to victory over Everton in the 1976/1977 League Cup after two final replays. The game is remembered for one of the greatest goals in any Aston Villa match, a forty yard left footer which helped take the match to extra time.

In Aston Villa's 2-2 draw with Leicester City in March 1976, Nicholl scored all four goals, including two own goals as well as both of Villa's.

He signed for Southampton F.C. in June 1977 and became the backbone of a successful side. He scored eight goals in 228 league appearances, before joining Grimsby Town in August 1983, for whom he made 70 league appearances in three years.

He won 51 Northern Ireland full international caps.

[edit] Management

[edit] Southampton

He returned to Southampton as the club's manager when Lawrie McMenemy resigned in August 1985. He kept the Saints in the First Division but despite having players of the calibre of Danny and Rod Wallace, Alan Shearer and Matthew Le Tissier in his squad, he tended to be too cautious. During his 6 seasons in charge, Saints were under-achievers and his best result was in 1989-90 with a finish in 7th place achieved largely thanks to 20 goals from Le Tissier and 18 from Rod Wallace.

Nicholl did achieve a modicum of cup success with Saints losing 2-0 (after extra-time) in the semi-final of the FA Cup to Liverpool on 5 April 1986 and again to Liverpool in the semi-final of the League Cup the following season.

The following season Saints finished in 14th place and Nicholl was sacked in May 1991 and replaced by Ian Branfoot. Thus ended a period of managerial stability, with only 3 managers in 36 years and started Southampton's managerial merry-go-round which saw them appoint 12 managers over the next 15 years.

[edit] Walsall

It was three years before Nicholl returned to football. Early in the 1994-95 season he replaced Kenny Hibbitt as manager of Walsall FC and his first season at the club was successful as they were promoted from Division Three as runners-up. The Saddlers finished in the top half of Division Two during the next two seasons but Nicholl quit in May 1997 after failing to get Walsall into Division One, citing family reasons.

He made a brief return to Walsall as then-manager Ray Graydon's assistant in November 2001, but left in January 2002 through loyalty to Graydon, who had been sacked. He is now a regular at the Bescot Stadium, both as a supporter and as the correspondent for PA Sport.

Following the sacking of former Walsall player-manager Paul Merson in February 2006, Nicholl offered his services to the club within hours of Merson's departure. Nicholl remains popular amongst Walsall fans, but was not offered the manager's job - which later went to former Birmingham City captain Kevan Broadhurst.

[edit] Northern Ireland

In 1998, he was invited to work alongside Lawrie McMenemy as assistant manager of Northern Ireland where he spent the next two years.

[edit] Playing Honours

[edit] Halifax Town

• Fourth Division Runners up: 1969

[edit] Aston Villa

• League Cup Winners: 1975, 1977
• Third Division Champions: 1972

[edit] Southampton

• League Cup Runners up: 1979

[edit] External links

• Chris Nicholl management career stats at Soccerbase
• Northern Ireland profile

v • d • e Northern Ireland squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup 1 Jennings • 2 J. Nicholl • 3 Donaghy • 4 McCreery • 5 C. Nicholl • 6 J. O'Neill • 7 Brotherston • 8 M. O'Neill • 9 Armstrong • 10 McIlroy • 11 Hamilton • 12 McClelland • 13 Nelson • 14 Cassidy • 15 Finney • 16 Whiteside • 17 Platt • 18 Jameson • 19 Healy • 20 Cleary • 21 Campbell • 22 Dunlop • Coach: Bingham

v • d • e Southampton F.C. – Managers Knight (1894–95s) • Robson (1895–97s) • Arnfield (1897–1911s) • Swift (1911–12) • Arnfield (1912–19s) • McIntyre (1919–24) • Goss (1924–1925s) • Chadwick (1925–31) • Kay (1931–36) • Goss (1936–37) • Parker (1937–43) • Dominy (1943–46) • Dodgin (1946–49) • Cann (1949–51) • Roughton (1952–55) • Bates (1955–73) • McMenemy (1973–85) • Nicholl (1985–91) • Branfoot (1991–94) • Ball (1994–95) • Merrington (1995–96) • Souness (1996–97) • Jones (1997–2000) • Hoddle (2000–01) • Gray (2001) • Strachan (2001–04) • Sturrock (2004) • Wigley (2004) • Redknapp (2004–05) • Bassett & Wise (2005c) • Burley (2005–08) • Gorman & Dodd (2008c) • Pearson (2008) • Poortvliet (2008–) (s) secretary (c) caretaker

v • d • e Walsall F.C. – Managers Smallwood (1888–91) • Burton (1891–93) • Robinson (1893–95) • Ailso (1895–96) • Parsloe (1896–97) • Ford (1897–98) • Hughes (1898–99) • Ford (1899–1901) • Shutt (1908–13) • Price (1914–20) • Burchell (1921–26) • Ashworth (1926–27) • Torrance (1927–28) • Kerr (1928–29) • Scholey (1929–30) • O'Rourke (1930–32) • Slade (1932–34) • Wilson (1934–37) • Lowes (1937–44) • Hibbs (1944–51) • McPhee (1951) • Fletcher (1952–53) • Buckley (1953–55) • Love (1955–57) • Moore (1957–64) • Wood (1964) • Shaw (1964–68) • Graham (1968) • Lewin (1968–69) • Moore (1969–72) • Smith (1972–73) • Allen (1973) • Fraser (1974–77) • Mackay (1977–78) • Ashman (1978) • Sibley (1979) • Buckley (1979–82) • Martin (1981–82) • Buckley (1982–86) • Coakley (1986–88) • Barnwell (1989–90) • Hibbitt (1990–94) • Nicholl (1994–97) • Sørensen (1997–98) • Graydon (1998–2002) • Lee (2002–04) • Merson (2004–06) • Halsall (2006) • Broadhurst (2006) • Kinsella (2006) • Money (2006–2008)