David Hughes (footballer born 1972)
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| David Hughes | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Robert Hughes | |
| Date of birth | December 30, 1972 | |
| Place of birth | St Albans, England | |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | |
| Playing position | Midfielder | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Eastleigh | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| Southampton | ||
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
1991-2000 2002-present |
Weymouth Southampton Eastleigh |
53 (3) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 2007 | Eastleigh | |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
David Robert Hughes (born St Albans 30 December 1972) is a semi-professional footballer, who spent six seasons in the Premiership with Southampton and is now at Eastleigh.
Hughes joined Southampton from Weymouth in March 1991, initially as a trainee. He signed a professional contract in August 1991, but did not make his first-team debut until 5 February 1994 (in a 2-1 defeat away to Oldham Athletic) shortly after the appointment of Alan Ball as Saints' manager. He was never a regular member of the first team squad and appeared more often as a substitute than a starter.
In his nine years at The Dell he suffered an incredible catalogue of injuries including broken legs (twice), fractured ribs and back problems which required surgery. When fit, he was an industrious midfielder who could both burst into the box and clear up in defence.
He was a rare goal-scorer, but scored twice in consecutive matches, firstly away to Queens Park Rangers on 28 December 1994 with an acrobatic scissors-kick, and again at home to Manchester United three days later with a right-foot shot, both games ending 2-2.
His career at Southampton finally ended after a knee injury picked up in the August 2000 pre-season.
He also played at Youth level for England and at Under-21 level for Wales.
After leaving professional football, he went into the building trade and in June 2002 he joined Eastleigh as player/assistant manager.[1] To date he has played over 180 games for Eastleigh in all competitions, scoring 34 goals.
On 9 July 2007, Hughes was promoted to team manager at Eastleigh, following Jason Dodd's resignation.[2] He relinquished this post following the appointment of Ian Baird in October 2007, operating instead as the player/assistant manager.
