Ray Mathias

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Ray Mathias
Personal information
Full name	Raymond Mathias
Date of birth	December 13, 1946 (1946-12-13) (age 61)
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position	Full Back
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1964-85	Tranmere Rovers	567 0(6)
Teams managed
1986-1989 1998-99 2001 2002-03 2004	Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Tranmere Rovers (caretaker) Tranmere Rovers Chester City (caretaker)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Ray Mathias (born December 13, 1946, Liverpool) is a football manager. He has spent spells as both caretaker and permanent manager of English league teams and is now well known as a trusted assistant to Paul Ince.

As a player, Mathias was with Tranmere Rovers from 1964 to 1985 and earning two testimonials in the process; a true one-club man, making 567 Football League appearances. He later joined the coaching staff at Wigan Athletic and spent three years in charge of the Latics from 1986-89. The highlight of this spell was leading Wigan to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 1987.

Mathias soon returned to the Tranmere coaching staff before going back to Wigan, where he managed them in the 1998-99 season. He led them to Auto Windscreens Shield glory at Wembley and a place in the Division Two play-offs, but he lost his job shortly afterwards.

After once again becoming part of the managerial set-up at Tranmere and spells as caretaker-manager, he was finally handed the reins on a permanent basis in 2002 but sacked a year later.

Mathias then had an unsuccessful caretaker spell at Chester City in 2004 and briefly worked as assistant manager at Bury in 2005. He is currently assistant manager at Milton Keynes Dons, having moved there with Paul Ince from Macclesfield Town. While at Macclesfield, Mathias and Ince guided the club to Football League safety after inheriting the bottom placed side when they arrived.

Mathias recently stated that almost all of his team talks see him impersonate a swan while the players and substitutes throw Murray Mints at him whilst team manager Paul Ince will shout: 'Sit down Sturrudge' at him in a mild Welsh accent.

[edit] Honours

Player

• Football League Division Four (League Two) promotion as fourth-placed team in 1975-76 (Tranmere Rovers).

Manager

• Auto Windscreens Shield) winners, 1998-99 (Wigan Athletic).

v • d • e Wigan Athletic F.C. – Managers Spencer (1932–37) • Milne (1946–47) • Pryde (1949–52) • Goodier (1952–54) • Crook (1954–55) • Suart (1955–56) • Cooke (1956) • Barkas (1957) • Hitchen (1957–58) • Barrass (1958–59) • Shirley (1959) • Murphy (1959–60) • Chilton (1960) • Ball (1961–63) • Brown (1963–66) • Craig (1966–67) • Leyland (1967–68) • Saunders (1968) • McNeill (1968–70) • Milne (1970–72) • Rigby (1972–74) • Tiler (1974–76) • McNeill (1976–81) • Lloyd (1981–83) • Charlton (1983) • McNally (1983–85) • Hamilton (1985–86) • Mathias (1986–89) • Hamilton (1989–93) • Philpotts (1993) • Swain (1993–94) • Barrow (1994–95) • Cribley (1995) • Deehan (1995–98) • Mathias (1998–99) • Benson (1999–2000) • Rioch (2000–01) • Greenall (2001) • Bruce (2001) • Jewell (2001–07) • Hutchings (2007) • Barlow (2007) • Bruce (2007–)

v • d • e Tranmere Rovers F.C. – Managers Cooke (1912–35) • Carr (1935–36) • Knowles (1936–39) • Ridding (1939–45) • Blackburn (1946–55) • Kelly (1955–57) • Farrell (1957–60) • Galbraith (1961–61) • Russell (1961–69) • Wright (1969–72) • Yeats (1972–75) • King (1975–80) • Hamilton (1980–85) • Worthington (1985–87) • Moore (1987) • King (1987–96) • Aldridge (1996–2001) • Sheedy (2001) • Mathias (2001) • Watson (2001–02) • Mathias (2002–03) • McMahon (2003) • Little (2003–06) • Moore (2006–)

v • d • e Chester City F.C. – Managers Hewitt (1930–36) • Mansley (1936) • Raisbeck (1936–38) • Brown (1938–53) • Page (1953–56) • Harris (1956–59) • Pearson (1959–61) • Lambton (1962–63) • Hauser (1963–68) • Roberts (1968–76) • Oakes (1976–82) • Sear (1982) • Sainty (1982–83) • Storton (1983–84) • Sear (1984) • McGrath (1984) • Speight (1984–85) • McNally (1985–92) • Barrow (1992–94) • Pejic (1994–95) • Mann (1995) • Ratcliffe (1995–99) • Smith (1999–2000) • Atkins (2000) • Barrow (2000–01) • Hill (2001) • Mungall (2001) • Spink (2001–02) • Porter (2001–02) • Wright (2002–04) • Mathias (2004) • Rush (2004–05) • Bell (2005) • Curle (2005–06) • Wright (2006–07) • Davies (2007) • Williamson (2007–2008) • Davies (2008–)