| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Raymond Lewington | ||
| Date of birth | 7 September 1956 | ||
| Place of birth | Lambeth, England | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1975–1979 | Chelsea | 85 | (4) |
| 1979 | Vancouver Whitecaps | 29 | (2) |
| 1979–1980 | Wimbledon | 23 | (0) |
| 1980–1985 | Fulham | 174 | (20) |
| 1985–1986 | Sheffield United | 36 | (0) |
| 1986–1990 | Fulham | 60 | (1) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1986–1990 | Fulham | ||
| 1998 | Crystal Palace (caretaker) | ||
| 2000–2001 | Brentford | ||
| 2002–2005 | Watford | ||
| 2007 | Fulham (caretaker) | ||
| 2007–2010 | Fulham (assistant) | ||
| 2010 | Fulham (caretaker) | ||
| 2010–2011 | Fulham (youth development manager) | ||
| 2011– | Fulham (First Team Coach) | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Raymond "Ray" Lewington (born 7 September 1956 in Lambeth, England) is a retired English footballer and the first team coach of Fulham. His son, Dean, is a professional footballer playing for Milton Keynes Dons.
Lewington started his career at Chelsea in the 1970s, and played a season at Vancouver Whitecaps in 1979, before a loan spell at Wimbledon.[1]
In 1980 he transferred to Fulham, and he was to go on and make over 170 League appearances for them before a season at Sheffield United in 1985-86. After that season he returned to Fulham and went on to play another 60 league matches for them.[1]
Lewington became player-manager of Fulham after their relegation to the old Division Three in July 1986. His first season was a difficult one. With a tight budget imposed on him, Lewington was unable to lift the club and they flirted with relegation. Off the field, the club was unstable after two takeovers in quick succession and the suggestion of a merger with another club.[2]
The next two seasons showed no sign of an up-turn in fortune, but in 1989, Lewington guided the club to the play-offs, although they were unsuccessful in achieving promotion. The following season saw the club struggle against relegation once more. At the end of that season, Alan Dicks was brought in, with Lewington becoming his assistant.[2]
Lewington had spells as caretaker manager at Fulham in 1991 and 1994, before joining Crystal Palace as a coach, becoming assistant to Alan Smith as Palace were relegated from the Premiership.[3] After the former Palace owner Ron Noades' takeover of Brentford in 1998, Brentford's "chairman-manager" brought in Lewington as a Coach in 1999.[4] After Noades relinquished his team-selection duties in 2000, Lewington was appointed as manager of Brentford, taking them to a losing appearance in the Football League Trophy final in 2001 and guiding them to 14th in Division Two.[5] He left at the end of the 2000–01 season to become Gianluca Vialli's reserve team manager at Watford: a difficult role, as Vialli never let any first-team players play for the reserve side.[6]
When Vialli was sacked in the summer 2002, Lewington was appointed manager. Like with Fulham 16 years earlier, Lewington assumed control of a club that had an extremely limited budget, with the club crippled from the collapse of ITV Digital and the high-spending of the Vialli era. Despite this, Lewington guided the club to two middle table finishes and two cup semi-finals—a 2–1 loss to Southampton in the FA Cup in 2003 and a 2–0 loss (over two legs) to Liverpool in the League Cup in 2005.[6] Just two months after the Liverpool game, Lewington was sacked, after a poor run of league form.[7]
In July 2005, Lewington joined former club Fulham once more, as reserve team manager. In December 2007, Lewington served a brief stint as caretaker manager after the departure of Lawrie Sanchez, managing the team for three games until Roy Hodgson was appointed full-time. He has remained at Craven Cottage as part of the management team as assistant manager.[3] He was replaced as assistant manager by Mark Bowen when Mark Hughes became manager and is now the First Team Coach.
On 19 October 2010, it was announced on the Fulham FC website that Lewington had been given the job of leading the club's Youth Development Program and that taking his position as first team coach would be Glyn Hodges.
Under Hughes' successor Martin Jol, Lewington was reinstated as First Team Coach in June 2011, alongside Jol's assistants Michael Lindeman and Cornelius Jol. Jol said: "We started off with him because he's probably a main figure here, at this club, he knows everything."[8]
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