Davie Irons

Davie Irons

Personal information
Full name	David John Irons
Date of birth	(1961-07-18) 18 July 1961
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Playing position	Midfielder/Defender
Club information
Current club	Carlisle United (Assistant Manager)
Youth career
	Greystone Rovers
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1979–1980	Queen of the South	3	(0)
1980–1984	Kello Rovers
1984–1987	Ayr United	75	(12)
1987–1988	Clydebank	54	(7)
1988–1991	Dunfermline Athletic	106	(9)
1991–1993	Partick Thistle	84	(10)
1993–1996	St. Johnstone	52	(2)
1996–1997	Clydebank	43	(1)
1997–2002	Annan Athletic
2002–2005	Gretna	89	(2)
2009–2010	Threave Rovers
Total		506	(43)
Teams managed
1997–2002	Annan Athletic (player-manager)
2007	Gretna (caretaker)
2007–2008	Gretna
2008–2009	Greenock Morton
2010–2012	Stenhousemuir
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 25 November 2008. † Appearances (Goals).

David John "Davie" Irons (born 18 July 1961 in Glasgow) is a Scottish football player and manager. His playing career spanned 26 years as a central defender or midfielder. Irons has managed Annan Athletic, Gretna, Greenock Morton and Stenhousemuir.

He is currently working as assistant manager at Carlisle United.

Early life

Born in Glasgow in 1961, Davie Irons was raised in Dumfries^[1] after moving there with his parents in 1964.^[2]

Playing career

Irons began his career with local team Queen of the South in 1979. After only one year of the Willie Harkness regime at Palmerston Park and a total of four first team appearances he moved into junior football. Irons joined Kello Rovers, with whom he remained for four years. He returned to the professional game in 1984 with Ayr United. He went on to make 75 league appearances for The Honest Men, scoring twelve goals.

In 1987 he joined Clydebank, making 54 appearances and scoring seven goals, and a year later signed for Dunfermline Athletic. Irons scored the opening goal for Dunfermline in the game that confirmed Queens' relegation in 1989.^[3] After 106 appearances and nine goals for the Pars, he was signed by Partick Thistle. He remained at Firhill for two years before joining the sixth professional club of his career, St. Johnstone, in 1993. In three years at McDiarmid Park he made 52 appearances and scored twice.

Irons returned to Palmerston Park under the new regime of Norman Blount to play for a Queen of the South select on 23 April 1995. The opposition in the 2–2 draw was Rangers in a game to mark Queens' 75th anniversary and the opening of the new stand. Other ex players to guest beside Irons that day included Andy Thomson and Ted McMinn.^[4] Irons then spent a season with Clydebank in 1996.

Coaching career

Irons spent five years with Annan Athletic (as their player-manager) between 1997 and 2002. He finished his playing career in 2005 after a three-year spell at Gretna, at which point he became assistant manager to Rowan Alexander. He became caretaker-manager of the club between March 2007 and the end of the 2006–07 season during Alexander's absence.^[5] Gretna won promotion to the Premier League on 28 April 2007, with a 3–2 win at Ross County.^[6] The result clinched the First Division championship for Gretna, a point ahead of Irons' former club St. Johnstone. It was announced on 18 July 2007 that Irons would be Gretna's manager on a permanent basis, with Mick Wadsworth as his assistant.^[7] On 19 February 2008, Irons resigned as Gretna manager with immediate effect. Soon afterwards the club entered administration and went out of business at the end of the 2007–08 season.

Irons was hired as manager of Greenock Morton,^[8] after resigning from the Gretna job in February 2008. His first act was to help keep Morton in the First Division, managing to defeat Dunfermline Athletic^[9] and Partick Thistle,^[10] both 3–0 to allow Morton to finish one goal above Clyde and finish in eighth position in the league.

In his first full season as manager of Morton, Irons guided them to sixth in the table despite a poor start taking only four points from the first quarter of the season. He also managed to achieve a victory over Hibs at Easter Road Stadium in the Scottish League Cup. However, after a poor start to the 2009–10 season, losing 5 of the first 6 matches and with the club bottom of the First Division, Irons was sacked on 21 September 2009 along with assistant Derek Collins.^[11]

After being sacked by Morton, Irons joined South of Scotland league side Threave Rovers as a player/coach. When Irons came off the bench in the last minute against Whitehill Welfare on 24 October 2009, he became the oldest player to have ever played in a Scottish Cup match aged 48 years 98 days.^{[citation needed]} Irons replaced Gerry Britton as assistant manager of Partick Thistle in January 2010, but Irons was sacked by the club on 26 February 2010.^[12] After being sacked, Irons returned to Threave Rovers as player coach.^[13] At the age of 49, on 20 November 2010 he played for Threave in the third round of the Scottish Cup in the 2–2 draw away against Stenhousemuir.^[14]

Irons took up the role of manager at Stenhousemuir at the end of December 2010.^[15] He resigned this position in July 2012 due to personal reasons.^[16]

Following him resigning to take up a job in the police, Irons also took a part-time role as a scout for Carlisle United.^[17]

After a brief coaching role with lower league club Celtic Nation, Irons left to rejoin Carlisle United as full-time Youth Team manager in July 2013.^[18] This came after contact negotiations and attending friendlies with First Team Manager Greg Abbott. He was given the role after the summer departure of former coach Eric Kinder to Blackburn Rovers.

Following a poor start to the 2013/14 season, Irons took caretaker charge of Carlisle United along with Graham Kavanagh and Tony Caig. On September 30, 2013 Irons was installed as Graham Kavanagh's permanent assistant at Carlisle.

Honours

Gretna

• Scottish First Division: 2006–07

References

References

• Davie Irons career stats at Soccerbase
• Neil Brown's statistics site
• Profile at Profile at Playerhistory.com

External links

• "First for thrills", Irons gives his opinion on the 2007–08 Scottish First Division season – BBC Sport website