Steve Paterson

Steven William "Steve" Paterson (born 8 April 1958 in Elgin, Moray) is a Scottish association football manager and former player.

Playing career

During his professional playing career, Paterson played as a central defender and joined Manchester United from Highland League club Nairn County in July 1975. He made a total of six league appearances for the Red Devils over five seasons. He signed for Sheffield United in a £60,000 deal but an ankle injury sustained in pre-season training forced Paterson to retire.

Paterson made his comeback as a player in July 1981 with Highland League club Buckie Thistle. He turned down Dundee United to join Peterhead. He had a spell playing for Hong Kong Rangers before again returning to his roots with Highland League club Nairn County in August 1982. The following February, he re-joined former boss Tommy Docherty at Sydney Olympic and then moved on to become the first European to play in Japan in December 1983. He won cups and titles with Yomiuri before his playing career was again cut short by persistent injury problems.

Managerial career

His management career began in the Highland League with Elgin City, before he moved on to Huntly. In the summer of 1995 he joined Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who were playing in the Scottish Third Division at that time. Paterson spent seven and a half years at Caley Thistle, their longest-serving manager to date. During this time, he took the club from the Third Division to the First Division and presided over the team's famous victories against Celtic (resulting in the well-known newspaper headline "Super Caley Go Ballistic, Celtic Are Atrocious")^[1] and Hearts in the Scottish Cup.

In November 2002, Paterson was strongly linked with the vacant manager's job at Dundee United,^[2] but he stayed at Caley Thistle for another month. He was offered the manager's position at Aberdeen and became the club's new boss on 11 December 2002.^[3] This move was not without controversy, as Paterson and his assistant Duncan Shearer were each supposed to have agreed a five-year contract with Caley Thistle not long before their departure to the Dons.

Paterson and Shearer left Aberdeen after around eighteen months. His next managerial post was with Highland League side Forres Mechanics, which he left in the summer of 2006. On 30 October 2006, he was announced as the new manager of Peterhead,^[4] a position from which he was eventually dismissed on 10 January 2008.^[5] In March 2011, Paterson left his post at Huntly FC to take up the managers post at Formartine United.

Personal life

In March 2003, Paterson revealed he had an alcohol problem, after famously missing Aberdeen's 3–3 home draw with Dundee due to being too hungover to attend.^[6] In October 2008 it was reported that Paterson had lost £1 million from betting.^[7] Paterson's biography "Confessions of a Highland Hero" co-written with former Grampian Television presenter Frank Gilfeather was published in November 2009, and was serialised in the Daily Record.

Managerial Stats

As of 10 November 2012.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
G	W	D	L	Win %
Elgin City		1990	1990
Huntly		1990	1995
Inverness Caledonian Thistle		August 1995	December 2002	7002329000000000000329	7002147000000000000147	700192000000000000092	700190000000000000090	700144680000000000044.68
Aberdeen		December 2002	May 2004	700168000000000000068	700123000000000000023	700113000000000000013	700132000000000000032	700133820000000000033.82
Forres Mechanics		2004	2006
Peterhead		October 2006	January 2008	700151000000000000051	700117000000000000017	700110000000000000010	700124000000000000024	700133330000000000033.33
Huntly		2010	2011
Formartine United		2011	Present

References

External links

• Who is Steve Paterson?