David Jeffrey

David Jeffrey

Personal information
Date of birth	(1962-10-28) 28 October 1962
Place of birth	Newtownards, Northern Ireland
Playing position	Defender
Youth career
1979–1982	Manchester United
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1982–1992	Linfield	369	(69)
1992–1995	Ards	65	(2)
1995–1996	Larne	22	(1)
National team
1977–1978	Northern Ireland U15	8
1981	Northern Ireland U18	2
1984–1989	Irish Football League XI	9	(0)
Teams managed
1995–1996	Larne
1997–2014	Linfield
2016–	Ballymena United
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

David Jeffrey (born 28 October 1962) is a Northern Irish football manager and former player, currently managing Ballymena United. He is best known for managing Linfield between 1997 and 2014. He began his professional playing career with the club, following a spell in the Manchester United youth team, and also played for Ards and Larne.

Playing career

Born in Newtownards, Jeffrey began his football career as a schoolboy with Manchester United, but never played in the first team. He joined Linfield in the summer of 1982. He played for Linfield for 10 years and was club captain for much of that time. Jeffrey scored the crucial away goal against Shamrock Rovers in the 1984–85 European Cup.^[1] He left Windsor Park for his hometown club, Ards in the summer of 1992 reuniting him with former boss Roy Coyle and in February 1995 joined Larne as player-coach.

Managerial career

Linfield

In April 1996, Jeffrey returned to Linfield as assistant manager to Trevor Anderson. Jeffrey was appointed as Linfield manager on 4 January 1997 after Anderson resigned.

In the 2005–06 season, Jeffrey guided Linfield to a clean sweep of domestic trophies, missing out only on the cross-border All-Ireland Cup. On 6 June 2006, Jeffrey signed a new four-year contract, the longest contract in Linfield history. His previous deal had one season left to run.

In June 2008, Jeffrey won his 23rd manager of the month award, breaking the record for monthly awards. By January 2014, he had extended this record to 32 awards.^[2]

Alongside Roy Coyle, Jeffrey is Linfield's most successful manager in history, having won 31 trophies during his 17-year tenure. Roy Coyle also won 31 trophies with the Blues during his managerial career from 1975 to 1990.

On 15 February 2014, Jeffrey announced that he was to step down as manager of Linfield at the end of the 2013–14 season.^[3] He was replaced by former Northern Ireland international, Warren Feeney.^[4]

Ballymena United

On 7 March 2016, it was announced that Jeffrey had been appointed the new manager of Ballymena United, following the sacking of Glenn Ferguson. He guided Ballymena to winning the Northern Irish League cup in 2016/17 season and took them to the Tennants Irish Cup quarter-final. He also guided them to 4th in the league.

Managerial honours

Jeffrey won 31 major honours as manager of Linfield.^[5]

• Irish Premier League/IFA Premiership (9): 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12
• Irish Cup (7): 2001–02, 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2011–12
• Irish League Cup (6): 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2001–02, 2005–06, 2007–08
• County Antrim Shield (6): 1997–98, 2000–01, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2013–14
• Setanta Cup (1): 2005
• Irish FA Charity Shield (1): 2000
• Irish League Floodlit Cup (1): 1997–98

With Ballymena United

• Northern Ireland Football League Cup (1): 2016-17

Personal life

Jeffrey, who lives in Glengormley, has a career in social work alongside his football interests.^[6]He has two sons, Gareth and Thomas. He is a member of both the Orange Order and a flute band. He cites his parents as the biggest inspiration in his life.^{[7] [8]}

References