Kevin Donovan

Last updated

Kevin Donovan
Personal information
Date of birth (1971-12-17) 17 December 1971 (age 51)
Place of birth Halifax, England
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
1980–1988 Elland Athletic
1987–1988 Huddersfield Town
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1988–1992 Huddersfield Town 20 (1)
1992 → Halifax Town (loan) 6 (0)
1992–1997 West Bromwich Albion 168 (19)
1997–2001 Grimsby Town 154 (23)
2001–2003 Barnsley 54 (1)
2003–2004 Rochdale 7 (0)
2004–2006 York City 31 (2)
2006–2007 Alfreton Town
Total440(46)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Kevin Donovan (born 17 December 1971) is an English football coach, former professional player and sports co-commentator. He runs his own football academy that is linked to Brighouse Town.

Contents

As a player, he was a midfielder from 1988 to 2007 with lengthy spells at West Bromwich Albion and Grimsby Town which saw him win two play-off finals at Wembley Stadium. He also played in the Football League for Huddersfield Town, Halifax Town, Barnsley and Rochdale before finishing his career off in non-League football with York City and Alfreton Town.

Playing career

Donovan started playing for Elland Athletic in the Halifax league as an 8-year old [1] before he joined Huddersfield Town, training at the centre of excellence, at 16 he became an apprentice and turned professional in October 1989. [1] [2] He joined Halifax Town on loan during February and March 1992, before moving to West Bromwich Albion [1] for £70,000 in October of that year. [2] He made his Albion debut against Port Vale in the same month. [2] Donovan scored in Albion's 3–0 win over Vale in the Division Two play-off final the following May at Wembley as the club clinched promotion.

In July 1997 he signed for Grimsby Town [1] for a £300,000 fee, joining up with his former manager at Albion, Alan Buckley. His time at Grimsby was arguably the best of his career. In his first season, he scored 21 goals to help the club win twice at Wembley Stadium [1] in the Football League Trophy, [3] and in the play-off final, in which Donovan netted the only goal of the game. [4] However, Donovan failed to score a single goal in the following season for the club.

Two more rather impressive seasons were spent at Blundell Park before Donovan confirmed the Grimsby supporters' worst fears and left to join rivals Barnsley. [1] His time at Oakwell was mainly blighted by injury problems, and he experienced relegation with the club, [2] and at the end of the 2002–03 season he was released by The Tykes. During his spell at Barnsley he scored once against Walsall in December 2001. [5]

Donovan was snapped up by Alan Buckley, [6] who had managed him at West Brom and Grimsby, and gave him a one-year deal for Rochdale [1] [2] However, after another fruitless campaign, playing only seven times for 'Dale, Donovan was released by the club. [7]

His next port of call was at Conference club York City [1] on a one-year contract, following a loan spell. [8] At York he linked up with former Grimsby teammate Paul Groves, but neither really flourished. At the end of the season Donovan moved into the Conference North, joining Alfreton Town for a season before retiring from the game.

Personal life

Donovan runs a football school and coaches the junior side at Brighouse Town. [9]

He occasionally co-commentates for BBC Radio Humberside on Grimsby Town games.

Honours

Grimsby Town

West Bromwich Albion

Individual

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grimsby Town F.C.</span> Association football club in Cleethorpes, England

Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system.

Alan Peter Buckley is an English former professional footballer and football manager who now works as a sports co-commentator for BBC Humberside.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoff Horsfield</span> English footballer

Geoffrey Malcolm Horsfield is an English former professional footballer and football coach. He made more than 300 appearances in the Football League playing as a striker.

Anthony Ford is an English former footballer. Through most of his career, Ford was a right-sided midfielder, but in later years, he was converted to right-back. In a career that spanned 27 years, across four decades, Ford played 931 league matches, which is the all-time record for matches played in the English league by an outfield player. He is one of three outfield players in English football to have ever passed 1,000 games in competitive matches, the others being Scott McGleish and Graham Alexander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Santos</span> Footballer (born 1970)

Georges Santos is a former professional footballer and club scout for English Premier League side West Ham United.

Paul Futcher was an English professional footballer who had a distinguished career as a defender in the English Football League, for England under 21s and as manager of several non-league clubs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Groves (footballer)</span> English footballer and manager

Paul Groves is an English football coach and former professional footballer who is a first team coach at National League North side Buxton.

John Cockerill is an English former professional football player and manager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andy Monkhouse</span> English footballer (born 1980)

Andrew William Monkhouse is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger. He is currently manager of Tadcaster Albion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josh Gowling</span> English footballer (born 1983)

Joshua Anthony Isaac Gowling is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who played as a defender and was most recently the manager of Hereford.

Nicholas Leonard Fenton is an English former professional footballer and head physiotherapist of EFL League One side Burton Albion.

Philip Anthony Butler is an English former footballer. A defender, he made 468 league appearances in a 15-year career in the English Football League.

Mark Lever is an English former professional footballer and coach who played as a defender from 1988 until 2005.

David Smith is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Stacy Coldicott is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder from 1992 to 2007.

Adam Christian Buckley is an English former professional footballer. He played as a midfielder from 1996 to 2013.

Anthony Mark Gallimore is an English former professional footballer who played as a left back from 1990 to 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 Football League Second Division play-off final</span> Association football match

The 1993 Football League Second Division play-off Final was a football match played on 30 May 1993 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Port Vale and West Bromwich Albion to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the Second Division to the First Division. The top two teams of the 1992–93 Football League Second Division season gained automatic promotion to the First Division, while those placed from third to sixth place in the table took part in play-offs; the winners of the play-off semi-finals competed for the final place for the 1993–94 season in the First Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1998 Football League Second Division play-off final</span> Association football match

The 1998 Football League Second Division play-off Final was an association football match which was played on 24 May 1998 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Grimsby Town and Northampton Town. The top two teams of the 1997–98 Football League Second Division league, Watford and Bristol City, gained automatic promotion to the First Division, while those placed from third to sixth place in the table took part in play-offs. The winners of the play-off semi-finals competed for the final place for the 1998–99 season in the First Division. The losing semi-finalists were Bristol Rovers and Fulham who had been defeated by Northampton and Grimsby respectively.

During the 1997–98 English football season, Grimsby Town F.C. competed in the Football League Second Division.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "About Me". KD Pro Coaching. Retrieved 29 August 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Matthews, Tony (2005). The Who's Who of West Bromwich Albion. Breedon Books. p. 69. ISBN   1-85983-474-4.
  3. ↑ "Buckley savours Wembley hat-trick". BBC Sport. 27 March 2008. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  4. ↑ "Grimsby bounce back to Division 1". BBC News. 24 May 1998. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  5. ↑ "Barnsley 4–1 Walsall". BBC. 8 December 2001. Retrieved 25 March 2012.
  6. ↑ "Donovan trains at Dale". BBC Sport. 10 December 2003. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  7. ↑ "Dale release Donovan". BBC Sport. 3 February 2004. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  8. ↑ "Donovan signs York deal". BBC Sport. 3 June 2004. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  9. ↑ "Welcome to Kevin Donovan Soccer Schools". Archived from the original on 7 August 2008.
  10. ↑ Hugman, Barry J., ed. (1998). The 1998–99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile. Harpenden: Queen Anne Press. p. 352. ISBN   978-1-85291-588-9.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.