Ray Mathias

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Ray Mathias
Personal information
Full name Raymond Mathias
Date of birth (1946-12-13) 13 December 1946 (age 77)
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Position(s) Full back
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1964–1985 Tranmere Rovers 567 (6)
Managerial career
1986–1989 Wigan Athletic
1998–1999 Wigan Athletic
2001 Tranmere Rovers (caretaker)
2002–2003 Tranmere Rovers
2004 Chester City (caretaker)
2011 Stockport County
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Raymond Mathias (born 13 December 1946) is an English football coach and former player. He has spent most of his career in the lower leagues of English football. Mathias played for Tranmere Rovers between 1964 and 1985, and remains their record appearance holder having played 637 games for the club. After his retirement he spent three years as manager of Wigan Athletic, briefly returning to the role for the 1998–99 season; between these two spells he returned to Tranmere as a coach, and later managed the side before moving on to Chester City in a caretaker role.

Contents

He was appointed interim manager of Stockport County on 9 March 2011 until the end of the season, when County were relegated from the Football League for the first time in 106 years. Owing in part to an impressive home record, Mathias was appointed full-time County manager in May 2011, but departed just two weeks later following the takeover of the club by Tony Evans.

Playing career

Born in Liverpool, Mathias spent his entire playing career with Tranmere Rovers from 1964 to 1985 and earning two testimonials in the process, making 567 Football League appearances. A notable achievement was winning promotion from the Fourth Division in the 1975–76 season. He made 637 appearances for Tranmere in all competitions, a club record. [1]

Coaching career

After retiring from playing, Mathias joined the coaching staff at Wigan Athletic and spent three years in charge of the Latics from 1986 to 1989. The highlight of this spell was leading Wigan to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 1987. He later returned to Tranmere as a coach but then returned to Wigan as manager for the 1998–99 season; despite leading the club to victory in the Football League Trophy final at Wembley and the Second Division play-offs he lost his job shortly afterwards.

After once again becoming part of the managerial set-up at Tranmere and spells as caretaker manager, he was finally handed the reins on a permanent basis in 2002 but sacked a year later. Mathias then had an unsuccessful caretaker spell at Chester City in 2004 and briefly worked as assistant manager at Bury in 2005. In October 2006 he was appointed as assistant manager to Paul Ince at League Two strugglers Macclesfield Town. The pair were able to guide the Silkmen to an unlikely survival before moving to Milton Keynes Dons where they achieved more success, winning the League Two championship and the Football League Trophy. They subsequently moved on to top-flight team Blackburn Rovers in June 2008.

On 18 December 2008, Mathias was relieved of his duties along with Archie Knox following the sacking of Paul Ince and the subsequent arrival of Sam Allardyce as the new Rovers manager. [2] On 4 February 2011 he joined Stockport County as Technical Advisor to Peter Ward and Alan Lord. [3]

Mathias was appointed manager of Stockport County on 9 March 2011 until the end of the season, with Peter Ward and Alan Lord stepping back to coaching roles. Mathias then became the first manager in Stockport County history to relegate the club from the Football League. [4] He was dismissed as manager in favour of Dietmar Hamann on 5 July 2011, and subsequently left the club.[ citation needed ]

Managerial statistics

TeamFromToRecord
PWDLWin %
Wigan Athletic 1 June 198615 March 1989142595033041.55
Wigan Athletic 4 August 199821 May 199962321713051.61
Tranmere Rovers 18 March 20017 May 200111173009.09
Tranmere Rovers 1 August 200229 September 200366291918043.94
Chester City 6 August 200430 August 20046042000.00
Stockport County 1 March 20115 July 201113364023.08
Total29712310173041.41

Honours

Player

Coach

See also

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References

  1. ↑ Upton, Gilbert; Wilson, Steve (November 1997). "Players' Data". Tranmere Rovers 1921–1997: A Complete Record. pp. 101–108. ISBN   978-0-9518648-2-1.
  2. ↑ "Blackburn Rovers – News – Neil McDonald is new assistant manager". world.rovers.co.uk. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "Ray Mathias joins". Stockport County official website. 4 February 2011.
  4. ↑ "Ray Mathias appointed manager". BBC Sport. 9 March 2011.
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