Stephen Kenny (football)

Infobox Football biography
playername = Stephen Kenny


dateofbirth = Birth date and age|1971|10|30|mf=y
cityofbirth = Dublin
countryofbirth = Republic of Ireland
currentclub =
position =
years =
clubs = Belvedere F.C.
St Patrick's Athletic
Home Farm
caps(goals) =
manageryears = 1998-2001
2001-2004
2004-2006
2006-2007
2007-
managerclubs = Longford Town
Bohemians
Derry City
Dunfermline Athletic
Derry City

Stephen Kenny (born October 30 1971 in Dublin) is a former Republic of Ireland footballer and current manager of Derry City F.C.

Playing career

During his playing career, Kenny spent two years at "Belvedere F.C." as a schoolboy before signing for St Patrick's Athletic. He failed to make the breakthrough at St. Pats and transferred to Home Farm F.C., playing just 4 games in the League of Ireland First Division making his League of Ireland debut on the 13th of March 1994.

Managerial career

Ireland

Kenny began his managerial career with St Patrick's Athletic when he took charge of the Dublin side's Under 21 side in the "Athletic Union League". His first year was successful as St. Pats won the league and in the summer of 1998, Kenny became the youngest manager in National League history when he took over Longford Town at the age of 27. He led Longford to huge success during his three year tenure as they won promotion to the League of Ireland Premier Division, reached an FAI Cup final and subsequently, qualified for the UEFA Cup.

In December 2001, Kenny left the midlands club and became manager of Bohemians. Taking over at Dalymount Park. Bohemians were then the champions of the Eircom League, having won the Double the previous season. However, the club was in crisis, as the club and the league winning manager, Roddy Collins, parted ways in the summer, and his successor Pete Mahon had overseen an astonishing turn in fortunes for the self proclaimed "Big Club". Kenny's impact at Bohemians was immediate, as the side steadily moved away from the lower end of the league table and reached that year's FAI Cup. However, the season was to end in bitter disappointment for Kenny, as Bohemians were beaten 1-0 by Dundalk FC, a club which had been relegated from the top flight the previous week. This was Kenny's second FAI Cup Final defeat in as many seasons. In the close season Kenny made some changes to the first team squad, and the 2002/2003 season saw Bohemians win the Premier Division title, leading from start to finish. The following season they finished runners-up to Shelbourne FC. In the following season, Bohemians began poorly and after 3 months found themselves in 3rd place. Kenny's job was insecure and he was sacked on 27 July 2004, following the 3-1 home defeat of Bohemians in the UEFA Cup to Estonian side FC Levadia Tallinn. His league record at Bohemians was 49 wins in 96 games.

After just three weeks out of the game, Kenny returned to management at Derry City following the sacking of Gavin Dykes, and took over from caretaker manager, Peter Hutton. His time at the club has been hugely successful and he has been accredited for turning a team, battling against relegation in the 2004 season, into one which challenged for the Premier Division title in 2005, finishing runners-up.

He also guided Derry City to their first advancement in European competition in over 40 years (the last seeing Lyn Oslo being knocked out) Derry qualified for the UEFA Cup due to finishing runners-up in the Premier Division in the 2005-06 season. On 13 July 2006, Derry overcame two time winners IFK Göteborg in the UEFA Cup first Qualifying round by an aggregate score of 2-0. A 79th-minute header from Sean Hargan was enough to give Derry a shock win [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/irish/5170552.stm IFK Gothenburg 0-1 Derry City] news.bbc.co.uk Retrieved 16 July 2006 ] in the first leg, and Stephen O'Flynn ensured a 1-0 home victory from the penalty spot. Manager Stephen Kenny was delighted with the win stating:cquote|They have won the UEFA Cup twice and only a few years ago were in the group stages of the Champions League so this is a great night for everyone connected with Derry City. We were worthy winners. It is not as if we got a goal and held on. I think we played the better football [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/irish/5179024.stm Kenny salutes his Derry heroes] news.bbc.co.uk Retrieved 16 July 2006 ] . This marked Derry City's first progression in European football since defeating Lyn Oslo more than 40 years ago.

Derry City were subsequently drawn against Scottish second-level side Gretna in the second qualifying round. On August 10 2006, Derry claimed a 5-1 away win to gain a considerable advantage going into the home leg. This result is the largest away winning margin for a League of Ireland team in Europe. [ [http://sport.scotsman.com/football.cfm?id=1167012006 Slack Gretna given cruel lesson by five-star Derry] It is also the heaviest home defeat recorded of any Scottish team in European competition. Stephen Halliday, sport.scotsman.com. Retrieved 12 August 2006] Following a 2-2 home draw with Gretna F.C. in the second leg and a 7-3 win on aggregate, Derry advanced to the UEFA Cup First Round. In the draw, held on 25 August 2006, Derry City were handed a tough tie against Paris Saint-Germain FC.

The first leg was played at home at Brandywell Stadium on the evening of 14 September and ended in a hard fought 0-0 draw, a magnificent result for the battling Derry side. The second leg was played at Parc des Princes on 28 September. Paris St. Germain won the second leg 2-0 with goals from Pauleta and Edouard Cisse.

He remained in charge of Derry City until 17 November 2006 for their final league game before moving to Dunfermline Athletic. Derry finished second in the league behind Shelbourne, who had a stronger goal difference. Kenny then made a remarkable return to Derry City to manage the club for the FAI Cup final win against St. Patrick's Athleticcite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/irish/6204362.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Derry see off St Pat's in decider|date=3 December 2006] .

Kenny's total managerial record at Derry included 112 games managed, 65 games won, 29 games drawn, 18 games lost, 170 goals for, 80 goals against and 57 clean sheets. His win percentage was 58%. During his time in charge, a total of 32 players represented the club.

cotland

Kenny was confirmed as the new Dunfermline Athletic manager on 10 November 2006cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/d/dunfermline_athletic/6138262.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Kenny appointed Dunfermline boss|date=10 November 2006] and took up his position on 18 November 2006 where he was to watch Dunfermline's game against Dundee United from the standcite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/scot_prem/6157764.stm|publisher=BBC Sport website|title=Dunfermline 2-1 Dundee Utd|date=18 November 2006] An [http://www.stv.tv/sport/showArticle.jsp?source=opencms&articleId=/sport/exclusive/Stephen_Kenny_interview_201106 interview] was done upon his arrival at the club by [http://www.stv.tv/sport stv] .

Following his departure from the Eircom League, his contributions during the 2006 season were still recognised by eircom / Soccer Writers Association of Ireland (SWAI) who nominated the former Derry manager for their 'Personality of the Year' award on 13 December, 2006.

Kenny won his first game as Dunfermline manager 9 games into his Pars career - a 3-2 Scottish Cup 3rd Round win over Rangers at East End Park. In January 2007, Kenny brought in Jim O'Brien, Adam Hammill, Bobby Ryan, Jamie Harris and Stephen Glass to the club and later brought in released Falkirk striker Tam McManus.

Kenny and his coaching team led Dunfermline to the Scottish Cup Final on 24 April 2007 with a 1-0 win over Hibernian in the Semi final replay then losing to Celtic in the final 1-0. He was unable, however, to prevent the club being relegated from the Premier League. A 2-1 defeat at Inverness CT, coupled with St Mirren's 3-2 win at Motherwell saw the Fife club relegated to the First Division, despite having previously won four league games in a row.

After relegation to the Scottish Football League Kenny's reign was less successful. Losses to BK Häcken of Sweden in the UEFA Cup, Heart of Midlothian in the CIS Cup and several humiliating defeats in the league left Dunfermline significantly behind the leading teams in the First Division and cost him his job, in spite of a run to the Scottish Challenge Cup Final.

After one year in charge, on the 4^th of December 2007, Kenny was sacked as Dunfermline Athletic manager. Striker Jim McIntyre (who ironically had often been one of the many names on the injured list during Kenny's tenure) took charge as caretaker of the club. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/d/dunfermline_athletic/7127417.stm|title= Pars part company with boss Kenny |accessmonthday=December 4 |accessyear=2007]

Return to Ireland

Following is departure from Dunfermline Athletic and the sacking of Derry City manager John Robertson, Kenny was strongly linked with a return to the Eircom Premier League club.

In his first spell, Kenny guided Derry to the FAI Cup, two League Cups and through two UEFA Cup rounds, including defeating former UEFA cup winners IFK Göteborg home and away, and thrashing then Scottish giant killers Gretna only to be knocked out of the competition by an away defeat by Paris Saint-Germain. They were also pipped for the league crown on the final day of he season on two occasions.

Kenny was confirmed to have returned to Derry City on the 28^th of December 2007. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/irish/7161888.stm|title=Kenny returns as Derry City boss|accessday=December 28|accessyear=2007]

Managerial stats

Honours

*League titles: 1
** Bohemian FC 2002/03
*FAI Cups: 1
** Derry City F.C. 2006
*FAI League Cups: 2
** Derry City F.C. 2005, 2006

References

External links

*soccerbase (manager)|id=2070|name=Stephen Kenny