Lee Sinnott

Football player infobox
playername = Lee Sinnott


fullname = Lee Sinnott
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1965|7|12|df=y
cityofbirth = Aldridge, Walsall
countryofbirth = England
currentclub =
position = Defender
youthyears =
youthclubs = Walsall
years = 1982–1983
1983–1987
1987–1991
1991–1993
1993–1994
1994–1997
1997–1999
1998
1999–2000
clubs = Walsall
Watford
Bradford City
Crystal Palace
Bradford City
Huddersfield Town
Oldham Athletic
→ Bradford City (loan)
Scarborough
caps(goals) = 040 (2)
078 (2)
173 (6)
055 (0)
034 (1)
087 (1)
031 (0)
007 (0)
022 (0)
nationalyears =
nationalteam =
nationalcaps(goals) =
manageryears = 2003–2007
2007–2008
managerclubs = Farsley Celtic
Port Vale

Lee Sinnott (born 12 July 1965 in Aldridge, Walsall) is an English former professional footballer and manager. He achieved enormous success as manager of Farsley Celtic, most notably winning promotion three times in four seasons, which was followed by a spell at Port Vale.

Playing career

He began his career at Walsall as an apprentice, signing professional in 1982. He made 40 first-team appearances in his first season at Fellows Park before joining First Division Watford. At the end of his first season, when still only 18 years old, he played in the FA Cup Final against Everton at Wembley Stadium, collecting a runners-up medal. He helped Watford reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup three seasons later.

In 1987, Sinnott moved down a division to Bradford City and in his first season he helped the Bantams qualify for the Second Division playoffs, but their promotion bid failed and two years later they were relegated. Sinnott spent one season in the Third Division before moving to First Division side Crystal Palace. He was unable to establish a regular place in the first team and after two years he returned to Bradford.

When Sinnott returned to Valley Parade over the summer of 1993, Bradford were still in the third tier of the English league (now Division Two following the creation of the Premier League); he played in most of their first-team games that season. But the Bantams missed out on the playoffs and manager Frank Stapleton was sacked, with Sinnott following his manager out of the exit door and signing for local rivals Huddersfield Town. He was made captain of Neil Warnock's team, and guided them to Division Two playoff victory in his first season. He spent two more seasons in West Yorkshire before crossing the Pennines and signing for Oldham Athletic, who had just been relegated to Division Two.

Sinnott played 31 games over two seasons at Boundary Park, but Oldham struggled in a division that they had been expected to win promotion from, and in Sinnott's second season they narrowly avoided relegation to Division Three. A year earlier, he had been loaned back to Bradford, but the move was not made permanent.

1998–99 proved to be Lee Sinnott's final season as a Football League player. He moved to Scarborough, who had just been relegated to the Football Conference, and played 22 games in one season for a side who finished fourth in the country's highest non-league division. He then retired from playing after a career spanning almost 20 years.

Managerial career

Sinnott was not out of football for long, moving into management with non-league Farsley Celtic. His first success with the club was a third-place finish in the Northern Premier League Division One in 2004 which earned the club promotion to the Northern Premier League. Sinnott would have achieved another promotion in his 2nd season at Throstle Nest as Farsley topped the Northern Premier League at the end of the season. However this was only on the FA's decision that Spennymoor United's records were expunged after they folded. The other clubs in the promotion mix appealed and won so Farsley finished 3rd and had to compete in the playoffs. Despite a 1-0 semi final win over Whitby Town they lost in the final to Workington on penalties. Another promotion was achieved in 2006 however as Sinnott and Farsley bounced back. This time Farsley finished 4th in the regulation season before defeating Marine 1-0 and then North Ferriby United 2-1 in the final. Remarkably in 2007 Sinnott steared the club to a third promotion in four seasons when Farsley finished 5th in the Conference North and won promotion to the Conference National again via the playoffs. Farsley beat favourites Kettering in the semi final and then Hinckley in the final at Burton Albion's Pirelli Stadium. In the final Farsley Celtic had been 3-2 down with just over 10 minutes remaining before 2 late goals saw a remarkable comeback and a 4-3 victory.

Farsley's three promotions under Sinnott and the declines of Bradford City and their local rivals Leeds United mean that just one and two divisions separate his club from its neighbours, when seven years ago six divisions separated them.

In October 2007, Sinnott was linked with the vacant job at League One team Port Vale, and on November 1 2007 Farsley Celtic's chairman Andrew Firbank told fans that Sinnott would soon be leaving the club. [cite news |work=Telegraph & Argus |url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/display.var.1803950.0..php |title=Sinnott quits Celts for Vale |publisher=Newsquest Media Group |date=2007-11-01 |first=Bill |last=Marshall |accessdate=2008-01-01] However, hours later, confusion arose when Sinnott denied resigning. [cite news |work=BBC Sport |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/f/farsley_celtic/7074033.stm |title=Farsley in chaos over boss future |date=2007-11-01 |accessdate=2008-01-01] On November 5 2007 he was named the new Port Vale manager ending the speculation about his future. [cite news |work=BBC Sport |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/port_vale/7078737.stm |title=Sinnott named new Port Vale boss |date=2007-11-05 |accessdate=2008-01-01] On his first game in charge Sinnott lost to local rivals Crewe Alexandra.

Sinnott achieved his first win in charge of Port Vale at Morecambe in the FA Cup first round, with Port Vale winning 2–0. His first win in the league came on 8 December, winning 2–1 away at Gillingham. He was unable to keep Port Vale up, however, and they were relegated on 12 April 2008. Now it was the summer transfer season and Sinnott was now able to sign players to make the team that would take them back where they belong so he offloaded players such as Jason Talbot and Joe Cardle to bring in young talented players. He brought in defenders John McCombe who went up with Hereford United last season and wanted to make a point. Others included Steve Thompson from Middlesbrough and reinstated Kyle Perry to the first team after he was brought in the January transfer window from non league Chasetown United. This along with a few other players would be the team to face the League Two big hitters. He parted company with Port Vale in September, with the team lying in 16th position in League Two.cite news
title = Sinnott parts company with Vale
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/p/port_vale/7629851.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2008-09-22
accessdate = 2008-09-22]

Managerial stats

:"As of 22 September 2008." [cite web
url=http://www.soccerbase.com/managers2.sd?managerid=2093
title=Lee Sinnott's managerial career
accessdate=2008-04-19
publisher=Soccerbase]

Honours

Player

Promotions

*1994–95: Division 2 Playoff winners (promotion to Division 1) - Huddersfield Town

Cups

*1983–84: FA Cup runner up - Watford

Manager

Promotions

*2003–04: Northern Premier League Division One 3rd (promotion to Northern Premier) - Farsley Celtic
*2005–06: Northern Premier Playoff winners (promotion to Conference North) - Farsley Celtic
*2006–07: Conference North Playoff winners (promotion to Conference National) - Farsley Celtic

Personal life

His brother is the actor, writer and director Richard Sinnott.

References

External links

*soccerbase|7321|Lee Sinnott
*soccerbase (manager)|2093|Lee Sinnott

Persondata
NAME = Lee Sinnott
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH = 12 July 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH = Aldridge, Walsall, England
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =