Tommy Wright (footballer, born 1984)

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For other people named Tommy Wright, see Tommy Wright (disambiguation).

Tommy Wright
Wright with FA Trophy 2011
Personal information
Full name Thomas Andrew Wright[1]
Date of birth (1984-09-28) 28 September 1984 (age 39)[1]
Place of birth Kirby Muxloe, England
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2001–2006 Leicester City 21 (2)
2003–2004 → Brentford (loan) 25 (7)
2005 → Blackpool (loan) 13 (6)
2006–2007 Barnsley 34 (2)
2006–2007 → Walsall (loan) 6 (2)
2007–2008 Darlington 54 (17)
2008–2010 Aberdeen 18 (1)
2010 Grimsby Town 14 (1)
2010–2011 Darlington 22 (4)
2011 Kidderminster Harriers 2 (0)
2011–2012 Luton Town 4 (1)
2012 Forest Green Rovers 7 (2)
2012–2013 Tamworth 41 (8)
2013
Harrogate Town
 4 (1)
2013–2016 Corby Town 57 (7)
2016–2017
Nuneaton Town
 1 (0)
Total 323 (61)
International career
2002–2003 England U19 10 (5)
2003 England U20 4 (0)
Managerial career
2013–2016 Corby Town (player-manager)
2016–2017
Nuneaton Town
(player-manager)
2017–2019 Darlington
2019 Stratford Town
2020 Corby Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Thomas Andrew Wright (born 28 September 1984) is an English former professional footballer and manager.

A former

Nuneaton Town
. In October 2017, he joined Darlington for a third spell, this time as manager. He left Darlington by mutual consent at the end of the 2018–19 season after a lower mid table finish.

Wright is now a police officer, having taken a career change in December 2020.[2]

Playing career

Club

Wright was born in

Leicester.[1] He started his career at home town club Leicester City, making his Premier League debut under Dave Bassett on 23 March 2002, in a 2–0 home defeat to Leeds United, after he replaced Stefan Oakes on 86 minutes.[3] The Foxes were relegated at the end of the season, and new manager Micky Adams played Wright 13 times in the 2002–03 First Division promotion campaign. He scored his first senior goal on 18 January, in a 3–2 win over Gillingham at Priestfield Stadium; his second goal was the only one of the game against rivals Nottingham Forest at the Walkers Stadium on 8 April. He was offered a new contract at the end of the campaign.[4]

Despite

League One Blackpool on loan at the start of the 2005–06 season, and hit six goals in fifteen games under the management of Colin Hendry and then Simon Grayson
.

Wright signed for League One

League Two side Walsall.[10] Scoring on his debut at the Bescot Stadium,[11] he netted twice in five starts for the Saddlers, who went on to top the division under manager Richard Money
.

Having failed to agree personal terms with Rotherham United,[12] Wright signed with Dave Penney's Darlington, also of League Two.[13] He finished the season with four goals in 13 appearances for the Quakers. He fired Darlington into the play-offs in 2007–08, where they were knocked out by Rochdale at the semi-final stage; Wright finished as the club's top scorer with thirteen goals. He was nominated for the League Two player of the month award for January after scoring three goals in the space of six games, but lost out to Grimsby Town's Danny North.[14]

On 8 August 2008, Wright was transferred to Scottish Premier League club Aberdeen, manager Jimmy Calderwood paying a fee of £100,000; the deal had been delayed while Wright was recovering from a knee injury.[15] Wright caused a stir in his first appearance in an Aberdeen shirt, receiving a yellow card for a reckless challenge, and allegedly attempting to headbutt Motherwell defender Stephen Craigan.[16] He scored his first senior goal for the Dons from the edge of the area in a Scottish Cup fifth-round tie against East Fife at Pittodrie on 17 February.[17] Shortly after, on 3 March, he netted his first SPL goal, a "wonderful" header from the edge of the area for a last-minute equaliser in a 1–1 draw with St Mirren.[18] He finished the 2008–09 campaign with two goals in nineteen games, and Aberdeen finished fourth to secure a place in the UEFA Europa League.

His injury problems continued into the 2009–10 season.[19] By January it became clear that new manager Mark McGhee had little faith in Wright, and he told the striker that he was available for a transfer.[20] League One club Stockport County failed to pursue their initial interest, and on 27 January, Aberdeen released Wright from his contract, which still had 18 months to run.[21][22]

Wright promptly signed an 18-month contract with

extra time, his header looped up off the crossbar for Chris Senior to win the game for Darlington.[28]

In September 2011, Wright was released from his Darlington contract,[29] and embarked on a series of short-team deals. He first signed for Conference rivals Kidderminster Harriers on non-contract terms with the view to earning himself a longer contract,[30] but made only two appearances for the club. On 18 October he joined fellow Conference side Luton Town for three months,[31] during which he scored three goals in six appearances,[32] including one against former club Grimsby.[33] He began training with League Two side Port Vale – managed by his former boss at Leicester, Micky Adams – in January 2012,[34] but then signed for Forest Green Rovers of the Conference Premier.[35] Wright made a goalscoring debut on 18 February in a 2–1 win against Gateshead,[36] and contributed two goals from seven appearances before being released at the end of the season.

Wright spent 2012–13 as a first-team regular with

Harrogate Town's fourth summer signing,[39] but he was released in September to begin his managerial career.[40]

International

Wright scored five goals from ten appearances for the

2003 European Championships in Liechtenstein. He played alongside Stewart Downing in defeats to Austria and the Czech Republic and a 2–0 win over France;[42]
the English finished third in the group and were therefore eliminated.

He also made four appearances at under-20 level without scoring.[43] He was a member of the squad for the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates, starting in the defeat to Egypt and coming on as a substitute in the defeat to Japan and draw with eventual third-place finishers Colombia;[44] they finished bottom of their group and were eliminated without scoring a goal.

Managerial career

In September 2013, Wright was released by Harrogate Town to take the post of joint manager of

Southern Football League Premier Division club Corby Town, alongside former Histon coach Andrew Wilson.[40] At the end of the 2013–14 season, Wright was appointed as the sole manager by the club's new owners.[45] On the final day of the 2014–15 season, Corby Town won the Southern Premier title by beating league leaders Poole Town, who earlier in the season had been well clear in the table.[46] The club struggled in the National League North, and were relegated. After a poor start to the 2016–17 season, Wright was sacked.[45]

A few days later, Wright joined National League North club

Nuneaton Town as player-coach.[47] He took over as manager in November,[48] and led the team to a mid-table finish. In October 2017, he was approached by Darlington to replace Martin Gray, who had resigned as manager earlier that month. He initially turned them down, but changed his mind within days, much to the disappointment of Nuneaton's chairman, and took up the appointment at Darlington on 20 October.[49] He led Darlington to a mid-table finish in 2017–18. Darlington announced on 26 April 2019 that Wright would be leaving the club after the final game of the season the following day.[50][51]
Wright was announced as the new manager of Stratford Town on 7 June 2019.[52] He left the club in October 2019,[53] and returned to Corby as manager in May 2020.[54] However, he resigned in July 2020.[55]

Personal life

Wright now works as a Police officer for Leicestershire Police.[56]

Career statistics

Player

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup[a] Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Leicester City 2001–02[57] Premier League 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 0
2002–03[58] First Division 13 2 1 0 0 0 — 14 2
2003–04[59] Premier League 0 0 — — — 0 0
2004–05[60]
Championship
 7 0 1 0 1 0 — 9 0
2005–06[61] Championship 0 0 0 0 — — 0 0
Total 21 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 24 2
Brentford (loan) 2003–04[59] Second Division 25 3 0 0 — 0 0 25 3
Blackpool (loan) 2005–06[61]
League One
 13 6 0 0 0 0 2[b] 0 15 6
Barnsley 2005–06[61] League One 17 1 2 0 — 3[c] 0 22 1
2006–07[62] Championship 17 1 0 0 2 0 — 19 1
Total 34 2 2 0 2 0 3 0 41 2
Walsall (loan) 2006–07[62]
League Two
 6 2 — — — 6 2
Darlington 2006–07[62] League Two 13 4 — — — 13 4
2007–08[63] League Two 40 13 2 1 1 1 2[d] 0 45 15
Total 53 17 2 1 1 1 2 0 58 19
Aberdeen 2008–09[64] Scottish Premier League 15 1 3 1 1 0 — 19 2
2009–10[65] Scottish Premier League 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0
Total 18 1 3 1 1 0 0 0 22 2
Grimsby Town 2009–10[65] League Two 14 1 — — — 14 1
Darlington 2010–11[66]
Conference Premier
 22 4 3 1 — 4[e] 0 29 5
2011–12[67] Conference Premier 0 0 — — — 0 0
Total 22 4 3 1 — 4 0 29 5
Kidderminster Harriers 2011–12[67] Conference Premier 2 0 — — — 2 0
Luton Town 2011–12[68] Conference Premier 4 1 1 1 — 1[e] 1 6 3
Forest Green Rovers 2011–12[67] Conference Premier 7 2 — — — 7 2
Tamworth 2012–13[37] Conference Premier 41 8 1 0 — 3[e] 2 45 10
Harrogate Town
 2013–14[69] Conference North 4 1 — — — 4 1
Corby Town 2013–14[70]
Southern League Premier
 28 6 5 1 1 0 1[e] 0 35 7
2014–15[70] Southern League Premier 21 1 1 0 0 0 1[f] 0 23 1
2015–16[70] National League North 8 0 2 0 — 0 0 10 0
Total 57 7 8 1 1 0 2 0 68 8
Career total 321 57 22 5 6 1 17 3 366 66
  1. Football League Cup, Scottish League Cup and Southern League Cup
  2. Football League Trophy
  3. ^ Appearances in League One play-offs
  4. ^ One appearance in Football League Trophy, one in League Two play-offs
  5. ^ a b c d Appearances in FA Trophy
  6. ^ Appearance in Northamptonshire Senior Cup

Manager

As of match played 27 April 2019
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record Ref
P W D L Win %
Nuneaton Town
 18 November 2016 20 October 2017 42 18 9 15 042.86 [71]
Darlington 22 October 2017 27 April 2019 71 21 21 29 029.58 [71]
Overall 113 39 30 44 034.51

Honours

Player

Leicester City

Barnsley

  • Football League One play-off winner: 2006[9]

Darlington

Player-manager

Corby Town

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-84596-246-3
    .
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  5. ^ McNulty, Phil (12 August 2003). "Premiership ones to watch". BBC Sport. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
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    Philpotts, Chris (20 October 2017). "Breaking news: Nuneaton Town boss joins Darlington FC". Coventry Telegraph. Retrieved 21 November 2017.
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  55. ^ Tommy Wright ends second spell at Corby Town before it’s even begun The Non-League Football Paper, 18 July 2020
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  67. ^ a b c "Games played by Tommy Wright in 2011/2012". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
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  69. ^ "Harrogate Town FC: Squad". Soccerway. Perform Group. Retrieved 21 November 2017. Select season and competition required via dropdown menu.
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External links

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