Steven Pressley

Steven Pressley

File:Steven Pressley.jpg Steven Pressley, 2009
Personal information
Full name	Steven John Pressley
Date of birth	(1973-10-11) 11 October 1973
Place of birth	Elgin, Scotland
Height
Position(s)	Centre back
Team information
Current team	Fleetwood Town (manager)
Youth career
1989–1990	Inverkeithing BC
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1990–1994	Rangers	34	(1)
1994–1995	Coventry City	19	(1)
1995–1998	Dundee United	100	(6)
1998–2006	Heart of Midlothian	271	(19)
2006–2008	Celtic	19	(1)
2008	Randers	9	(0)
2009	Falkirk	16	(0)
Total		468	(28)
International career
1991–1994	Scotland U21	26	(1)
2000–2006	Scotland	32	(0)
Managerial career
2005	Heart of Midlothian (Joint Caretaker)
2010–2013	Falkirk
2013–2015	Coventry City
2015–	Fleetwood Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Steven John Pressley (born 11 October 1973) is a Scottish football player and manager. Pressley had a long playing career, playing for both halves of the Old Firm and making over 100 league appearances for both Dundee United and Hearts. Pressley captained the Hearts side that won the 2006 Scottish Cup Final, and made 32 appearances for Scotland. As a player, Pressley was described as hard-working and exhibiting leadership.

After retiring as a player, Pressley was assistant manager of Falkirk, before being appointed manager in February 2010. Pressley also served as an assistant manager to George Burley while Burley was manager of Scotland. He moved to League One side Coventry City in March 2013, but was dismissed in February 2015. Pressley was appointed manager of Fleetwood Town in October 2015.

Club career

Rangers

Pressley started his career at Rangers as a youngster. During his time at Ibrox, he won a Scottish Cup winner's medal in 1993, appearing as a substitute as Rangers defeated Aberdeen in the final.

Coventry City

Pressley was transferred to English side Coventry City in October 1994 for £600,000. His one goal for Coventry came against Manchester United.

Dundee United

Pressley returned to Scotland in July 1995 with Dundee United, who paid a transfer fee of £750,000. He helped Dundee United to get promotion to the Premier Division in his first season. This was followed by a third-place finish in the 1996-97 Scottish Premier Division.

Hearts

Pressley scores past Gretna goalkeeper Alan Main in the 2006 Scottish Cup Final penalty shootout.

His influential style of play and his organisational skills were noticed by Hearts manager Jim Jefferies, and he was signed by the Edinburgh club on a Bosman free transfer in 1998. Pressley was appointed club captain by Craig Levein in 2001–02. Only Bobby Parker has held the Hearts captaincy for a longer period.

Pressley was captain when the team beat VfB Stuttgart, Bordeaux and Basel in European matches. He helped Hearts finish second in the league in 2005/06, third on three occasions, as well as reaching the Scottish Cup and League Cup semi-finals. Pressley led Hearts to success in the 2006 Scottish Cup Final, albeit on a penalty shoot-out after the club were held to a 1–1 draw with Gretna after extra time. Pressley scored the first penalty for Hearts, who eventually won 4–2. His enrolment into the Hearts Hall of Fame highlights the status that he enjoyed at Tynecastle.

He acted as a spokesman for the playing squad in response to the various controversies affecting the club under the ownership of Vladimir Romanov. On 27 October 2006, Pressley led a press conference, flanked by fellow internationals Craig Gordon and Paul Hartley, announcing that there was "significant unrest in the Hearts dressing room" following majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov's most recent comments. Romanov stated that he would sell players if Hearts failed to beat Dunfermline Athletic, a match which ended 1–1. However, this game was played out in front of a sell-out crowd who showed their vocal backing for Pressley, Gordon and Hartley. Pressley was then absent from the Hearts squad to face Falkirk on 13 November 2006 and he had been reportedly stripped of the captaincy. A month later, on 9 December 2006, it was confirmed that Pressley and Hearts had parted company and was reported to be attracting the interest of several clubs.

Celtic

File:Steven Pressley and Ivan Ergić.jpg

Pressley leads out the Celtic team for a friendly match against FC Basel in July 2007.

Despite reported interest from Championship Derby County and Premier League Charlton, it was revealed in December 2006 that Pressley had been signed as a free agent by Celtic until May 2008. Having previously played for Rangers, he joined players such as Maurice Johnston, Alfie Conn and Kenny Miller in crossing the Old Firm divide.

He made his Celtic debut on 2 January 2007 against Kilmarnock and then returned to Tynecastle as stand-in Celtic captain on 14 January. He scored his first competitive goal for Celtic against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup, later scoring his only league goal against Hearts on 29 April 2007. He featured in the Celtic team that won the Scottish Cup, making him the first player ever to do so with three different clubs. He made fewer appearances during the 2007–08 season, and he left the club after his contract expired in the summer.

Randers

After his release from Celtic, Pressley continued to train with Celtic Reserves to keep his fitness up and joined Doncaster Rovers, then Blackpool on trial but failed to win a contract at both clubs. Then, on 1 September 2008 he signed for Randers FC of the Danish Superliga on a four-month contract, ending in December. Although he had the eagerness to play in a foreign country throughout his career, this was the first offer he had received from abroad. He said "The prospect of playing abroad excited me and it's an ideal situation for both parties. I had a couple of opportunities to go to England, but I wanted to play abroad and experience a new challenge".

Pressley made his debut in a 1–1 draw against AC Horsens on 14 September and played the full 90 minutes of the match.

Falkirk

Pressley's contract with Randers expired in December 2008, the beginning of the Danish Superliga's Winter break, and he was linked with a move to a number of clubs in Switzerland as well as the manager's job at Inverness in his homeland, but joined Falkirk on 13 January 2009 on a short-term contract until the end of the 2008/09 season. He made his debut for the club in a 3–1 defeat to Rangers at Ibrox Stadium on 18 January.

International career

Pressley was capped 32 times by Scotland. He is the most capped Scottish player at Hearts surpassing the record of 29 caps held by Bobby Walker. He made his debut in 2000 against World and European champions France. His appearance against Lithuania on 6 September 2006 ensured that he surpassed Bobby Walker's 91-year-old record as Hearts' most capped Scotland player. He was sent off in what proved to be his last appearance for Scotland, a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against Ukraine on 11 October 2006. Pressley served a two-match ban following the red card, which gave Stephen McManus the chance to step up to the international fold. McManus performed very well in Pressley's absence and ended up keeping him out of the starting eleven even after Pressley's suspension ended. Pressley retired from international football in February 2008 when he was named as Scotland's assistant coach, but continued to play club football until his official retirement in June 2009.

Management career

Hearts (caretaker)

Pressley had his first experience as a manager while still a player when he took charge of Heart of Midlothian as joint (caretaker) manager for two games at the end of the 2004–05 SPL season, losing both of the games.

Scotland

Along with Terry Butcher, Pressley was named as an assistant to the Scotland manager George Burley in February 2008. Pressley was Hearts' captain, and club captain, under Burley during his short reign at Tynecastle. Pressley is currently sitting his UEFA pro license. He left his post as Scotland assistant coach following the country's unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign on 16 September 2009.

Falkirk

During the summer of 2009, Pressley was appointed as an assistant manager at Falkirk, following his retirement as a player. Following the resignation of manager Eddie May on 11 February 2010, Pressley was appointed Falkirk manager on a contract until the end of the 2009–10 season. Falkirk were relegated to the First Division at the end of the 2009–10 season. Despite failing to gain promotion back to the SPL at the first attempt, Falkirk extended his contract for another year.

Coventry City manager

Pressley was announced as the new manager of League One side Coventry City on 8 March 2013. He took over the position from Mark Robins, who resigned to join Huddersfield Town. Steven Pressley won his first match in charge the following day, 2-1 away at Scunthorpe. Later in March 2013, the club went into administration and were deducted 10 points, dropping Coventry City from 10th to 14th in the 2012–13 Football League One. Coventry City finished the season in 15th place. In the 2013–14 Football League One season, Coventry City started with a 10-point deduction and had to play all of their home games in Northampton, 34 miles away. Despite these obstacles, the club avoided relegation and finished in 18th place, and were realistic play-off contenders before the mid-season departure of striker Leon Clarke.

Following Coventry City's positive start to the 2014-15 season, speculation arose as to Pressley's future at the club, with rumours that Championship club Huddersfield Town were interested in appointing him. Coventry returned to the Ricoh Arena in early September, winning 1-0 before a crowd of 27,500 fans. Pressley signed a four-year contract with Coventry City in September 2014. The team struggled for form following Pressley's contract renewal with a low-point coming when Coventry City were knocked out of the 2014–15 FA Cup by non-league club Worcester City. After a poor run of results in early 2015, Pressley was sacked by Coventry City on 23 February after his 100th league game in charge, with the club having dropped into the relegation zone.

Fleetwood Town

Following his departure from Coventry City, Pressley worked as a scout for Premier League club Southampton. Pressley was appointed manager of Fleetwood Town on 6 October 2015, replacing Graham Alexander.

Honours

Player

Rangers

• Scottish Premier Division: 1992–93, 1993–94
• Scottish Cup: 1992–93
• Scottish League Cup: 1992–93, 1993–94

Hearts

• Scottish Cup: 2005–06

Celtic

• Scottish Premier League: 2006–07
• Scottish Cup: 2006–07

Individual

• Scottish Premier League Player of the Month: February 2004

Manager

Falkirk

• Scottish Challenge Cup: 2011–12

Individual

• Scottish First Division Manager of the Month (4): September 2011, October 2011 (shared), January 2012, February 2012

Managerial statistics

All competitive league games (league and domestic cup) and international matches are included.

As of 9 January 2015

Team	Nat	Year	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Falkirk		2010–13	144	63	35	46	43.75
Coventry City		2013–2015	100	32	30	38	32.00
Fleetwood Town		2015–	17	6	4	7	35.29
Career Total			261	101	69	91	38.70

External links

• Hearts profile at London Hearts
• Scotland profile at London Hearts