David Clements (born 15 September 1945 in
Larne
Larne (, , the name of a Gaelic territory) is a town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, with a population of 18,755 at the 2011 Census. It is a major passenger and freight roll-on roll-off port. Larne is administered by Mid ...
,
County Antrim
County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
) is a former
football player and manager from Northern Ireland. He started his career as a
left winger
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
but also played as a
defensive midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...
and
left full back
In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...
. During a career which lasted from 1964 to 1976, playing for
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
,
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...
and
Everton, he would make a total of 392 league appearances and score 32 goals. He played 48 times for the Northern Ireland national team between 1965 and 1976 scoring two goals.
[www.rsssf.com.](_blank)
Gives international record. He then managed the national team for two years in 1975 and 1976 before moving to the
NASL in the United States.
Early days
Dave attended
Larne Grammar School
Larne Grammar School is a co-educational voluntary grammar school located in Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1886 by Sir Edward Coey and John Crawford, it has around 760 pupils and 50 teaching staff.
History
The school was ...
and excelled at both football and
rugby union
Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...
, during his time at the school he earned football caps for the national team at schoolboy, youth and amateur level. As a junior, he played for the Larne suburban team of Millbrook before signing for Irish league club
Portadown F.C. in 1961. After starring in a 2–0 Irish amateur win over Wales in January 1963 he signed for English Division One club
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...
.
[Northern Ireland's Football Greats.](_blank)
Gives details of early days.
English league career
Dave Clements' spell as an apprentice at Wolverhampton Wanderers lasted for just over a year, however in that time he failed to break into the first team.
Coventry City
Despite this lack of success at Wolves, he caught the eye of Coventry City manager
Jimmy Hill
James William Thomas Hill, OBE (22 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was an English footballer and later a television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including player, trade union leader, coach, manager, director ...
who paid £1,500 for the 18-year-old at the start of the 1964–65 season. Clements made a fine start to his City career, scoring on his debut on 23 January 1965 against
Northampton Town
Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system.
Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...
and netting eight times in his first ten matches. Two months later on 17 March 1965, aged just 19, he earned the first of his 48 caps for the Northern Ireland national team against the
Netherlands
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, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. Clements was an integral part of the Coventry side which won the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
championship in the 1966–67 season and then did well in the top flight. He played as an outside left for much of his time at Coventry for whom he made 228 league appearances (255 including cup games) and scored 30 goals in total over a period of seven seasons. Throughout his time at
Highfield Road
Highfield Road was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City F.C. for 106 years.
History
It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game ...
he continued to be a regular for the Northern Ireland team, earning 21 caps in total while with the Midlands team. His most famous moment as an international player came in October 1967 when he scored the winning goal in a
Euro 68 qualifier against
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
at
Windsor Park
Windsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of Linfield F.C. who own the land the stadium is built on, while the Irish Football Association own and operate the stadium and pay Linfield an annual renta ...
. Coventry manager
Noel Cantwell
Noel Euchuria Cornelius Cantwell (28 February 1932 – 8 September 2005) was an Irish footballer player and sometime cricketer.
Club career
Cantwell was born in Cork, Ireland, and was educated at the Roman Catholic Presentation Brothers College ...
surprisingly agreed to let Clements move on after six-years at the club and after rejecting a move to
Hull City
Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...
in February 1971, he moved to Sheffield Wednesday in August of the same year as part of a combined deal that also included
Brian Joicey and cost the Yorkshire club £100,000.
[www.cwn.org.uk.](_blank)
Gives details of Coventry career.[Coventry City Former Players Association.](_blank)
Gives details of Coventry career.
Sheffield Wednesday
He played as a left back for Wednesday and was a popular and successful player in his time there even though the club was not thriving in Division Two and would eventually drop into Division Three in 1975. His strong, robust style of play earned him the nickname "Tank" from Wednesday fans, he played 87 games for Wednesday in two seasons
Gives details of Sheffield Wednesday career. but became unsettled at the end of the 1972–73 season when his good form had attracted the attention of First Division clubs. He played just the opening game of the following season before moving to Everton at the beginning of September 1973 for a fee of £80,000.
Everton
He made his debut on Saturday, 22 September 1973 in a 1–1 draw at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Dave was made club captain for 1974–75, a season in which Everton were well placed to lift the
First Division championship before a late slump let in
Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group.
Founded in 188 ...
. In total, Clements made 85 league appearances in his time with Everton scoring six goals (he took over as the clubs penalty taker) and became one of the most respected
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
s in the top flight. During his time at Everton he became player-manager of the Northern Ireland national side for a short time taking over from
Terry Neill
William John Terence Neill (8 May 1942 – 28 July 2022) was a Northern Irish football player and manager. A centre-back, he captained and later managed Arsenal, guiding the club to a European final in 1980 and three consecutive FA Cup final ...
in 1975 and being replaced by
Danny Blanchflower in 1976.
[Career Info www.sporting-heroes.net.](_blank)
Gives career statistics.
Manager career
Dave Clements tenure as Northern Ireland manager lasted for eleven matches, he took over in the winter of 1974–75, part way through the qualification matches for
Euro 76. He took over as manager at the age of only 29 and his first game as manager was on 16 March 1975 and was a Euro 76 qualifier against
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
in
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...
. This was the first time that Northern Ireland had played a home match in the province since 1971 and resulted in a fine 1–0 victory which put the Northern Irish in with a chance of qualification. However a home defeat to
Sweden in October 1975 and a loss in
Belgrade to Yugoslavia in the final group qualifier the following month stopped Northern Ireland progressing to the last eight knock out stage.
Dave Clements continued as manager into 1976, however results were disappointing culminating in Northern Ireland losing all three matches in the
British Home Championship in May of that year. They lost heavily to
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
0–3 in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
0–4 at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
before losing 0–1 to
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
in Swansea. The Welsh defeat was Dave Clements last game as both manager and player for the national team on 14 May 1976.
[www.northernirelandyears.com.](_blank)
Gives details of period as Northern Ireland manager.
He played his last game for Everton in February 1976 and moved to the United States, having received a lucrative offer to play in the NASL for
New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to
* New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada)
* New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independ ...
where he played alongside
Pelé. His performances for Cosmos during 1976 ensured that Clements was named in the All-Star Honourable Mention Team for that year, he was also selected for Team America to participate in the Bicentenary Cup against Italy, Brazil and England. Dave moved to coach the
Colorado Caribous
The Caribous of Colorado were an American soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) during the 1978 season. The team was based in Denver, Colorado and played their home games at Mile High Stadium. After the seaso ...
of the
North American Soccer League in 1978, the only year of their existence, and then coached three teams in the
Major Indoor Soccer League, the
Denver Avalanche (1981–82),
St. Louis Steamers (1982–85) and
Kansas City Comets (1986–87). He was named US Coach of the year in 1982 and 1987. Dave still lives in the Denver area, he moved out of football and has run his own Irish shop, worked as a salesman in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
, and was CEO of a Denver company that manufactured Cotton Candy machines.
[www.hickoksports.com.](_blank)
Coach of the year in 1982 and 1987.
Gives details of North American management career.
He was also the coach of the University of Denver men's soccer team.
External links
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clements, Dave
1945 births
Living people
Association footballers from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland international footballers
Coventry City F.C. players
Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players
Everton F.C. players
Football managers from Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland national football team managers
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players
New York Cosmos players
Colorado Caribous players
North American Soccer League (1968–1984) coaches
Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) coaches
People from Larne
People educated at Larne Grammar School
Denver Pioneers men's soccer coaches
Association football wingers
Northern Ireland amateur international footballers