David Kerslake (born 19 June 1966) is an English football coach and former player. He was most recently assistant head coach to

Michael Appleton Michael Antony Appleton (born 4 December 1975) is an English professional football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of Blackpool. As a player, he operated as a midfielder, in a nine-year career that began in 1994 and e ...

at Blackpool. As a player, Kerslake was a

right-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 ...

who notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

and

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. He also played in the Football League with

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...

. He retired with non-league side

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ( ...

. He was capped once by

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

. Since retiring, Kerslake has worked as a coach for

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 ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and Cardiff City. In 2013 he had a brief spell as caretaker manager at Cardiff until the arrival of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He went on to work at Gillingham before returning to Northampton Town, where, in 2017, he was temporarily the first-team manager.

Playing career

Kerslake made his debut for

against Newcastle United in April 1985. He went on to play 58 league games for Rangers, scoring six goals. He was transferred to

in November 1989. He moved to

, for whom he made eight appearances before moving to

three months later. ''Spurs'' paid £450,000 for him, and he made 34 appearances over four years. He was sent on loan to Swindon and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

before being released, whereupon he joined

in 1997. He only made a handful of appearances for Ipswich, moving on to

and then finishing his career back at Swindon.

Coaching career

Kerslake moved into coaching in 2003, becoming assistant manager at

to former teammate

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the assistant manager at Northampton Town. As a player, he was a centre-back who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hots ...

. The pair reached the playoff semi finals in each of the first two seasons at the club, and in 2005–2006, their third and final season at the club, achieved automatic promotion into League One, finishing with a club-record for clean sheets with 25. He then followed Calderwood to Nottingham Forest, again as assistant manager, in the summer on 2006 after the Scot was named as Gary Megson's successor. The duo again reached the playoffs in their first season in charge (2006–2007) but were beaten on aggregate by

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

in the semi-final. Forest achieved automatic promotion to the Championship in the 2007–2008 season with a run of six wins from their remaining seven games and in the process overcame a nine-point gap with four games to go on the teams in the automatic places. Kerslake left Nottingham Forest after Calderwood's sacking in December 2008. He was appointed first-team coach at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

, but on 30 June 2011 was announced the new coach of Cardiff City, working as assistant manager to

Malky Mackay Malcolm George Mackay (born 19 February 1972) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player, who is currently the manager of Ross County. Mackay, who played as a defender, began his playing career in Scottish football with Quee ...

. Following the sacking of Mackay in December 2013, Kerslake and Joe McBride were placed in charge of the first team. They were in charge until 2 January 2014, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was appointed as the new Cardiff City manager. On 6 July 2015, Gillingham appointed Kerslake as Justin Edinburgh's new assistant manager. On 15 January 2017, he was hired again by Edinburgh to be the assistant manager at Northampton Town. On 27 September 2019, he was brought in by

to serve as the new assistant manager of Lincoln City. On 10 June 2022, he left Lincoln City following Appleton's departure as manager. He became Appleton's assistant head coach, alongside Richard O'Donnell, at Blackpool on 21 June. On 18 January 2023, Blackpool sacked Kerslake along with head coach Appleton.

Honours

Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1990–91 Second Division, 1991–92 Second Division, 1992–93 First Division

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerslake, David 1966 births Living people English footballers England men's under-21 international footballers Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Watford F.C. non-playing staff Cardiff City F.C. non-playing staff Gillingham F.C. non-playing staff Northampton Town F.C. non-playing staff Lincoln City F.C. non-playing staff Blackpool F.C. non-playing staff Footballers from Stepney Premier League players Men's association football defenders English Football League players Canvey Island F.C. players England men's youth international footballers English football managers Cardiff City F.C. managers Premier League managers