Francis Tierney (born 10 September 1975) is an English retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played most notably for

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

and

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

. Tierney came through the famous Crewe Alexandra academy system where he was extremely highly rated by

Dario Gradi Dario Gradi, MBE (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-English former amateur football player, coach and manager. He was associated for more than 36 years with Crewe Alexandra, where he was variously manager, director of football and director of t ...

, and the coaching staff. He played as a winger or striker, and was known for his dribbling skills and technique. Tierney played almost 100 times for Crewe in the bottom two divisions, scoring 11 times. He was an important part of the team that won promotion from League 2 to League 1 in 1994–95, and also played 22 times in the Crewe side that won promotion via the

Play-Offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

from League 1 to

The Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

in 1996–97. Tierney attracted a lot of attention from scouts top flight English clubs, and a £750,000 fee was agreed in 1993 for Tierney to move to Liverpool. The deal fell through at the last minute when Tierney failed a medical. The setback seemed to knock Tierney's confidence, and the next season Tierney suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury, that kept him out of the Crewe team for almost a year. He never looked likely to regain his former form at Gresty Road, and he was only seen at his best intermittently after that. Tierney also played for

as a

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 ...

where he is affectionately known among fans as 'Sir' Francis Tierney for scoring the

golden goal The golden goal or golden point is a rule used in association football, lacrosse, field hockey, and ice hockey to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the end of normal time. It is a type of sud ...

in the 2003 conference

play-off The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

final against Dagenham & Redbridge at Stoke's

Britannia Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was ...

. In his 2005 autobiography, former

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

legend Robbie Fowler described Tierney as a "brilliant player...better than most of the other lads in the schoolboys team including myself".

Honours

As a player

Crewe Alexandra *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...

promotion: 1994–95 * Football League Second Division play-offs: 1996–97 Doncaster Rovers * Conference National play-offs: 2002–03 *

: 2003–04

References

External links

*
Francis Tierney Profile on doncasterrovers.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tierney, Francis Living people 1975 births Notts County F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Northwich Victoria F.C. players Footballers from Liverpool Men's association football midfielders English men's footballers English Football League players