Gary Hamilton (born 6 October 1980) is a footballer from Northern Ireland. He is currently the

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

for

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

club

Glenavon Glenavon Football Club is a Northern Irish semi-professional football club that competes in the NIFL Premiership. Founded in 1889, the club hails from Lurgan and plays its home matches at Mourneview Park. Club colours are blue and white. Gar ...

Career

Hamilton currently holds the

record for the number of goals scored in a match, scoring six for Portadown against Omagh Town in October 2004. In 2006, he moved to Glentoran, having previously played for

Portadown Portadown () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of a ...

Raufoss IL Raufoss IL is a sports club from Raufoss, Norway. The club was formed in 1918. The football section played in the Norwegian top flight between 1937–1948, between 1957–1960, in 1964 and between 1973–1974. The club currently plays in 1. div ...

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

. He gained five international caps between 2003 and 2004, having previously represented

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

at every other level. He scored for Glentoran in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

in July 2010, before moving to Glenavon on a season-long loan where he made an immediate impact, scoring nine goals in ten competitive starts winning Carling Player of the Month for December 2010. Hamilton is a

and Everton fan. He joined his hometown club,

, on a season-long loan for the 2010–11 season. He signed a new deal with Glentoran in August 2011.

Managerial career

On 15 December 2011, Hamilton was appointed player-manager of Glenavon after the resignation of Marty Quinn. His first match in charge was on 17 December 2011, against Linfield 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 rent ...

. Linfield won the match 1–0. However, his first win in charge came in the very next game, as the Lurgan Blues defeated

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

3–2 at

Mourneview Park Mourneview Park is a football stadium in Lurgan, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, and is the home ground of NIFL Premiership club Glenavon. The stadium holds 4,160 and was originally built in 1895. The 2008–09 Irish League Cup, 2010–11 Iris ...

on 20 December 2011. In 2014, Hamilton guided Glenavon to victory in the

2013–14 Irish Cup The 2013–14 Irish Cup was the 134th edition of the premier knock-out cup competition in Northern Irish football since its introduction in 1881. The competition began on 7 September 2013 with the first round and ended on 3 May 2014 with the final. ...

, the clubs first winning campaign in the tournament since

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. He repeated this success in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

, defeating David Healy's Linfield 2–0 in the final. On 4 March 2021, Hamilton signed a three-year extension to his contract at Glenavon. The extension granted Hamilton to stay at the club until the end of the 2024/25 season. At the end of this year, Hamilton will overtake Terry Nicholson in becoming the second longest-serving Manager at Glenavon FC since the 50's. At the end of his contract, Hamilton will become the longest serving Manager since

Jimmy McAlinden James McAlinden (27 December 1917 – 15 November 1993) was an Irish footballer who played as a forward for several clubs, most notably, Belfast Celtic, Portsmouth, Shamrock Rovers and Southend United. As an international, McAlinden also play ...

Honours

Portadown * Irish League: 2001–02 *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

: 2004–05 Glentoran * Irish League/IFA Premiership: 2008–09 *

Irish League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Nort ...

: 2006–07, 2009–10 *

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster Foo ...

: 2007–08, 2010–11 Glenavon *

: 2013–14, 2015–16 *

Mid-Ulster Cup The Mid-Ulster Cup is a senior football competition in Northern Ireland run by the Mid-Ulster Football Association (founded 2 April 1887). The competition has historically featured teams based in County Armagh, east County Tyrone, and west Count ...

: 2010–11, 2017–18, 2018–19, 2020-21

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Gary 1980 births Living people People from Banbridge Association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland international footballers Northern Ireland B international footballers Northern Ireland under-21 international footballers English Football League players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Raufoss IL players Portadown F.C. players Glentoran F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Expatriate footballers in Norway Association football forwards