Graham Anthony Fenton (born 22 May 1974) is an English football manager and former 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 is the current manager of

Blyth Spartans Blyth Spartans Association Football Club is a football club based in Blyth, Northumberland. They are currently members of and play at Croft Park. They were founded in September 1899 by Fred Stoker, who was the club's first secretary before fo ...

. He played as a striker 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 Aston Villa,

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. Th ...

and

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, as well as in the Football League for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, Stoke City, Blackpool and Darlington. He also spent a year in Scotland with St Mirren before later playing for Non-league

. He was capped once by England at under-21 level. Since retiring from playing he moved into management and has since managed both

North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...

and South Shields. He also had a spell as caretaker manager of Blyth Spartans during his time there as a player. He was sacked by South Shields on 16 January 2022 and replaced by Kevin Phillips.

Club career

Fenton joined Aston Villa as a trainee in June 1990, turning professional in February 1992. He was loaned out to

in January 1994, making his league debut against Leicester City in the same month. His loan spell at Albion was very successful, producing three goals in seven games and contributing to Albion's eventual survival in Division One, leaving many Albion fans "bitterly disappointed" when he did not sign permanently. He instead returned to Villa, making his club debut in a 0–0 Premiership draw at home to Manchester City on 22 February 1994. In March 1994, he played in Villa's

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

winning side, playing all of the 3–1 victory against Manchester United at Wembley. In November 1995, having struggled to claim a regular place in the

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway station ...

first team, Fenton made a £1.5 million move to reigning Premiership champions

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

, but his first team opportunities were limited as he faced competition from Alan Shearer,

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit and commentator for BT Sport, regularly working on their coverage of Scottish football. He is now also a pundi ...

and

Kevin Gallacher Kevin William Gallacher (born 23 November 1966) is a Scottish former professional footballer and football pundit and co-commentator. He played as a forward from 1983 until 2002, notably in the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers where he was ...

. He scored seven times for Blackburn, including two as a late substitute against Newcastle United, the team Fenton has supported since childhood, in April 1996, which effectively ended Newcastle's title challenge. In August 1997, he moved to

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...

for a fee of £1.1million. He scored on his Leicester debut, having replaced Ian Marshall as a late substitute in the 2–1 win away to

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 ...

, but again struggled to establish himself, making only 34 league appearances (21 as substitute) over three seasons. Despite being left out of Leicester's squad for the

2000 Football League Cup Final The 2000 Football League Cup Final was played between Leicester City, in their third final appearance in four years, and First Division side Tranmere Rovers at Wembley Stadium on 27 February 2000. It was the 34th and last League Cup Final to be ...

he made four appearances and scored one goal during their victorious League Cup campaign. He also scored one of the penalties in the shootout against Fulham in the quarter final. He joined

on loan in March 2000, scoring once against Port Vale and had an unsuccessful trial with Barnsley in July 2000. In August 2000 he joined Stoke City on a monthly contract, scoring once against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, and at the end of the following month, signed for St Mirren on a two-year contract. In August 2001, Fenton joined Blackpool on a free transfer, but once more struggled to establish himself in the first team. He was an unused substitute for the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

as Blackpool won the

2001–02 Football League Trophy The Football League Trophy 2001–02, known as the LDV Vans Trophy 2001–02 for sponsorship reasons, was the 19th staging of the Football League Trophy, a knock-out competition for English football clubs in Second, Third Division and the Confer ...

. He had a spell on loan with Darlington between September and December 2002, scoring once against Bournemouth, and was one of nine players released by Blackpool manager

Steve McMahon Stephen Joseph McMahon (born 20 August 1961) is an English football manager, former professional footballer and current television pundit. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1979 to 1998, most notably playing for Liverpool in the late 1980s. ...

in May 2003. In July 2003, Fenton returned to the North East of England, joining

. Blyth manager Paul Baker appointed Fenton as player-assistant manager in July 2004. Fenton took over as caretaker-manager of Blyth when Baker left that September, returning to his player-assistant manager role in October 2004 after the appointment of

Harry Dunn Harry Dunn (born 5 September 1953), also referred to as Harry A. Dunn, is an English association football, football manager and former player. As a player, he played as a midfielder, beginning and ending his career with Bishop Auckland F.C., B ...

as manager. In the 2005–06 season he was part of the Spartans' side that gained promotion to the

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...

by winning the Northern Premier League. He was assistant manager and player at

from 2009 until 2012.

International career

Fenton made his only appearance for the England Under-21s on 15 November 1994 in a 1–0 win against Ireland U-21s at

St James' Park St James' Park is a football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Premier League club Newcastle United F.C. With a seating capacity of 52,305 seats, it is the eighth largest football stadium in England. St James' Pa ...

, the team included several future full internationals, including

Sol Campbell Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell (born 18 September 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of club Southend United. He previously managed Macclesfield Town from November 2018 to August ...

and

Nicky Butt Nicholas Butt (born 21 January 1975) is an English football coach and former player who was most recently the head of first-team development at Manchester United. He is also a co-owner and chief executive officer of Salford City. He played prof ...

Managerial career

Fenton took over as manager of former Amateur Cup Winners North Shields in April 2012, after previous manager Anthony Woodhouse resigned. Fenton took over with 4 games remaining with the club missing out on promotion from a strong position for the second consecutive season. Two years later, he led North Shields to winning the

Northern League Division Two The Northern League is a men's football league in north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Football League. It contains two divisions; Division O ...

title and promotion to Division One. During the 2014–15 season, Fenton led North Shields to success in the 2015 FA Vase Final, beating Glossop North End 2–1. On 5 September 2016, Fenton resigned from his role at North Shields and subsequently joined South Shields as a joint manager. Graham Fenton was sacked by South Shields on Sunday 16th January 2022.

Career statistics

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

Football League play-offs The English Football League play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the English football leagu ...

and

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

Honours

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

: 2002

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenton, Graham 1974 births Living people People from Whitley Bay Footballers from Tyne and Wear English footballers England under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Aston Villa F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Blyth Spartans A.F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players Wallsend Boys Club players North Shields F.C. players South Shields F.C. managers