Greg Shields (born 21 August 1976) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and coach, who is currently Head of Academy - Football with

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

. His playing career was most closely associated with Dunfermline Athletic, as he played for the club over 200 times across two spells and was their

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

in two national cup finals. Shields also played for Rangers,

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 C ...

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

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

and the

Carolina RailHawks North Carolina FC is an American professional soccer team in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League One, the third tier of the American league system. The team has played its home games a ...

. He represented Scotland in under-21 and B internationals.

Playing career

Early career

Shields started his career with Gairdoch United Boys Club before joining the

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

at Rangers. One of his first senior appearances was in October 1996 in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

tie against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

. He went on to play only 11 times for the

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 ...

club before a £200,000 move to

in 1997.

England and Scotland

After 86 consecutive appearances for the ''Pars'' he swapped west

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

for south London in a £600,000 move to

Alan Curbishley Llewellyn Charles "Alan" Curbishley (born 8 November 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He played as a midfielder for West Ham United, Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Charlton Athletic and Brighton & Hove Albion and has worke ...

in 1999. After an impressive start at The Valley, Shields ran into some injury problems which eventually ruined his Charlton career. After a brief spell on loan at

, Jim Jefferies brought him back home to Scotland at

SPL SPL may refer to: Association football * Saudi Professional League * Scottish Premier League * SportPesa Premier League, Kenya * Singapore Premier League * RoboCup Standard Platform League, matches between autonomous robots Computing Program ...

side

, initially on loan then permanently. He quickly established himself in the

Rugby Park Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium situated in the Scottish town of Kilmarnock. It was first used in 1899 and is the home of Kilmarnock F.C. Rugby Park has also been used for con ...

side, becoming captain in season 2002–03. This alerted his former employers Dunfermline Athletic, who swooped to take him back to

East End Park East End Park, currently named KDM Group East End Park for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium situated in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland with a seating capacity of . The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Championship sid ...

during the January 2004 transfer window (coincidentally, both his goals for ''Killie'' were scored against Dunfermline and they were also the last opponent he faced while at the

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

club). Dunfermline played in

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 cont ...

of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,2004–05 season for him. He captained the ''Pars'' in the 2006 Scottish League Cup Final and the 2007 Scottish Cup Final, both of which ended in defeat to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

; his defensive colleagues included former Rangers youth teammate Scott Wilson.

United States

On 26 May 2009, Shields was poised to join

in the United States, managed by Scotsman Martin Rennie. Carolina RailHawks announced on 16 July 2009 that they had signed Shields. He had a loan spell back in Scotland with

before returning to RailHawks where he finished his playing career in 2013.

Coaching career

Shields worked as an assistant coach with the RailHawks, as well as being a head coach with Capital Area RailHawks, Carolina RailHawks' academy programme. He was appointed assistant head coach at Dunfermline Athletic in January 2019. After Peter Grant's tenure as Dunfermline manager ended, Shields, along with

Steven Whittaker Steven Gordon Whittaker (born 16 June 1984) is a Scottish former professional footballer and coach, who is currently an assistant manager with Fleetwood Town. He played as a defender. Whittaker began his career with Hibernian and made over 17 ...

, were appointed joint interim manager of the club. Shields and Whittaker were in charge for two matches, before John Hughes was appointed on a permanent basis. The creation of Dunfermline's new youth academy as well as the change to the management team following relegation to League 1 saw Shields promoted to Head of Academy - Football, working alongside Bill Hendry as Head of Academy - Operations.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

*
Greg Shields
at Soccerway {{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, Greg Living people 1976 births Footballers from Falkirk Scottish footballers Scottish football managers Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Premier League players Rangers F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players North Carolina FC players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Scotland B international footballers USL First Division players USSF Division 2 Professional League players North American Soccer League players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scottish expatriate footballers Expatriate soccer players in the United States Scotland under-21 international footballers Partick Thistle F.C. players Association football defenders Scotland youth international footballers Dunfermline Athletic F.C. non-playing staff Dunfermline Athletic F.C. managers