Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English

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 ...

manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the

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 ...

national team. He previously managed the Under-21 team. As a player, he was a defender from 1988 to 2008 for

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 ...

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

, Lincoln City,

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

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 ...

and Scunthorpe United. Having been a part of Scunthorpe's coaching staff after retiring from playing he went on to manage the club between 2010 and 2011. In 2012, he was appointed manager of Sligo Rovers and is regarded as the club's most successful manager having led the club to numerous trophies during a two-year stay.

Playing career

Born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, 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 l ...

, Leicestershire, Baraclough started his career with local team

, and has also played for

, Lincoln City,

and

(QPR). Baraclough signed for QPR in March 1998 making his debut against Stoke City the same month. He played 125 league games for them, scoring one goal against Huddersfield Town. After his spell at

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

, Baraclough joined

and enjoyed a turbulent first season captaining the side on a few occasions. He later signed for Scunthorpe United in 2004 on a free transfer, enjoying fantastic success with the Iron, winning promotion from

Football League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

. He was part of the team who were then promoted from Football League One as champions to the

Football League 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 2007 and then once more via the playoffs in 2009 as part of the backroom staff at

Glanford Park Glanford Park is a football stadium in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, and is the current home of team Scunthorpe United. Opened in 1988 at a construction cost of £2.5 million, it was the first new purpose-built Football League stadi ...

where he had great success as coach/assistant to

Nigel Adkins Nigel Howard Adkins (born 11 March 1965) is an English professional football manager and former player and physiotherapist. Adkins played as a goalkeeper for Tranmere Rovers and Wigan Athletic. He finished his playing career and began his man ...

. Baraclough made 124 League starts and nine as a substitute, scoring seven goals for Scunthorpe.

Coaching career

Scunthorpe United

When

was appointed Scunthorpe manager in November 2006, Baraclough was made head first-team coach. From the 2008–09 season, he ceased playing to concentrate on coaching duties. Baraclough was appointed caretaker manager of the club on 12 September 2010, following Adkins' departure to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

Southampton. His first match was a 4–0 away win at

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

. On 24 September 2010, Scunthorpe United named him as their new manager. He was surprisingly dismissed on 16 March 2011 after a 3–0 loss to Preston North End, who occupied 24th place in the Championship, with his team having just dropped into the relegation zone at the time of his dismissal.

Sligo Rovers

On 27 February 2012, Baraclough was announced as the new manager of League of Ireland Premier Division side Sligo Rovers. He fought off competition from former

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

boss Brian Little, former Sligo legend Willie McStay, and

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

international

Kevin Kilbane Kevin Daniel Kilbane (; born 1 February 1977) is a former professional footballer who played as a left winger or full back. Kilbane won 110 caps for the Republic of Ireland national team, fourth behind only Robbie Keane, Shay Given and John O ...

. On 13 October 2012, Baraclough led Sligo Rovers to their first

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

title in 35 years. The 3–2 victory against

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origin ...

secured the league title with two games to play and was played in front of a sell-out crowd of 5,600 at The Showgrounds. As a result of this title, Sligo Rovers qualified for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League, and Baraclough was the sole English coach involved in that season's competition. Baraclough then led Sligo Rovers to their fifth (and his first) FAI Cup triumph in an exciting 3–2 win over

Drogheda United Drogheda United Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Dhroichead Átha Aontaithe) is a semi-professional Irish association football club based in Drogheda, County Louth playing in the League of Ireland Premier Division. They play their home matches ...

in the 2013 FAI Cup Final at the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium (also known as Lansdowne Road) is a sports stadium located in Dublin, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,700 spectators (all seated). It is built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road Stadium, which was demolished in 2007, and r ...

on 3 November. Baraclough and Sligo Rovers continued their winning habit by lifting the first major piece of silverware available during the 2014 season by defeating high flying Dundalk in the All-Ireland

Setanta Sports Cup The Setanta Sports Cup was a club football competition featuring teams from both football associations on the island of Ireland. Inaugurated in 2005, it was a cross-border competition between clubs in the League of Ireland from the Republic of I ...

at a rain soaked Tallaght Stadium. The 1–0 victory gave Sligo Rovers their first ever cross border title since they were formed in 1928. On 19 June 2014, Baraclough parted company with Sligo Rovers with the club in fifth place, 17 points behind leaders Dundalk. After leaving Sligo, Baraclough worked as a scout for

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

Motherwell

On 13 December 2014, Baraclough was appointed manager of

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

, replacing Stuart McCall. Despite a very tough season he led the club to league safety after 6–1 aggregate victory in the

play-offs against Rangers in a two-legged final at the end of the season. In an ironic twist of events, the opposition manager was his predecessor at Fir Park, Stuart McCall. Baraclough left Motherwell in September 2015, with the club having taken seven points from their first eight league games of the 2015–16 season.

Oldham Athletic

In July 2016, Baraclough was appointed assistant manager at

club

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

by incoming manager Steve Robinson who he worked with at Baraclough's previous club

Northern Ireland Under-21

In May 2017 Baraclough left Oldham to become manager of the Northern Ireland Under-21 side.

Northern Ireland

After a successful spell with the under-21's, he was appointed as the successor to Michael O'Neill as manager of the senior team on 27 June 2020. Baraclough's first match in charge of Northern Ireland was an away

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

fixture against Romania which ended in a 1–1 draw. On 12 November 2020, Northern Ireland lost 2–1 to

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

in the

UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying play-offs The play-offs of the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament decided the last four teams that qualified for the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, to be staged across Europe in June and July 2021. Unlike previous editions, the participants of the play ...

and failed to qualify for the

finals 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 ...

in 2021. He was sacked on 21 October 2022.

Managerial statistics

Honours and achievements

Player

Grimsby Town *

Lincolnshire Senior Cup The Lincolnshire Senior County Cup is a football (soccer) competition for senior football clubs in Lincolnshire organised by the Lincolnshire FA. The competition can be traced back to the formation of the Lincolnshire FA at a meeting held at th ...

: 1991–92 Notts County * Fourth Division: 1997–98 Scunthorpe United * Football League One: 2006–07 * Football League One play-offs: 2008–09 *

: 2004–05

Managerial

Sligo Rovers * League of Ireland Premier Division:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

* FAI Cup:

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

: 2014

References

External links

Ian Baraclough player profile
at scunthorpe-united.co.uk * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baraclough, Ian 1970 births Footballers from Leicester Living people Association football midfielders English footballers Leicester City F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players English Football League players Scunthorpe United F.C. managers English Football League managers Sligo Rovers F.C. managers League of Ireland managers Huddersfield Town A.F.C. non-playing staff Motherwell F.C. managers Oldham Athletic A.F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Professional Football League managers English football managers Northern Ireland national football team managers