Jonathan Speak (born 1965) is a Northern Irish former footballer and manager. Speak was top scorer in the

1987–88 League of Ireland Premier Division The 1987–88 League of Ireland Premier Division was the third season of the League of Ireland Premier Division. The Premier Division was made up of 12 teams. Overview The Premier Division was contested by 12 teams and Dundalk F.C. won the champio ...

and in the

1995–96 League of Ireland First Division The 1995–96 League of Ireland First Division season was the 11th season of the League of Ireland First Division. Overview The First Division was contested by 10 teams and Bray Wanderers won the division. Final table Promotion/relegation play-o ...

. He is joint thirteenth in the all-time League of Ireland goalscoring list with 135 league goals.

Club career

Speak started his playing career at Limavady United in 1982 before transferring to

Ballymena United Ballymena United Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Northern Ireland. Based in Ballymena, County Antrim, the team competes in the NIFL Premiership and plays home matches at the Ballymena Showgrounds which is owned by the Mi ...

in 1983 where he was top scorer with 11 league goals. He then signed for

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ga, Dún Dealgan ), meaning "the fort of Dealgan", is the county town (the administrative centre) of County Louth, Ireland. The town is on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the east coast of Ireland. It is h ...

and made his League of Ireland debu on 16 September 1984. After one season he moved back to Ballymena where in 2 seasons he was their top scorer. He joined

Derry City Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

in August 1987. He was the

top scorer with 24 goals. Six of these goals came in one game in a 7–2 win over Sligo in April 1988. Speak also helped Derry to a domestic

treble Treble may refer to: In music: *Treble (sound), tones of high frequency or range, the counterpart of bass *Treble voice, a choirboy or choirgirl singing in the soprano range *Treble (musical group), a three-piece girl group from the Netherlands *T ...

in the 1988–89 season. After 5 years at the

Brandywell The Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium ( ga, Tobar an Fhíoruisce ) is a municipal football stadium with an adjoining greyhound racing track in Derry, Northern Ireland. It is the home ground of League of Ireland team Derry City F.C. and (temporaril ...

he moved back to Ballymena. In the 1993/94 season he again topped their scorers chart with 13 league goals. He moved back to the League of Ireland to join

Finn Harps Finn Harps Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Chláirsigh na Finne) are an Irish football club that play in the First Division of the League of Ireland, as of 2023. The club was founded in 1954 and elected to the league in 1969. However, it was te ...

in August 1994 for £14,000. He led the Harps gallop to promotion in 1995–96, scoring 17 goals that season. Indeed, he was the club's top scorer for the next three seasons. Speak played 209 times for Harps in all competitions and scored 81 goals, 64 league goals in 152 matches. He also scored the winner in the 1999 FAI Cup semi-final in Terryland Park against Galway to send Harps to their first Cup Final in 25 years and scored again in one of the

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

Final replays in Tolka Park.

Managerial career

When Gavin Dykes took over the managerial reins from

Charlie McGeever Charles McGeever (born between 27 April and 22 December 1961)The 1981 FAI Cup Final was played on 26 April, when McGeever was 19. McGeever took over as caretaker manager of Finn Harps at the age of 24 "three days before Christmas" in 1984Sour ...

in 2000, he appointed Speak as his assistant. Speak was also manager of a very talented Harps Under 21 team at the time. When Dykes resigned after an abysmal run of games that left Harps rooted to the bottom of the Premier table, Speak took over as caretaker, if somewhat reluctantly. He took Harps on an amazing unbeaten run of 14 games only to be cruelly relegated on the last day of the season. He took on the position of player-manager on a permanent position the following season (2001/02), which would see only the champions of the First Division gain automatic promotion. Drogheda United would win the league, again on the last day of the season as Harps finished second. They faced Longford Town in the playoffs and after a one nil defeat away in

Flancare Park Strokestown Road, currently known as Bishopsgate for sponsorship purposes, is the name of a football stadium in Longford, Ireland which is the home of League of Ireland club Longford Town. History In the mid-1990s, Longford Town moved their ho ...

, Harps produced one of their best displays in Finn Park since the '70s. They went one down early in the first half but they battled like warriors with Kevin McHugh scoring a superb hat-trick. Unfortunately it wasn't to be as Speak conceded an injury time penalty in extra time and Harps were then beaten on penalties. The following season saw Waterford United make all the running to go up as champions and once more Harps had to settle for runners-up spot and a place in the playoffs which was abruptly ended by Galway United in the semi-final. Speak did lead Harps to lift their first national silverware in 28 years beating Kildare County 4–0 on aggregate in the final of the First Division Cup in September 2002. The 2003 season would be the first to be played in the calendar year. Speak started what would be his third and final season as Harps manager and in August Harps were sitting top of the league. With Dublin City, Kildare County and Bray Wanderers all pushing hard for the coveted top spot and automatic promotion, there was to be little room for error. Unfortunately three points from twelve in Harps last four games, including a home defeat to Sligo and a draw in Finn Park against leaders Dublin City left Harps in fourth place and five points off the pace. Even though Harps had only lost two games all season, too many draws and dropped points against poor opposition signalled the end of the road for the Sion-man and his nine-year association with the club. He managed Omagh Town in 2004. www.rte.ie
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Honours

League of Ireland Premier Division The League of Ireland Premier Division ( ga, Príomhroinn Sraith na hÉireann), also known as the SSE Airtricity League Premier Division for sponsorship reasons, is the top level division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland f ...

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1988–89 *

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1989 * League of Ireland Cup: 3 **

1988/89, 1990/91, 1991/92 *

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 ...

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1984 *

Irish News Cup The Irish News Cup was a "north-south" association football competition in Ireland involving teams from the Irish League and League of Ireland mostly located in the north-west of the island. It is thus not counted among the major all-Ireland cup ...

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1998/99

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speak, Jonathan 1965 births Living people People from Sion Mills Association footballers from County Tyrone Ballymena United F.C. players NIFL Premiership players Dundalk F.C. players Derry City F.C. players Finn Harps F.C. players League of Ireland players League of Ireland managers Men's association football forwards Association football managers from Northern Ireland Limavady United F.C. players