Neale Michael Charles Fenn (born 18 January 1977) is a 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 le ...

who is also the former manager of

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 ...

clubs

Longford Town Longford () is the county town of County Longford in Ireland. It has a population of 10,008 according to the 2016 census. It is the biggest town in the county and about one third of the county's population lives there. Longford lies at the meet ...

and

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city' ...

Club career

Early career

Fenn played for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

, making his professional debut in January 1997 in a third round FA Cup tie at Manchester United alongside Rory Allen, which Spurs lost 2–0. He made his league debut, as a substitute in a 2–1 defeat at

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

in April 1997. He made only 10 appearances for Spurs, scoring once, in a League Cup tie against Carlisle in September 1997. Fenn went on loan to several clubs including

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

in the First Division. At Norwich he scored once; his goal coming in a 5–0 win against

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

League of Ireland career

Fenn signed for

Waterford United Waterford Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Phort Láirge) formerly Waterford United Football Club is an Irish association football club based in Waterford who play in the League of Ireland First Division. The club was founded and elected to the ...

in August 2003 and made his

debut as a substitute for

Daryl Murphy Daryl Michael Murphy (born 15 March 1983) is an Irish former professional footballer. Murphy began his career at Waterford United, having previously played youth football for Waterford based side Southend United and English side Luton Town, whi ...

in a home game against Derry City. His form and skill saw him transferring to

for the 2004 season. He made a scoring debut on the opening day of the season. His three seasons at Turners Cross included his first

Championship win in 2005. Fenn scored two European goals for Cork. He netted at

FC Nantes Football Club de Nantes (; Gallo: ''Naunnt''), commonly referred to as FC Nantes or simply Nantes (), is a French professional football club based in Nantes in Pays de la Loire. The club was founded on 21 April 1943, during World War II, a ...

in the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup. He also scored what proved to be the all-important away goal in City's 2005-06 UEFA Cup win against Swedish side

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...

. Fenn was signed for Bohemians after his contract with Cork City expired in November 2006, becoming the first signing of new Bohs manager

Sean Connor Sean Connor (born 12 July 1967) is a Northern Irish Association football, football manager (association football), manager and former player who was most recently manager of NIFL Championship side Institute F.C., Institute. He had a brief playin ...

. After failing to score a league goal in his first season at

Dalymount Park Dalymount Park (Irish: ''Páirc Cnocán Uí Dhálaigh'') is a football stadium in Phibsborough on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. It is the home of Bohemian F.C., who have played there since the early 20th century. Affectionately known as D ...

, Fenn was revitalised under the management of

Pat Fenlon Patrick Fenlon (born 15 March 1969) is an Irish football coach and former player. Fenlon played as a midfielder for St Patrick's Athletic, Bohemians, Linfield, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne. As a manager he won five League of Ireland titles ...

and played a role in Bohs' 2008 league championship win. He scored against

Rhyl Rhyl (; cy, Y Rhyl, ) is a seaside town and community (Wales), community in Denbighshire, Wales. The town lies within the Historic counties of Wales, historic boundaries of Flintshire (historic), Flintshire, on the north-east coast of Wales at ...

in the

2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 2008 UEFA Intertoto Cup was the last UEFA Intertoto Cup football tournament, the 14th to be organised by UEFA and the third since the competition's format was given a major overhaul. Fifty teams were invited, with the eleven winners after the ...

. He added another league winners medal to his collection in 2009 but was released by Bohs when his contract expired at the end of the season. In January 2010, Fenn moved to

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 ...

He netted again 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 ...

. On 29 July 2010, he announced his retirement from football with immediate effect due to personal reasons. Fenn insisted he would not be making a return to football. "I think once you finish you might as well finish rather than making all sorts of comebacks. At the moment, I can't see myself coming back at all." However, only four days later on 3 August, he signed for

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

until the end of the 2010 season. He explained his reasons for joining the Hoops.

International career

Neale has been capped for the

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 ...

at U15, U16, U18, U20, U21 and 'B' levels. Fenn was part of Brian Kerr's 1997 under-20 squad which won bronze in the

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 wh ...

in Malaysia in

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 ...

. In September 1997 Fenn was sent off for flooring an Icelandic opponent who laughed at his penalty miss in an under-21 international. The same year he was called up to senior squad twice.

Management and coaching

On 7 April 2017, Fenn was announced as

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

assistant manager until the end of the season. In June 2017,

announced Fenn as their new manager, and by August 2019 he had joined

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 ...

club

as head coach. In October 2020 Fenn stepped down as

manager with the club bottom of the table with four games left in the season.

References

External links

Neale Fenn Biography
UpThePosh! The Peterborough United Database

Flown from the Nest {{DEFAULTSORT:Fenn, Neale 1977 births Living people Footballers from Edmonton, London Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland under-21 international footballers Republic of Ireland youth international footballers Republic of Ireland B international footballers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Waterford F.C. players Cork City F.C. players Bohemian F.C. players Dundalk F.C. players Shamrock Rovers F.C. players English Football League players League of Ireland players Premier League players Association football forwards Leyton Orient F.C. non-playing staff