Philip Anthony Hughes (born 19 November 1964) is a former

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 ...

international

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 played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He left school in 1981 to sign for

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

as an apprentice, keeping goal as they finished FA Youth Cup runners-up in 1982, but leaving the following year without signing a professional contract. A two-year spell at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

followed, after which he spent two years at

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

and four years at

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, before finishing his career in the mid-1990s with

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

. He earned three caps for the

Northern Ireland national football team The Northern Ireland national football team represents Northern Ireland in international association football. From 1882 to 1920, all of Ireland was represented by a single side, the Ireland national football team (1882–1950), Ireland natio ...

between 1986 and 1987, and was included in the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

team as a back-up goalkeeper. Since his retirement from professional football in 1992, Hughes has worked as a goalkeeping coach for a number of clubs. While playing part-time for

Guiseley Guiseley ( ) is a town in metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated south of Otley and Menston and is now a north-western suburb of Leeds. It sits in th ...

, he also worked as a policeman.

Club career

As a teenager, Hughes played for junior teams at

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

during the school holidays. Hughes' senior career began when he was signed as an apprentice for the

youth team 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 i ...

in 1981 after leaving school. In the 1981–82 the youth side reached the final of the FA Youth Cup. Hughes started in goal in both legs of the tie but the team were defeated 6–7 on aggregate by

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

. Despite being a promising young goalkeeper, he failed to obtain a professional contract or make a first team appearance for the club and left in January 1983 to sign for

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

outfit

on a free transfer. Hughes did not play any matches in his first six months at Leeds and during the 1983–84 campaign he appeared in just two first-team games as he remained an understudy to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

international goalkeeper

David Harvey David W. Harvey (born 31 October 1935) is a British-born Marxist economic geographer, podcaster and Distinguished Professor of anthropology and geography at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He received his P ...

. He played four league matches and one

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

tie the following season before the signature of

Mervyn Day Mervyn Richard Day (born 26 June 1955) is an English former professional footballer who played in the Football League as a goalkeeper for West Ham United, Orient, Aston Villa, Leeds United, Luton Town, Sheffield United and Carlisle United. H ...

spelled the end of Hughes' Leeds United career. He left the club in the summer of 1985 and transferred to Third Division side

. He played more than 50 games during the 1985–86 season as Bury struggled to a 20th-place finish in the division. In spite of the team's poor league position, Hughes was selected for the

squad for the

. He played 32 league matches the following season before a serious shoulder injury curtailed his campaign. His form never fully returned after the injury and he was allowed to join Third Division rivals

for a transfer fee of £35,000 in November 1987. Hughes became first choice custodian at Wigan and made 31 league appearances in the remainder of the 1987–88 season as the side finished seventh in the table. In April 1988, during the

Football League Centenary Tournament The Football League Centenary Tournament (also known as the Mercantile Credit Football Festival) was a friendly tournament held from 16 to 17 April 1988 at Wembley Stadium to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Football League ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, he saved a spot kick to knock out

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in a penalty shootout. He went on to play a total of 99 league games for Wigan Athletic before leaving to sign for

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on a free transfer in 1991. His stay at Rochdale was brief, however, and soon after his arrival he was released by the club and joined

Football League Fourth Division The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name ...

club

. He played 21 matches for the club before his career was ended prematurely when he suffered a dislocated shoulder and was forced to retire from professional football at the age of 26. After recovering from the injury, he briefly played semi-professional football for

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

outfit

International career

Hughes played a number of matches at various youth levels for Northern Ireland. He was first called up to the senior

squad in late 1984 but did not play for the team at that time. Following his performances for Bury, manager

Billy Bingham William Laurence Bingham (5 August 1931 – 9 June 2022) was a Northern Ireland international footballer and football manager. As a player, his first professional club was Glentoran, whom he played for between 1948 and 1950. Making the move ...

included Hughes in the 22-man squad for the

in Mexico. However, he was restricted to a place on the bench as

Pat Jennings Patrick Anthony Jennings (born 12 June 1945) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played 119 international matches for Northern Ireland in an international career which lasted for over 22 years. D ...

kept goal throughout the tournament. Jennings retired following the competition and Hughes became first choice goalkeeper. He made his international debut on 15 October 1986 in the 0–3 loss to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at Wembley. In the process, he became the only Bury goalkeeper to ever win international caps while playing for the club. He kept a clean sheet his second game for Northern Ireland as the side secured a 0–0 draw away at

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

in a qualifier for

UEFA Euro 1988 The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA. The tournament crowned Netherlan ...

. His final international appearance came on 18 February 1987 as the team drew 1–1 with

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in a friendly. The shoulder injury he incurred playing for Wigan Athletic kept him out of the Northern Ireland setup and his place in the team was taken by George Dunlop.

After playing

While playing part-time for Guiseley, Hughes worked as a policeman. He obtained his first coaching job at his former team,

, where he was hired to train the goalkeepers at the club, including

international

Scott Carson Scott Paul Carson (born 3 September 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Manchester City. Carson joined the Leeds United academy in 2002, making his full first-team debut for Leeds ag ...

. He later moved to

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 ...

where he worked with

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

stopper

Danny Coyne Daniel Coyne (born 27 August 1973) is a Welsh football coach and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a goalkeeper who played between 1992 and 2018. He came through the youth ranks at Tranmere Rovers during the 1992–93 season. ...

. He followed Coyne to

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 ...

side

where he was appointed goalkeeper coach in 2004. On 6 January 2010, Hughes was named as temporary assistant to caretaker manager

Steve Davis Steve Davis (born 22 August 1957) is an English retired professional snooker player who is currently a Sports commentator, commentator, musician, DJ, and author. He is best known for dominating professional snooker during the 1980s, when he rea ...

after

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Owen Coyle Owen Columba Coyle (born 14 July 1966) is a professional football manager and former player who is currently the manager of Scottish Championship club Queen's Park. He played as a striker for several clubs in England and Scotland, and made one ...

was placed on 'gardening leave'. He left Burnley on 10 January 2009 to follow Coyle to Premier League rivals

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

. In 2012, he left Bolton after the dismissal of

and was replaced by Lee Turner but he wasn't out of the game for long, re-joining former club Wigan Athletic in the summer of 2013 shortly after Coyle was installed as manager of The Latics. 2016 Hughes joined Blackburn Rovers as Head Goalkeeping Coach In 2018, he joined

F.C. Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 seaso ...

as the Assistant Manager/Goalkeeping Coach to Manager

Jamie Fullarton James Fullarton (born 20 July 1974) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who recently left Walsall FC Fullarton played for several clubs in Scotland, France and England, including St Mirren, Bastia, Crystal Palace, Bo ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Philip 1964 births Living people Association footballers from Belfast Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Men's association football goalkeepers Manchester United F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Bury F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Scarborough F.C. players Guiseley A.F.C. players Northern Ireland men's international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players Burnley F.C. non-playing staff Bolton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Grimsby Town F.C. non-playing staff Wigan Athletic F.C. non-playing staff Blackburn Rovers F.C. non-playing staff