Ray Farningham (born 10 April 1961) is a Scottish former

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 played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for a handful of Scottish clubs. He previously managed

Forfar Athletic Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in Scottish League Two. They play their home games a ...

, Montrose and was the assistant manager of

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

. Ray is now assistant manager at junior side Lochee United.

Career

Farningham trained as a youth with Dundee United before beginning his senior career with

, making his debut towards the end of the 1970s. In his seven years at Station Park, Farningham was part of the sides which won the 1983–84 Scottish Second Division title and which earlier reached the 1981–82 Scottish Cup semi-final, losing to

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

after a replay. Full-time football beckoned for Farningham and he joined

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 ...

for £12,000 in 1986. Farningham spent three years at Fir Park before a similar spell at

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 ...

with Dunfermline Athletic. In the early 1990s, Farningham joined

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. ...

, again for three years, before returning to his hometown to join

. Two years after signing, Farningham began to combine playing duties with coaching the youngsters at Dens Park, and at the end of his career, returned to first club Forfar on loan, scoring once during his temporary stay. Following his retirement from playing, Farningham continued as a coach at Dundee, stepping up to coach the senior players before becoming assistant to Jim Duffy. In July 2001 and prior to Duffy's arrival, Farningham received a three-month dugout ban after his behaviour during an under-21 match two months previously. In September 2005, Farningham returned to Forfar as manager, taking over from

Brian Fairley Brian Fairley (born 18 April 1959 in Falkirk) is a Scottish former association football manager. His coaching career began at Whitburn Juniors before going on to manage Stenhousemuir, however after a dispute with the board over a signing he res ...

, who had resigned. Farningham won his first two matches and kept Forfar in the Second Division but left in May 2006 to become chief scout at divisional rivals Gretna, who had won the championship that season. Farningham was made redundant in 2008 following Gretna's demise and was working on a building site before returning to Dundee in November 2008 as

Jocky Scott John Alexander "Jocky" Scott (born 14 January 1948) is a Scottish football coach and former player. During his playing career he played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Seattle Sounders and Scotland. An extensive management career followed with spells at ...

's assistant. Farningham was appointed interim manager of Montrose in March 2011, and given the post permanently in early April. Farningham returned to

as assistant manager in May 2012.

Honours

Forfar

* Scottish Second Division: 1 :: 1983–84

References

External links

Forfar Athletic Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farningham, Ray 1961 births Footballers from Dundee Living people Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Scottish Football League players Dundee United F.C. players Forfar Athletic F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Scottish football managers Forfar Athletic F.C. managers Montrose F.C. managers Gretna F.C. Scottish Football League managers