Stephen Docherty (born 18 February 1976) is a Scottish former
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 ...
player and coach. He previously played in the
Scottish Football League
The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...
for
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. ...
and
Clydebank
Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...
He scored the first goal for the reborn Airdrie United club, in a 1–0 win over
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 ...
at
New Broomfield
The Excelsior Stadium, is a football stadium in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the home ground of Airdrieonians of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). Since the 2021–22 season it has also been used by Celtic for the ...
. He was also captain of the club and was inducted into the Airdrie United "Hall of Fame" in 2007.
Docherty dropped down to
junior
Junior or Juniors may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959
* ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009
* ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010
* ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019
Films
* ''Junior'' (1994 ...
level, joining
Bathgate Thistle
Bathgate Thistle Football Club are a Scottish football club, based in the town of Bathgate, West Lothian. They play in the .
Nicknamed ''Thistle'', they were formed in 1937 and presently play their home games at Creamery Park, which has room ...
in 2006. He was part of the Bathgate team that defeated Cumnock Juniors 2–1 to win the 2008 Scottish Junior Cup Final, assisting Paul McGrillen's winning goal. After two and a half years at Bathgate, he joined Irvine Meadow in January 2009.
He made his Scotland junior international debut, picking up player of the tournament in Quad home nations tournament in the Isle of Man.
Managerial career
Docherty was appointed as assistant manager of
Pollok
Pollok ( gd, Pollag, lit=a pool, sco, Powk) is a large housing estate on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The estate was built either side of World War II to house families from the overcrowded inner city. Housing 30,0 ...
. He left the club following a disagreement with manager John Richardson, but returned to the role six weeks later in March 2013. When Richardson left the club in September 2013, Docherty took over as
caretaker manager
In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...
and was widely expected to be given the job permanently; when the club only invited him to apply along with other candidates, a number of players threatened to leave the club. Pollok changed their mind and appointed Docherty as manager in October, with Brian McGinty as his assistant. However, he resigned in December 2013 after taking only three points from five league matches.
In June 2020, Docherty was announced as an assistant to Stephen Robertson with Yoker Athletic's newly-launched under-20 development squad. They left the club having never taken charge of a match due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Docherty subsequently joined the coaching staff at Caledonian Amateur League club St Joseph's in April 2021.