Steven John Thompson (born 12 January 1963) is an English

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 ...

manager and former player and former manager of

Dorchester Town Dorchester Town Football Club are a semi-professional football club, based in Dorchester, Dorset, England. They currently play in the . The club is affiliated to the Dorset County Football Association and is a FA chartered Standard club. They ...

. He played for England at semi-professional level and also played for the RAF and Combined Services sides.

Career

Thompson joined the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

from school and played for Saltash United in the Western League. He progressed to be a Fitness Instructor in the RAF, but continued his football career, joining

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

in July 1981 and making his

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

debut the following season. He joined

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

in February 1983 on a free transfer, but made just one appearance, as a substitute, before returning to the Western League with

Falmouth Town Falmouth Town Association Football Club is a football club based in Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom. They are currently members of the and play at Bickland Park. The club were the first Cornish team to reach the first round proper of the F ...

and then rejoining Saltash United. In 1987, he was on the verge of joining

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

, but the RAF posted him to West London and he joined

Slough Town Slough Town Football Club is a semi-professional English football club based in Slough, Berkshire. Nicknamed "The Rebels", the team competes in the National League South, at the sixth tier of English football, following promotion from the Sou ...

instead. He joined

Martin O'Neill Martin Hugh Michael O'Neill, (born 1 March 1952) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Starting his career in Northern Ireland, O'Neill moved to England where he spent most of his playi ...

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

in February 1992 for a fee of £15,000 and was part of the

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

and

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

double-winning side. The following season, Wycombe's first as

side, Thompson played in the victorious

Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the ...

Play-off final at

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 ...

in 1994. He moved to

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

in August 1996, winning a second

winners medal against Dagenham and Redbridge in 1997 and scored the last minute equaliser in Woking's surprise 1–1 draw with Premiership side

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

in the

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 ...

. Together with

Kevan Brown Kevan Barry Brown (born 2 January 1966) is an English retired professional footballer who played at full back in the Football League for Brighton & Hove Albion and Aldershot in the 1980s and 1990s, before a career in non-league football. Footb ...

, Thompson joined

in March 1998 for a combined fee of £7,500, playing in the side while also acting as the club's fitness coach and working part-time in the postal service. When Yeovil manager Colin Lippiatt resigned at the end of September 1999, Thompson took over, initially as caretaker, but was awarded the job permanently on 10 November 1999. In March 2000, David Webb took over as manager, with Thompson becoming player-assistant manager. He remained as assistant manager after Webb left, working under

Colin Addison Colin Addison (born 18 May 1940) is an English former professional footballer and manager. Born in Taunton, Somerset, Addison started his playing career with York City before moving to Nottingham Forest, Arsenal and Sheffield United. His man ...

and

Gary Johnson Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) is an American businessman, author, and politician. He served as the 29th governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Libertarian Party nominee for Presid ...

. Johnson left to manage

in September 2005 and Thompson was appointed as manager for a second time the following month. In May 2006, Thompson reverted to his first team coaching role at Yeovil and was replaced as manager by

Russell Slade Russell Mark Slade (born 10 October 1960) is an English professional association football, football manager, who was most recently managerial consultant of League Two club Stevenage F.C., Stevenage. Having had an extended career at reserve t ...

, and enjoyed a successful spell as assistant to Slade, the highlight of which was reaching the League 1 Play-off Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

in 2007. Since leaving the first team at Yeovil Thompson took up positions there as coach, assistant manager and eventually manager. However, during his time on the coaching staff Thompson appeared in some friendlies and reserve team games. Despite being 45 years old and believed to be retired from first team football, Thompson was selected as a substitute on 12 August 2008 for the first team's

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

win over

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

due to a lack of players, but he never made it onto the pitch. Thompson returned yet again to the caretaker role for just 1 game after the resignation of

on 16 February 2009. Two days later he was released from the club after nearly 11 years. He was replaced by new player-manager

Terry Skiverton Terence John Skiverton (born 26 June 1975) is an English former footballer who enjoyed a long playing career at Yeovil Town for 11 years, appearing 382 times in all competitions, before becoming their manager and subsequently, assistant manager ...

. After leaving Yeovil he started playing again at the age of 46 on non-contract basis for Bridgwater Town and also had a spell at Shaftesbury Town. On 29 December 2009 Thompson was appointed manager of

Southern Football League Premier Division The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...

team Truro City. On 29 March 2010 Thomson left the club by 'mutual consent' after only winning 5 out of his 18 games in charge and any chance of reaching the play-off's unrealistic Following the appointment of

Garry Hill Garry Hill is an English football manager who was last the manager of National League club Ebbsfleet United. He previously managed Woking, Heybridge Swifts, St Albans City, Dagenham & Redbridge, Hornchurch, Weymouth and Rushden & Diamonds. ...

as manager of Woking in January 2011, Thompson was appointed as assistant manager at the

Conference South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

club. He helped the team win the Conference South title, the club finishing the season with over 100 points. On 20 September 2017, Thompson was hired as the new first-team manager of Southern League Premier Division side

. He was sacked by Dorchester Town Fc on 5 March 2019 due to poor run form and the club relegated to a lower zone than what they were previous to his joining; fans called for his removal.

Managerial stats

''Updated 20 February 2010''

References

External links

Steven Thompson profile
at the League Managers Association * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Steve 1963 births Sportspeople from Plymouth, Devon Living people English men's footballers England men's semi-pro international footballers Men's association football midfielders Bristol City F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Falmouth Town A.F.C. players Saltash United F.C. players Slough Town F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Woking F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Bridgwater United F.C. players Shaftesbury F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Yeovil Town F.C. managers Yeovil Town F.C. non-playing staff Dorchester Town F.C. managers Truro City F.C. managers