Thomas Jackson (born 3 November 1946 in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

) is a Northern Irish 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 Everton,

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and

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 ...

. He also amassed a total of 35

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

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 ...

. Following his playing career, he went into management, taking charge of various clubs in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Jackson began his professional football career playing for

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

. He became a regular in the Glentoran side by the age of 21, and won league-winners' medals in 1967 and 1968 before signing for Everton in February 1968. In just over two seasons with the Toffees, Jackson picked up yet another league-winners' medal in 1970. His performances as understudy to the likes of Alan Ball and

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston, ...

attracted the attention of other clubs and, after just 32 league appearances for Everton, Jackson was signed by Nottingham Forest in October 1970. Forest were struggling for survival in the First Division, but Jackson still only managed to make 81 appearances, albeit scoring six goals. The arrival of Brian Clough and the emergence of

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 ...

saw Jackson's opportunities become even fewer and further between, and he was granted a free transfer in the summer of 1975. He was then signed by Manchester United manager

Tommy Docherty Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times betwe ...

with the intention of Jackson captaining the club's reserve team and instilling a level of professionalism in the club, which had just been promoted back into the First Division. However, Jackson made such a good impression that he was rewarded with 17 league starts that season, helping the team to an impressive third-place finish. Nevertheless, he spent the 1976–77 season back in his intended reserve team role before retiring back to Ireland to become the player-manager at

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 ...

. There, he led the club to two consecutive FAI Cup finals, winning the competition in 1980. Despite the FAI Cup win, one trophy in four years was not enough for the Waterford United board, and Jackson was sacked in 1982. It was a whole year before he got another management job, returning to Northern Ireland as manager of

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

in July 1983. The team won the Gold Cup in 1985, beating Linfield 2–1 in the final, but Jackson left the club in October of the following season, before returning to his first club, Glentoran, three months later. In years at Glentoran, Jackson led the team to 16 major trophies, including the Double in 1988, but the team's form began to dip after their title win in 1992, and Jackson was sacked in July 1993. He then spent a further year in charge of

Ballymena United Ballymena United Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Northern Ireland. Based in Ballymena, County Antrim, the team competes in the NIFL Premiership and plays home matches at the Ballymena Showgrounds which is owned by the Mi ...

Honours

As a player

* Irish League: 2 **

1966/67, 1967/68 * Football League First Division (1892–1992) ** Everton –

1969–70 Football League The 1969–70 season was the 71st completed season of The Football League. Everton won their seventh league title, finishing nine points clear of Leeds United with Chelsea in third and newly promoted Derby County in fourth. Sheffield Wednesday a ...

As a manager

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

– 1980 * Gold Cup **

– 1985/86 * Irish League: 2 **

1987/88, 1991/92 *

Irish Cup The Irish Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly referred to as the Irish Cup (currently known as the Samuel Gelston's Whiskey Irish Cup for sponsorship purposes) is the primary football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland. Ina ...

: 3 **

1986/87, 1987/88, 1989/90 *

Gold Cup (Northern Ireland) The Gold Cup is a defunct cup competition which involved competitors from Ireland and from 1921 onwards, just for Northern Ireland. It was initially run by the New Irish Football Association but later, and mainly, by the Irish Football Associatio ...

: 2 **

1986/87, 1991/92 *

Ulster Cup The Ulster Cup was an annual football competition held by the Irish Football League for senior clubs. History Beginning in 1949, it was held on fifty-one occasions until being suspended after the 1998/99 season and discontinued after a one-of ...

: 2 **

1988/89, 1989/90 *

County Antrim Shield The County Antrim & District Football Association Senior Shield (more commonly known as the County Antrim Shield) is a football competition in Northern Ireland. The competition is open to senior teams who are members of the North East Ulster Foo ...

: 3 **

1986/87, 1987/88, 1989/90 *

Irish League Cup The Northern Ireland Football League Cup (BetMcLean League Cup for sponsorship purposes), also known colloquially as the Irish League Cup, is a national football knock-out cup competition in Northern Ireland open to all member clubs of the Nort ...

: 2 **

1988/89, 1990/91 *

Irish League Floodlit Cup The Floodlit Cup (more commonly known as the Budweiser Floodlit Cup, Budweiser Cup or Coca-Cola Cup for sponsorship reasons) was an annual football competition organised by the Irish Football League in the late-1980s and 1990s. History By the m ...

: 2 **

1987/88, 1989/90

External links

Profile
at StretfordEnd.co.uk

at MUFCinfo.com

at NIFG

at neilbrown.newcastlefans.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Tommy 1946 births Living people Association footballers from Belfast Association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland international footballers Association football midfielders NIFL Premiership players Glentoran F.C. players Everton F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Waterford F.C. players Waterford F.C. managers League of Ireland players League of Ireland managers League of Ireland XI managers Crusaders F.C. managers Crusaders F.C. players Glentoran F.C. managers Ballymena United F.C. managers Football managers from Northern Ireland