Robert Davison (born 17 July 1959) is an English former professional

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 striker. He began his professional career with

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

before spending time at

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 season. ...

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

(twice),

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 S ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

(twice),

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

and

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

. After he retired from playing he spent time on the coaching staff of a number of clubs, including brief spells as manager of

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 t ...

and

Ferencváros Ferencváros () is the 9th district of Budapest ( hu, Budapest IX. kerülete), Hungary. Name The southern suburb of Pest was named after King Francis I on 4 December 1792 when he was crowned king of Hungary. History The development of Fe ...

, and is currently youth team coach at

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building * ...

and assistant manager to Noel Blake's

England national under-19 football team England national under-19 football team, also known as England under-19s or England U19(s), represents England in association football at under-19 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England ...

Playing career

Davison was born in

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

. started his career at Seaham Colliery Welfare Red Star, before making two appearances for

between 1980 and 1981. He moved on to

on 1 August 1981 and holds a good record 29 goals in 63 appearances. This caught the eye of

and between 1982 and 1987 he made 206 appearances scoring 83 goals, contributing towards their promotion to the Second Division in 1986 and the First Division a year later. He played a total of 206 league games for the Rams, scoring 83 goals and became a Derby legend. Much to Derby fans' disappointment he was sold for £350,000 to a rebuilding

squad, managed by

Billy Bremner William John Bremner (9 December 1942 – 7 December 1997) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Regarded as one of the game's great midfielders, he combined precision passing skills with tenacious tackling and physical stam ...

, in November 1987.

Howard Wilkinson Howard Wilkinson (born 13 November 1943) is an English former footballer and manager. Despite having a low-profile playing career, Wilkinson embarked on a successful managerial career. He won the First Division championship in 1992 with Leeds ...

succeeded Bremner as Leeds managed in September 1988 and in the subsequent push for promotion Bobby became a cult hero for Leeds due to a high work rate and general rapport with the crowd. His scoring record of 35 times in 110 games is a good one for Leeds at that time. He helped them seal a return to the top flight as they sealed the Second Division title on the last day of the 1989–90 season by beating

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

1–0 at

Dean Court Dean Court, currently known as the Vitality Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England and the home ground of AFC Bournemouth. History In 1910, Boscombe F.C. was gi ...

. However, Davison lost his first team place for the 1990–91 season following the arrival of

Lee Chapman Lee Roy Chapman (born 5 December 1959) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker from 1978 until 1996, in which he scored over 200 first team goals. He is best known for spells with Stoke City, Leeds United, She ...

, who was established as a top goalscorer. He played just five times in the 1990–91 First Division campaign and scored once as Leeds finished fourth. He managed just two league appearances in the 1991–92 campaign, which Leeds ended as champions. He was loaned back to Derby County (who suffered Second Division playoff disappointment in 1991–92) that season, scoring an impressive eight goals in just 10 league games, but the permanent return to the

Baseball Ground The Baseball Ground (sometimes referred to as the BBG) was a stadium in Derby, England. It was first used for baseball as the home of Derby Baseball Club from 1890 until 1898 and then for football as the home of Derby County from 1895 until 19 ...

never happened. In 1992, he was released to

. After helping Leicester come close to achieving promotion to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

, he found himself out of favour with the club, so joined

in 1993. Again, after coming close to achieving promotion, he found himself out of favour before joining

. After a loan spell at

, Davison returned to

, where he made 30 appearances in all competitions, scoring once.

Coaching career

In February 1998, Davison was appointed player-manager at

. He offered his resignation in October 2000 after a string of poor results left them dicing with relegation. Davison was Assistant Manager to Colin Todd at

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

for three years, he left the club in June 2007 when Stuart McCall brought in Wayne Jacobs. He also had short a short spell coaching

. On 20 February 2008, when Sheffield United announced their takeover of

, they also announced the appointment of Davison as an advisory coach to the Hungarian side. On 16 April 2008, after the removal of

János Csank János Csank (born 27 October 1946, in Ózd, Hungary) is a former Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper and football manager. Club coaching career Csank won the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, National Championship twice, at first in 1994 with ...

, Davison became Ferencváros's new head coach. His first game in charge was a 1–0 victory against Bõcs KSC, and the team went on to win promotion the next season by 17 points. On 30 October 2009, Ferencváros replaced the dismissed Davison with

Craig Short Craig Jonathan Short (born 25 June 1968) is a former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Playing career Short was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England and after attending Amotherby primary school and Lady Luml ...

. In November 2010, Davison joined his former club

as youth team coach. In December 2012, Davison was appointed head coach at Eccleshill United.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davison, Bobby 1959 births Living people Footballers from South Shields English footballers English football managers Seaham Red Star F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Halifax Town A.F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Guiseley A.F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Guiseley A.F.C. managers Ferencvárosi TC managers Bradford City A.F.C. non-playing staff Sheffield United F.C. non-playing staff English expatriate football managers English expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Association football forwards Expatriate football managers in Hungary Eccleshill United F.C. managers Nemzeti Bajnokság I managers