David Isaac Hopkin (born 21 August 1970) is a Scottish professional

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 ...

coach and former player who was most recently the

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...

. As a player he was 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 ...

from 1989 until 2003, notably in the

English 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 Fo ...

including spells with

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. He also played in the

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 ...

for

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 ...

. He started and finished his career in his native Scotland with

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Green ...

. He earned seven caps for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, scoring two goals. Since retiring as a player he has worked as a coach at Greenock Morton and

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

, becoming head coach of Livingston in 2015. Hopkin guided Livingston to successive promotions in 2017 and 2018, but opted to leave the club in May 2018. He then had short spells as manager of, successively, Bradford City, Greenock Morton and Ayr United.

Club career

Hopkin started his career at

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton ...

before moving to

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 ...

side

in 1992. He did not play many games for Chelsea and was later sold to

in 1995 for £850,000 just after their relegation from the

. At

Selhurst Park Selhurst Park is a football stadium in Selhurst in the London Borough of Croydon which is the home ground of Premier League side Crystal Palace. The stadium was designed by Archibald Leitch and opened in 1924. It has hosted international footba ...

he wrote himself into Palace folklore by scoring a 90th-minute winner in the 1997 First Division play-off final against

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 ...

, to put Palace back into the Premier League. He also scored a key goal in the semi-final against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

. After two years with Palace, Hopkin moved on to

and then to their local rivals

. He later went on to play for Crystal Palace again before returning to Scotland with his hometown club Greenock Morton in a player/coaching role – however he had to retire in 2003 due to a recurring ankle injury. During his second playing spell at Morton he scored twice, once in the League Cup against St Mirren and once in the league against Gretna.

International career

Hopkin won seven

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for the Scottish national team, scoring twice in a

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

match against

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

Coaching career

Morton coach

Hopkin and Derek Collins had a brief spell as joint caretaker managers at

, when they occupied the dugout for a match against

Albion Rovers Albion Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football team from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League Two, the fourth tier of the Scotti ...

in the 2002–03 season. Hopkin became part of the coaching staff at junior league club

Maryhill Maryhill ( gd, Cnoc Màiri) is an area of the City of Glasgow in Scotland. Maryhill is a former burgh. Maryhill stretches over along Maryhill Road. The far north west of the area is served by Maryhill railway station. History Hew Hill, t ...

, before returning to

Cappielow Cappielow, also known as Cappielow Park supported by Dalrada Technology UK for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League club Greenock Morton, w ...

as the manager of Morton's reserve side alongside Jonatan Johansson. After

Allan Moore Allan Moore (born 25 December 1964) is a Scottish football player and manager. Playing career During his playing career he turned out for several Scottish clubs including Dumbarton, Heart of Midlothian, St Johnstone, Partick Thistle and Mor ...

was sacked as manager of Morton, Hopkin again took interim charge of the first team assisted by Derek Anderson. As well as continuing as manager of the Development squad, he became assistant manager to the newly appointed boss

Kenny Shiels Kenny Shiels (born 27 April 1956 in Magherafelt)Marshall Gillespie, ''The Northern Ireland Football Yearbook 1996/97'', UTV Books, 1996, p. 59 is a former Northern Irish football player and manager, who is currently the manager of the Northern Ir ...

. Hopkin took Shiels' place as the club's match-day interviewee after Shiels became unable to do so on medical advice. Hopkin resigned as assistant manager of Morton in April 2014.

Livingston

Hopkin left his post as reserve team manager to become assistant head coach at

Mark Burchill Mark James Burchill (born 18 August 1980) is a Scottish former professional Association football, football player and coach. He played for Scottish clubs Celtic F.C., Celtic, Dundee F.C., Dundee, Heart of Midlothian F.C., Hearts, Dunfermline Ath ...

. Hopkin took temporary charge of the Livingston first team after Burchill left the club in December 2015. After three games, Livingston appointed Hopkin as head coach until the end of the 2015–16 season. However, he could not prevent the team's relegation from the

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

. Hopkin led the "Livi Lions" to the

Scottish League One The Scottish League One, known as cinch League One for sponsorship reasons, is the third tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League One was e ...

title and promotion back to the second tier after only one season, secured on 8 April 2017 with four games to play. In their first season back in the Championship, Livingston finished second in the division and reached the Premiership promotion/relegation playoff final. Livingston won the two-legged final against

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. ...

, securing a second successive promotion. Hopkin opted to leave Livingston in May 2018, at the end of his contract.

Bradford City

appointed Hopkin as their manager on 4 September 2018. Hopkin resigned on 25 February 2019, the team having won only seven of his 35 games in charge.

Morton

Hopkin was appointed manager of

club

in May 2019. He resigned in December 2020 after the club appeared to be in financial trouble .

Ayr United

Hopkin became manager of

in March 2021. He left this position six months later.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''

Managerial statistics

Honours

Managerial

Livingston *

: 2016–17 *

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

play-offs : 2017–18

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hopkin, David 1970 births Living people Footballers from Greenock Scottish footballers Greenock Morton F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Premier League players Scottish Football League players Greenock Morton F.C. non-playing staff English Football League players Scotland international footballers Scotland B international footballers Association football midfielders Livingston F.C. non-playing staff Livingston F.C. managers Scottish Professional Football League managers Bradford City A.F.C. managers English Football League managers Greenock Morton F.C. managers Scottish football managers Ayr United F.C. managers