Gary James Holt (born 9 March 1973) is a Scottish

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 ...

player and coach, who was most recently the sporting director at

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had ...

. Holt first played competitively for

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

, making 138 appearances, before transferring to

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

, where he made 168 appearances. During his time with Kilmarnock and Norwich he also received ten caps for the

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. ...

, scoring one goal. Later in his career, Holt also played for Nottingham Forest,

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 ...

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

and

Lowestoft Town Lowestoft Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Lowestoft, Suffolk, England. They are currently members of the and play at Crown Meadow. History The club was established in 1887 as Lowestoft F.C. by a merger of East Suf ...

. After his retirement from playing football, Holt joined the

Academy. He then managed

for just over a year until June 2014, when he returned to Norwich as a first-team coach. Holt was then head coach of

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 Scottis ...

club

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 customs ...

for over two years, until his resignation in November 2020. In January 2021, Holt returned to Falkirk as sporting director, but resigned 12 months later.

Playing career

Holt came late to professional football, having had a spell in the

Army Catering Corps The Army Catering Corps (ACC) was a corps of the British Army, responsible for the feeding of all Army units. It was formed in 1941 and amalgamated into the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993. History In 1938 Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Secretary of ...

as a chef and played for the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

team prior to joining

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

. He did not play for the Bhoys' first team and moved on to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

Kilmarnock

Holt signed for his boyhood favourites,

, in 1995. He excelled in the Ayrshire team's most consistent period of success since the 1960s.

Norwich City

In 2001,

paid £135,000 for Holt. He was voted

Norwich City player of the year The Norwich City Player of the Season award is voted for annually by Norwich City's supporters, in recognition of the best overall performance by an individual player throughout the football season. As a mark of respect, the trophy is named The ...

in 2001–02, when he also collected a number of fans' awards, including the Capital Canaries Player of the Season trophy. That season, Holt was a member of the Norwich team that reached the final of the

Division One The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First Div ...

play-offs, losing on penalties to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

Holt played in

for his first three seasons with the club and helped them win 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 Fo ...

in 2004.

Nottingham Forest

Holt left Norwich to join Nottingham Forest in 2005, where he spent two years before being released at the end of the 2006–07 season. At Forest he scored three times, with goals against Weymouth in the FA Cup, Cheltenham in the league and Yeovil in the second leg of the 2007 League One play off semi final.

Later career

He subsequently signed for League Two side

on 12 July 2007. He signed a one-year extension until July 2010 on 17 January 2009. On 28 March 2009, he lobbed

Luke Daniels Luke Matthew Daniels (born 5 January 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays for club Middlesbrough as a goalkeeper. Daniels is product of the Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion academies and played much of the early yea ...

in the League Two match against

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

to score the third goal of his Wycombe Wanderers career. For the 2009–10 season he left Wycombe to join former manager

Paul Lambert Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town. Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-ol ...

as a player coach. However, when Lambert left for

after only three game of the season, his contract was terminated without him making a single appearance for the club. On 6 October 2009, he signed for

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 t ...

club

International career

Despite his excellent form with Kilmarnock, international recognition with

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 ...

initially proved elusive for Holt, who briefly explored the option of playing for

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

in 1998 and for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

in 1999; however, it emerged that he was not eligible for either. Holt made his Scotland debut on 2 September 2000 as an 89th-minute substitute against

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

, in a match that Scotland won 1–0. He made ten appearances in total, with his final cap coming in a 1–1 draw against

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistri ...

in October 2004. His only international goal came in a 4–1 win against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

in May 2004.

Coaching career

In July 2010, he returned to Norwich City as assistant Academy manager. He was responsible for the coaching of City's under-12 to under-16 age groups as well as assisting the current coaching staff with reserve team matters.

Falkirk manager

Holt was appointed manager of Scottish First Division club

on 3 April 2013. Holt credited former Norwich City manager and compatriot,

for helping him. Holt left Falkirk in June 2014 to take a first-team coaching position at Norwich City, where he stayed for two years.

Livingston

In August 2018, he was appointed head coach of

club

, replacing former Scotland teammate Kenny Miller in the role. He won the Premiership manager of the month award for September 2018 and guided the relegation favourites to a ninth-place finish on their return to the Premiership. Holt was forced to take a temporary leave of absence from his role in August 2019 when he overexerted in a gym session and contracted

rhabdomyolysis Rhabdomyolysis (also called rhabdo) is a condition in which damaged skeletal muscle breaks down rapidly. Symptoms may include muscle pains, weakness, vomiting, and confusion. There may be tea-colored urine or an irregular heartbeat. Some of ...

, causing his blood levels to rise to dangerous levels and his skeletal muscle to begin breaking down. The 2019–20 season provided further success for Holt and Livingston, as the ''Lions'' finished in fifth place. It was the club's second-highest ever league finish, and Holt won the Premiership manager of the month award for January 2020 and was nominated for the Scottish Football Writers' Association 'Manager of the Year Award'. After a bad start to the 2020–21 season, Holt resigned on 26 November.

Falkirk sporting director

Holt returned to

in January 2021 as their sporting director. He became interim manager in April 2021 after the departures of

David McCracken David McCracken (born 16 October 1981) is a Scottish football player and coach, whose last role was as co-manager of Falkirk between 2019 and 2021. McCracken, who played as a central defender, was a Scotland under-21 internationalist, having ma ...

and

Lee Miller Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977), was an American photographer and photojournalist. She was a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris, where she became a fashion and fine art ...

. He was sacked from this role one year later in January 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Score and result list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after Holt goal.''

Managerial record

Honours

Kilmarnock *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Norwich *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

: 2003–04 (English second tier) Lowestoft Town *

Isthmian League Division One North The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 teams ...

: 2009–10 Individual *

Norwich City Player of the Year The Norwich City Player of the Season award is voted for annually by Norwich City's supporters, in recognition of the best overall performance by an individual player throughout the football season. As a mark of respect, the trophy is named The ...

: 2002

References

External links

*
Career Information at Ex-Canaries.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, Gary 1973 births Scottish military personnel Living people Army Catering Corps soldiers Association football midfielders Celtic F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Falkirk F.C. managers Kilmarnock F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Premier League players Royal Engineers soldiers Scotland international footballers Scottish Professional Football League managers Scottish Football League managers Scottish Football League players Scottish football managers Scottish footballers Scottish Premier League players Footballers from Irvine, North Ayrshire Stoke City F.C. players English Football League players Isthmian League players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Lowestoft Town F.C. players Livingston F.C. managers Falkirk F.C. non-playing staff 20th-century British Army personnel