James Michael Nicholl (born 28 December 1956) is a Northern Irish 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 for several clubs, including

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 ...

and

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

. He was mainly a right-back but could also play in other defensive roles. Nicholl won a total of 73 international caps for Northern Ireland, scoring one goal. After retiring as a player, he moved into coaching and management. He enjoyed success as manager of Raith Rovers, winning the

1994–95 Scottish League Cup The 1994–95 Scottish League Cup was the 49th staging of the Scotland's second most prestigious football knockout competition, also known for sponsorship reasons as the Coca-Cola Cup. The competition was won by Raith Rovers, who defeated Celti ...

. In recent years he has worked as an assistant coach for several Scottish clubs, including Aberdeen,

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. ...

, Hibernian,

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 a ...

, Rangers and

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

Early life

Jimmy Nicholl was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to Northern Irish parents. His family moved back to Northern Ireland when he was 3. Nicholl grew up on the

Rathcoole Rathcoole may refer to: * Rathcoole, County Dublin, a village in County Dublin, Ireland * Rathcoole (Newtownabbey), a large housing estate in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland * Rathcoole, County Cork, a village in north west Cork * Rat ...

estate on the outskirts of Belfast. After he began his football career as an apprentice with

, the club arranged for Nicholl's family to relocate to England, to avoid the unrest caused by the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Playing career

Nicholl started his career as a junior player at

. His senior career started in 1974. He helped the club win the

1977 FA Cup Final The 1977 FA Cup Final was the final match of the 1976–77 FA Cup, the 96th season of England's premier cup football competition. The match was played on 21 May 1977 at Wembley Stadium, London, and it was contested by Manchester United and Liver ...

and collected a runners-up medal in

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. In 1981, he left the club after scoring five goals, joining

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

on a permanent contract after a loan spell, and playing 32 games in one season before moving to

Toronto Blizzard Toronto Blizzard may refer to: *Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984), the original soccer club, a franchise of the North American Soccer League *Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993), the later club and franchise of the Canadian Soccer League *Toronto Azzurri B ...

in Canada, scoring 11 goals in 77 games over the next two years before signing for

. In 1984, he returned to the English league to sign for West Bromwich Albion where he stayed until their relegation from the First Division in 1986, then returning to Rangers for three years, helping them win two Scottish league titles in the process. After leaving Rangers, he signed for Dunfermline Athletic in 1989 before moving to a player-manager role at Raith Rovers, having originally joined them on 27 November 1990. Following his time at Rovers, Nicholl played one game for Bath City in February 1996, a 3–0 defeat at home to

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional association football, football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was liquidation, wound-up after a High Court of Justice, High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially kno ...

. He was sent off after 55 minutes and never played for the club again.

Coaching career

Nicholl had great success as manager of Raith Rovers, winning the

and the

1994–95 Scottish First Division The 1994–95 Scottish First Division season was won by Raith Rovers, who were promoted one point ahead of Dunfermline Athletic and Dundee. Ayr United and Stranraer were relegated. Table Play-off References {{DEFAULTSORT:1994-95 Scottis ...

championship. Due to their League Cup triumph, Raith qualified for the

1995–96 UEFA Cup The 1995–96 UEFA Cup was the 25th season of Europe's then-tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. It was won by German club Bayern Munich on aggregate over Bordeaux of France. Girondins de Bordeaux went to the finals all the way f ...

and reached the second round, where they were eliminated by eventual winners

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. Having lost the first leg to Bayern 2–0 at Easter Road, Raith took a 1–0 lead at the

Olympiastadion Olympiastadion is the German, Finnish and Swedish word for Olympic Stadium and may refer to: * Stockholm Olympic Stadium, the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics (though mostly referred as simply ''Stockholms Stadion'') * Olympiastadion (Berlin), the ...

thanks to a goal by Danny Lennon. Bayern recovered to win 2–1 on the night and 4–1 on aggregate. On 28 February 1996, Nicholl was appointed manager of Millwall, who just over two months earlier had been top of Division One but were now sliding down the table. He was unable to arrest the decline and Millwall slipped into Division Two on the last day of the season. He remained at Millwall until the following February, and six months after that returned to Raith Rovers. His second spell at Raith lasted two years, and ended on 14 June 1999 after he had failed to get them back into the top flight. A 28-day spell as manager of Dunfermline Athletic followed later in 1999, and he later served as assistant manager to

Jimmy Calderwood James Calderwood (born 28 February 1955) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Calderwood played for Birmingham City and Dutch clubs Sparta Rotterdam, Willem II Tilburg, Roda JC and Heracles Almelo. After retiring as a player, Calder ...

East End Park East End Park, currently named KDM Group East End Park for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium situated in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland with a seating capacity of . The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Championship sid ...

. In May 2004, Nicholl followed Calderwood when he took over as manager at Aberdeen, again serving as his assistant until the two parted company with the club in May 2009. He resumed his partnership with Calderwood at

in 2010. Nicholl was appointed manager of Cowdenbeath in June 2010, but he left Cowdenbeath at the end of the 2010–11 season after they were relegated from the First Division. Nicholl was then appointed assistant manager of

for a second time, by

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 ...

on 15 June 2011. Kilmarnock won the

2011–12 Scottish League Cup The 2011–12 Scottish League Cup was the 66th season of Scotland's second-most prestigious football knockout competition, the Scottish League Cup, also known as the Scottish Communities League Cup for sponsorship reasons. It was won by Kilmarn ...

under Shiels and Nicholl, but Shiels was sacked by Kilmarnock in June 2013. Nicholl then decided to accept the offer of assistant manager at Hibernian. After manager

Pat Fenlon Patrick Fenlon (born 15 March 1969) is an Irish football coach and former player. Fenlon played as a midfielder for St Patrick's Athletic, Bohemians, Linfield, Shamrock Rovers and Shelbourne. As a manager he won five League of Ireland titles ...

resigned on 1 November, Nicholl was appointed caretaker manager. Nicholl left Hibernian soon after their new management team was recruited. After leaving Hibernian, Nicholl returned to Cowdenbeath for a second stint as their manager. He led the Blue Brazil to avoid relegation via the Scottish Championship play-offs in the 2013–14 season beating local rivals Dunfermline Athletic in the two-legged final. He led the side to the Fife Cup that season. However a very difficult season followed in 2014–15, which included a joint-record 10–0 defeat to eventual champions Heart of Midlothian. The following week, Cowdenbeath managed to draw 0–0 with

. The club was relegated to League One on the last day, after which Nicholl resigned as manager. While still at Cowdenbeath, Nicholl had also become assistant manager to Michael O'Neill with the Northern Ireland national team in March 2015. He was appointed as assistant to new

manager Paul Hartley in October 2017, while also continuing in his role with Northern Ireland. He became assistant manager at

in January 2018, assisting

Graeme Murty Graeme Stuart Murty (born 13 November 1974) is an English-born Scottish professional football coach and former player. He made 437 appearances in the Football League and Premier League, playing for York City, Reading, Charlton Athletic and South ...

. After Murty left Rangers on 1 May, Nicholl and Jonatan Johansson were placed in interim charge until the appointment of

Steven Gerrard Steven George Gerrard (born 30 May 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player, who most recently managed club Aston Villa. Described by pundits and fellow professionals as one of his generation's greatest players, Ge ...

on 1 June. Nicholl joined St Mirren as their first team coach in November 2018. He then moved to

in May 2019, assisting

James McPake James McPake (born 24 June 1984) is a professional football coach and former player, who is currently the manager of Dunfermline Athletic. McPake played for Livingston, Greenock Morton, Coventry City, Hibernian and Dundee. He mainly played as a ...

. Nicholl was released from the club in June 2020. On 28 June 2020 Nicoll became assistant manager of

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 ...

Honours

Player

Manchester United * FA Cup: 1976–77 Rangers * Scottish League Cup: 1983–84, 1986–87, 1987–88 *

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Th ...

: 1986–87, 1988–89 Raith Rovers * Fife Cup (2): 1990–91, 1992–93 * Scottish First Division (second tier): 1992–93

Manager

Raith Rovers * Fife Cup (7): 1990–91, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1997–98, 1998–99 * Scottish League Cup: 1994–95 * Scottish First Division (second tier): 1992–93, 1994–95 Cowdenbeath * Fife Cup: 2013–14 * Scottish Championship play-offs: 2013–14

Managerial statistics

References

External links

Nicholl's international record
* /

Canada Soccer Hall of Fame The Canada Soccer Hall of Fame honours people and institutions for their contributions to Canadian soccer. It was founded in 1997 by the Ontario Soccer Association and was originally located in Vaughan, Ontario. As of 2019, the Canada Soccer Hal ...

NASL Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholl, Jimmy 1956 births Soccer players from Hamilton, Ontario Association footballers from Northern Ireland Football managers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland international footballers Canadian soccer players Canadian soccer coaches Canadian people of Northern Ireland descent 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1986 FIFA World Cup players Association football defenders Association football utility players Bath City F.C. players Cowdenbeath F.C. managers Dunfermline Athletic F.C. non-playing staff Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. managers Expatriate association footballers from Northern Ireland Expatriate soccer players in Canada Expatriate sportspeople from Northern Ireland in Canada Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Kilmarnock F.C. non-playing staff Living people Manchester United F.C. players Millwall F.C. managers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Raith Rovers F.C. managers Raith Rovers F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Scottish Football League managers Scottish Football League players Sunderland A.F.C. players Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Falkirk F.C. non-playing staff St Mirren F.C. non-playing staff Canadian expatriate soccer players Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Canadian expatriate sportspeople in England Dundee F.C. non-playing staff FA Cup Final players