Billy Brown (born on 20 December 1950) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player. He has managed East Fife and

Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath () is a town and burgh in west Fife, Scotland. It is north-east of Dunfermline and north of the capital, Edinburgh. The town grew up around the extensive coalfields of the area and became a police burgh in 1890. According to a 20 ...

and played in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

for

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

and

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the as a member of the Scottish Professional Football League. The club has won f ...

. He then became a football coach, working at

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, who play in the Scottish football system. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite being ba ...

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a 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 resident population of 32,422 at the ...

, Hearts,

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

and

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

with longtime colleague

Jim Jefferies Geoff James Nugent (born February 1977), known professionally as Jim Jefferies, is an Australian and American comedian, actor, and writer. He created and starred in the FX sitcom ''Legit'' (2013–2014) and the Comedy Central late-night sho ...

Club career

Brown was born in

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; ; ) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It had a population of as of . History The name Musselburgh is Old English language, Old English in ...

and began his career at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

. He later played for

and

. His senior playing career was Cut short at age 28 due to a cruciate ligament injury. Brown continued to play at junior level with Newtongrange Star and

Musselburgh Athletic Musselburgh Athletic Football Club are a Scottish football club based in the town of Musselburgh, East Lothian. Formed in 1934, they have played under different names including Musselburgh Bruntonians, Musselburgh Juniors and Musselburgh Fern s ...

where he became a coach

Managerial career

Billy Brown became the assistant manager to

an old school friend from

Musselburgh Grammar School Musselburgh Grammar School a state-funded secondary school in Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland. It serves as the main secondary school for Musselburgh and the surrounding areas of Wallyford and Whitecraig. The school dates back to the sixt ...

, at

in 1988. Since then, he followed Jefferies to

, Hearts,

Bradford city Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

and

. After leaving Kilmarnock with Jefferies in January 2010, Brown and Jefferies returned to Hearts soon afterwards. Jefferies and Brown were sacked by Hearts on August 1, 2011. In September 2011, Brown was appointed as the assistant manager at Hibernian . He was made the caretaker manager of the club after the dismissal of

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. As a player, he was a centre-back who played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa and in the Football League for Mansfi ...

in November and was interviewed for the job.

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 title ...

was appointed manager, but Brown remained the assistant manager until June 2012, when his contract expired. Brown was appointed

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

of East Fife in November 2012. Although East Fife struggled during the 2012–13 season, the club won the

Scottish Second Division The Scottish Football League Second Division was the third tier of the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The Second Division was created in 1975, as part of a wider reconstruction of the Scottish Football League (SF ...

play-offs to stay in the third tier. On 5 June 2013, it was reported that Brown had parted ways with East Fife, one month after a widely publicised post-match interview where he angrily criticised the club's fans following a defeat to Stenhousemuir FC. Brown then returned to Hearts, working as an unpaid assistant to manager

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician, attorney, and former diplomat from the State of Washington. Locke served as the 21st governor of Washington from 1997 to 2005, where he was the first Chinese-American governor ...

. Hearts had recently entered

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

and could not afford to offer a salary to an assistant coach. Brown was given a paid short-term contract in September 2013. In January 2014, Brown was informed that his contract would not be renewed. However, after a delegation of Hearts' players met the club administrators, Brown was subsequently given another contract. Brown and Locke left Hearts at the end of the season, after Ann Budge took control of the club. In 2017, Brown assisted Gary Locke during his time as manager of

. When Locke left Cowdenbeath in July 2017 to take an ambassadorial role with Hearts, Brown was appointed as the manager of Cowdenbeath. However, with the side 10th in the league after one win in 10 matches, Brown resigned from his position on 31 October 2017.

Manager

References

External links

Neil Brown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Billy 1950 births Living people Motherwell F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Newtongrange Star F.C. players Musselburgh Athletic F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. non-playing staff Heart of Midlothian F.C. non-playing staff Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Hull City A.F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Football League players Men's association football defenders Falkirk F.C. non-playing staff Scottish football managers East Fife F.C. managers Cowdenbeath F.C. managers Scottish Professional Football League managers Scottish men's footballers