John Holt (born 21 November 1956) 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 retired footballer. He played at either full-back or in midfield. He began his career with

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, where he made more than 400 appearances between 1974 and 1987. Holt won three major domestic trophies with the club, the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup 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 ...

and

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

and the Premier Division title in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

. He also featured for United in many European runs including to the

1983–84 European Cup The 1983–84 European Cup was the 29th season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football competition. The tournament was won for a fourth time by Liverpool in a penalty shootout in the final against Roma. The game had finished 1–1. P ...

semi final and the 1987 UEFA Cup Final. He also played for

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and

Forfar Athletic Forfar Athletic Football Club are a Scottish semi-professional football club from the town of Forfar, Angus. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League and currently play in . They play their home games at Station Park, in t ...

before becoming

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

at Deveronvale and then Montrose. He has also managed Celtic Ladies as well as holding coaching roles at Forfar, Dundee and Dundee United. Holt also had a short period as caretaker manager of Montrose in 2016.

Playing career

-born Holt broke into the

first team in 1974 along with the likes of

David Narey David Narey (born 12 June 1956) is a former Scottish international footballer who played as a defender. Narey spent 21 years with Dundee United, winning the Scottish championship once and the league cup twice. He also played in numerous cup ...

and Andy Gray. He won three domestic trophies with United in two

s ( 1979-80 and 1980-81) as well as being Scottish league champions in 1982-83. The club reached the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

semi-final in 1983-84 and the final of the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

in 1986-87. En route to that UEFA Cup final, Holt was man of the match in the victory against

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Camp Nou Camp Nou (), meaning ''New Field'' and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increa ...

. In the dressing room after the game he told teammate

Jim McInally James Edward McInally (born 19 February 1964) is a Scottish football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Scottish League Two club Peterhead. He played for Dundee United for 10 seasons in which he won the 1993–94 ...

he was thinking of joining

. Holt made regular appearances in midfield or defence for the club until 1987, when he left for

. He also later played for

and Forfar Athletic.

Coaching career

Holt became player-manager of Deveronvale and then Montrose. He returned to Dundee United in the mid-1990s and spent several years in many coaching roles, before leaving in 2003 when Ian McCall was appointed manager. Holt went on to become a scout for

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 Foot ...

, operating in the Dundee area, before joining Dundee as youth development coach. In May 2012, Holt moved on to take an academy role at Dundee United. In February 2015, he became assistant manager on a temporary basis until the end of the season at Montrose under manager and former United teammate

Paul Hegarty Paul Anthony Hegarty (born 25 July 1954) is a Scottish football player and manager. He was captain of Dundee United during their most successful era in the 1970s and 1980s, winning the Scottish league championship in 1983 and the Scottish Le ...

. After staving off the threat of relegation into the Highland League in a two-leg play-off against

Brora Rangers Brora Rangers Football Club are a Scottish football club from the village of Brora, Sutherland, in the Highland council area of Scotland. They play in the , of which they have been champions five times, having won their first title in 2013–1 ...

, Holt and Hegarty were offered and accepted their positions on a permanent basis. Both signed two-year deals. After Hegarty was sacked in November 2016, Holt was appointed caretaker manager of the club. Holt left the club after

Stewart Petrie Stewart Petrie (born 27 February 1970) is a Scottish football player and coach, who is manager of Scottish League One side Montrose. A Left winger, he spent most of his playing career with Forfar Athletic and Dunfermline Athletic, later movi ...

was appointed permanent manager on 4 December 2016.

Honours

Club

;

: *

Scottish Football League 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 Scottish Football League First D ...

: 1982–83 *

: 1979–80, 1980–81

References

External links

;Sources * {{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, John 1956 births Living people Footballers from Dundee Scottish men's footballers Dundee United F.C. players Deveronvale F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Forfar Athletic F.C. players Montrose F.C. players Scottish football managers Montrose F.C. managers Men's association football fullbacks Scottish Football League managers Scottish Football League players Dundee United F.C. non-playing staff Celtic F.C. Women managers Scottish Women's Premier League managers