Pat Devlin (footballer)

Pat Devlin (born 23 April 1953) is an Irish former football player and manager who is current director of football of Bray Wanderers.

Pat Devlin

Personal information
Full name	Patrick Devlin
Date of birth	(1953-04-23) 23 April 1953 (age 71)
Place of birth	Dublin, Ireland
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1966–1970	St Joseph's Boys
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1970–1971	Shamrock Rovers	0	(0)
1971–1973	T.E.K. United
1973–1974	St Patrick's Athletic
1974–1976	T.E.K. United
1976–1977	Dalkey United
1977–1985	T.E.K. United
1987–1988	Bray Wanderers	5	(1)
International career
1970	Republic of Ireland U17	1	(0)
Managerial career
1986–1990	Bray Wanderers
1991–1992	Athlone Town
1992–1993	Drogheda United
1995–2006	Bray Wanderers
2010–2011	Bray Wanderers
2012–2013	Bray Wanderers
2015–2016	UCD
2017–2021	Cabinteely
2022	Bray Wanderers
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

Devlin was born in Dublin. For a short spell during his T.E.K. tenure he played for Dalkey United, where he achieved a career highlight by scoring the winning goal against Limerick in a 1976 FAI Cup tie at the Market's Field.^[1]

Management career

As player-manager he made his League of Ireland debut for Bray on St Patrick's Day 1988 in a 3–0 home win over Sligo and his only goal came at Richmond Park (football ground) on 1 April where he was also sent off.^[2]

Devlin departed just before Christmas 1990 to link up with Noel King at Shamrock Rovers by becoming their Technical Director. However his tenure at the RDS Arena didn't work out and Devlin moved to manage Athlone Town. After a season at Drogheda he moved back to Bray in 1995 and steered them to winning the League of Ireland First Division Shield and the League of Ireland First Division title. On the back of this he was appointed manager of the League of Ireland First Division XI and the following season in charge of the League of Ireland XI.

In January 2002 Devlin celebrated his 500th game in charge of The Seagulls. In May 2004 he was appointed manager of the National League Under-21s. He stepped down from Bray in March 2006 to take charge of the Republic of Ireland B national football team.

Under Devlin Bray are the only team in history to have entered both the Cup Winners' Cup (1990) and UEFA Cup (1999) while playing at the second level domestically.

Ahead of the 2017 season, Devlin was appointed Director of Football and First team Manager of Cabinteely FC. He returned to Bray Wanderers in December 2021.

Return to Bray Wanderers

Since Devlin's return to Bray Wanderers the relationship with supporters has been poor. Incidents have included Devlin telling loyal fans not to support the team^{[citation needed]} or attend matches on local radio station East Coast FM,^{[citation needed]} threatening to issue lifetime bans to anyone criticising his style of management,^{[citation needed]} and approaching Bray fans in an away fixture against Wexford Youths.^[3]

Managerial statistics

As of match played 14 October 2022

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
Athlone Town	1991	1992	33	6	11	16	018.18
Drogheda United	1992	1993	32	7	13	12	021.88
Cabinteely	2017	2021	127	49	22	56	038.58
Bray Wanderers	2022	Present	32	6	9	17	018.75

Note: Games included are league games only.

References

1. https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1976/0123/Pg003.html#Ar00300:1BD2261ED23D3981733E318D1E118E22E1AA5C93BC5FB3D342461745862732B6973686B333817338B18D17F18E1D41AA36028539229D4822194B423143025246226A3DA31A40E33158A3BC5BD3D343D5A84705BF3D8617410627 (subscription required)
2. . The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011.
3. "Stewards forced to intervene as Pat Devlin and Bray fans in ugly exchange". 2 May 2022.

External links

• Bray Wanderers Profile
• Soccerway Profile