Christopher John "Chris"
Nicholl (born 12 October 1946) is an English
-born former
footballer and manager of
Northern
Irish
ancestry.
Playing career
Nicholl
was born in Macclesfield
. He played for Witton Albion,
Burnley (1965-1968) (no league appearances),
Halifax Town (1968-1969) (42
league appearances, 3 goals) and
Luton Town (1969-1972) (97 league
appearances, 6 goals), before establishing himself as a centre-half
with
Aston Villa (1972-1977) (210
league appearances, 11 goals). He captained the side to victory
over
Everton in the 1976/1977
League Cup after two final replays. The
second replay is remembered for Nicholl scoring one of the greatest
goals in any Aston Villa match, a forty yard left footer which
helped take the match to extra time.
In a Division One game against
Leicester City in 1976, he scored all 4
goals in a 2-2 draw.
He signed for
Southampton F.C. in
June 1977 and became the backbone of a successful side. He scored
eight goals in 228 league appearances, before joining
Grimsby Town in August 1983, for whom he
made 70 league appearances in three years.
He won
51
Northern Ireland full international caps.
Management
Southampton
He returned to Southampton as the club's manager when
Lawrie McMenemy resigned in August 1985. He
kept the Saints in the First Division but despite having players of
the calibre of
Danny and
Rod Wallace,
Alan Shearer and
Matthew Le Tissier in his squad, he
tended to be too cautious. During his 6 seasons in charge, Saints
were under-achievers and his best result was in
1989-90 with a finish in 7th
place achieved largely thanks to 20 goals from Le Tissier and 18
from Rod Wallace.
Nicholl did achieve a modicum of cup success with Saints losing 2-0
(after extra-time) in the semi-final of the
FA
Cup to
Liverpool on 5 April 1986
and again to Liverpool in the semi-final of the
League Cup the following season.
The following season Saints finished in 14th place and Nicholl was
sacked in May 1991 and replaced by
Ian
Branfoot. Thus ended a period of managerial stability, with
only 3 managers in 36 years and started Southampton's managerial
merry-go-round which saw them appoint 12 managers over the next 15
years.
Walsall
It was three years before Nicholl returned to football. Early in
the 1994-95 season he replaced
Kenny
Hibbitt as manager of
Walsall FC and
his first season at the club was successful as they were promoted
from Division Three as runners-up. The Saddlers finished in the top
half of Division Two during the next two seasons but Nicholl quit
in May 1997 after failing to get Walsall into Division One, citing
family reasons.
He made a brief return to Walsall as then-manager
Ray Graydon's assistant in November 2001, but
left in January 2002 through loyalty to Graydon, who had been
sacked.
He
is now a regular at the Bescot Stadium
, both as a supporter and as the correspondent for
PA Sport.
Following the sacking of former Walsall player-manager
Paul Merson in February 2006, Nicholl offered
his services to the club within hours of Merson's departure.
Nicholl remains popular amongst Walsall fans, but was not offered
the manager's job - which later went to former
Birmingham City captain
Kevan Broadhurst.
Northern Ireland
In 1998, he was invited to work alongside
Lawrie McMenemy as assistant manager of
Northern
Ireland where he spent the next two years.
Aston Villa Old Stars
Chris is currently the manager of Aston Villa Old Stars, who
regularly play in testimonial and charity matches. The squad
includes former Villa stars such as
Gordon
Cowans,
Tony Morley and
Des Bremner.
Playing Honours
Halifax Town
Aston Villa
Southampton
External links
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