David John Kevan (born 31 August 1968) is a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player. A

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, he made his debut in the

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

for Notts County in February 1986. He spent the next four years at the club, also enjoying a brief loan spell at

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

. He signed with

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

in February 1990 and broke into the first-team in the 1991–92 season following a short loan spell at

Maidstone United Maidstone United Football Club is a professional football club based in Maidstone, Kent, England. The team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league system. The current club filled the void left by the ol ...

the previous season. He helped Stoke to win the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and then the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

title in 1992–93, before he ended his career at

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

in 1994. His career over by the age of 26, he made a total of 221 appearances in league and cup competitions, scoring six goals. He remained in the game as a coach, serving Stoke City,

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

, Notts County, Stockport County,

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

, Forest Green Rovers,

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

and Hanley Town. He also had three spells as a caretaker-manager, once at Stoke City in October 2002 and twice at Notts County in the 2009–10 season.

Playing career

Notts County

Kevan began his career with English

Third Division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

club Notts County. He made his debut for the "Magpies" against Gillingham in February 1986, one of three appearances he made during the 1985–86 season under the stewardship of

Jimmy Sirrel James Sirrel (2 February 1922 – 25 September 2008) was a Scottish football player and manager; he gained his highest profile in the latter role. Born in Glasgow, Sirrel began his career with Celtic before moving to England, spending most of ...

. He forced his way into the first-team at Meadow Lane in the 1986–87 season, making 38 appearances and scoring one goal. He played in 40 games in the 1987–88 campaign as Notts missed out on promotion by a single point under

John Barnwell John Barnwell (born 24 December 1938) is an English former football player and manager. He was the chief executive of the League Managers Association. Career Arsenal Born in Newcastle, Barnwell first played as an amateur for Whitley Bay and B ...

's tenure as manager. He played 24 times in 1988–89, but lost his place under new manager

Neil Warnock Neil Warnock (born 1 December 1948) is an English former football manager and player. He is also a television and radio pundit. In a managerial career spanning five decades, Warnock has managed sixteen different clubs from the Premier League to ...

in the 1989–90 campaign and spent a month on loan at league rivals

, making seven appearances at Ninian Park.

Stoke City

In February 1990, Kevan joined

under the management of Alan Ball. His debut for Stoke was in the Potteries derby against

in a 0–0 draw at Vale Park on 3 February. Stoke were relegated out of the

at the end of the 1989–90 season. He found himself out of the team in 1990–91, making eight appearances and spending time out on loan at

in the

Fourth Division Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'' (1972 film), a Sovie ...

. He failed to make much impact at

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main R ...

either, featuring just three times for the "Stones". New Stoke manager

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Kenny ...

moved Kevan into defence in 1991–92 and he played in 57 matches, including in the

1992 Associate Members' Cup Final The 1992 Associate Members' Cup Final, known as the Autoglass Trophy for sponsorship reasons, was the 9th final of the domestic football cup competition for teams from the Third Division and Fourth Division. The final was played at Wembley Sta ...

as City beat Stockport County 1–0 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. However this would be his final season as a key fixture in the first eleven as the following campaign would prove to be very competitive for central midfield places with Paul Ware, Carl Beeston and Steve Foley all in contention. He made only 16 appearances during the 1992–93 season as Stoke won promotion as champions of the Second Division, and scored one goal – the only goal of a 1–0 home win over

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

on 20 February. Reminiscing on the goal many years later he said that "It was late on in front of the Boothen End. I remember Mark Stein hit the bar and for whatever reason I was in the 18-yard box and put in the rebound. I don’t think anyone in the ground was more surprised than me". He played only one First Division game in the 1993–94 season and went on to end his player career with a single Second Division appearance as a

player under the stewardship of rookie manager Tony Pulis. After leaving Dean Court he returned to the Victoria Ground to become a coach.

Coaching career

After retiring as a professional player, Kevan joined the coaching staff of

and was appointed as first-team coach in 2001. He became the club's caretaker-manager after Steve Cotterill resigned on 10 October 2002. City lost all four of their games under Kevan's stewardship before Tony Pulis was appointed on 1 November. He went on to work as a coach at

, before he was appointed as assistant manager at former club Notts County in 2007. He rejected an approach from Crewe Alexandra to become their assistant manager in June 2009. Following the sacking of

Ian McParland Ian John McParland (born 4 October 1961) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager. He played professionally as a striker with a number of teams and he is most known for his eight-year spell with Notts County, a club he lat ...

on 13 October 2009, Kevan and Michael Johnson took charge for the next two games before

Hans Backe Hans Roland "Hasse" Backe (; born 14 February 1952) is a Swedish football manager and former player who most recently led Finland's national team. Prior to this he managed the New York Red Bulls. He has coached clubs in Sweden, Norway, Greece, ...

was named as the new permanent Notts County manager on 27 October. Kevan again became caretaker-manager when Backe resigned on 15 December. He remained in charge until he reverted to his previous role as assistant upon the appointment of Steve Cotterill as manager on 23 February 2010, just seven days later after telling the media he had 'reluctantly' agreed to stay in the role until the summer after chairman

Ray Trew Raymond Arthur Trew (born December 1954) is a businessman and former football club chairman from Lincolnshire. He is a former board member of Lincoln City F.C., Notts County F.C., and Notts County Ladies F.C. Trew achieved his wealth through r ...

reasoned that "Dave's record is fantastic so why change a winning formula?" following County's

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

giant-killing over

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

. Kevan left the club when then-manager

Craig Short Craig Jonathan Short (born 25 June 1968) is a former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Playing career Short was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England and after attending Amotherby primary school and Lady Luml ...

was sacked on 24 October 2010. Kevan joined the coaching staff at Stockport County in December 2010. He then joined

in January 2011. He re-joined former club Stoke City in June 2011, taking the position of academy team manager; this was despite signing a new contract with Hereford earlier in the month. He left Stoke in May 2013. In September 2013, Kevan joined

as the first-team coach. Two months later, he joined Forest Green Rovers as assistant manager following the appointment of his former Stoke colleague,

Adrian Pennock Adrian Barry Pennock (born 27 March 1971) is an English former association football, footballer who played for Norwich City F.C., Norwich City, Molde FK, AFC Bournemouth, Gillingham F.C., Gillingham and Ebbsfleet United F.C., Gravesend & Northfl ...

, to the managerial role at

The New Lawn The New Lawn, also known as The Bolt New Lawn for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. It has been the home stadium of League One club Forest Green Rovers since 2006. During the 2007–08 season the stadium ...

. Despite having helped Forest Green to a top-five place in the

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

and with just five games left in the 2014–15 season, he quit the club and re-joined Notts County as first-team coach on 31 March. He left the club when

Ricardo Moniz Ricardo Moniz (born 17 June 1964) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság I club Zalaegerszeg. Career He played for RKC Waalwijk, HFC Haarlem, Helmond Sport and FC Eindh ...

was sacked in December 2015. He was named as new

manager

John Askey John Colin Askey (born 4 November 1964) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of club York City. He is the son of former Port Vale player Colin Askey. Able to play as a winger or as a ...

's assistant in February 2019. Askey and Kevan left the club on 4 January 2021. Four months later, he accepted an offer to become Carl Dickinson's assistant at

North West Counties The North West Counties A.R.L. were a series of rugby league regional leagues in the North West of England. Most clubs at open age level joined the North West Men's League in 2011 and 2012 but it carried on until folding part way through the 2014- ...

Premier Division club Hanley Town. The club won the Midland League Premier Division title at the end of the 2021–22 season. In October 2022, Dickinson and Kevan left Hanley Town by mutual consent due to "increased business costs".

Career statistics

As a player

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup ( it, Coppa Anglo-Italiana, also known as the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition and from 1976 to 1986 as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup or Gigi Peronace Memorial) is a defunct European football c ...

English Football League play-offs The English Football League play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the English football league ...

and

As a manager

Source:

Honours

; Stoke City *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

: 1992–93

References