Gerard Anthony Daly (born 30 April 1954) is an Irish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played in

the 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

, Derby County, Coventry City, Leicester City,

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

, Shrewsbury Town, Stoke City,

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

as well as the Republic of Ireland national team.

Club career

Daly was born in Cabra, Dublin, and started his football career in Drumcondra with Stella Maris. His first senior club was Bohemians, for whom he scored in 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 ...

away to

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in September 1972. In 1973,

manager

Tommy Docherty Thomas Henderson Docherty (24 April 1928 – 31 December 2020), commonly known as The Doc, was a Scottish football player and manager. Docherty played for several clubs, most notably Preston North End, and represented Scotland 25 times bet ...

paid Bohemians £20,000 for Daly's services. In Daly's first season at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

, the team was relegated to the Second Division after finishing 21st out of 22 teams. Despite this setback, Manchester United gained an instant return to the top flight with Daly being a key player. He continued his good form into the 1975–76 season, playing in 51 matches, including the 1976 FA Cup final. Midway through the 1976–77 season, Daly was sold to Derby County for a fee of £175,000. Daly was soon reunited his old manager Docherty, who was appointed manager of the Rams in September 1977. Although they did not get on, Daly remained with Derby until 1980. Daly scored a famous penalty for Derby in 1977 against Manchester City where the penalty spot had to be re-painted during the game, due to the poor condition of the Baseball Ground pitch. During his time with Derby, Daly spent time on loan with the

New England Tea Men The New England Tea Men were an American professional soccer team based in the Greater Boston metropolitan area. They played in the North American Soccer League (1968–1984), North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 to 1980. Their home ve ...

of the North American Soccer League in 1978 and 1979. Following Derby's relegation in 1980, Daly signed for Coventry City, with whom he spent four seasons, including a spell on loan to Leicester City in 1982. He then spent a season at

before signing for Shrewsbury Town in October 1985. His experience helped them remain in the second tier finishing in 17th position in 1985–86 and 18th in 1986–87. This prompted Stoke City manager Mick Mills to sign Daly in March 1987. In 1987–88 Daly played 30 times for Stoke scoring three goals but fell out of favour in March 1988 and was released at the end of the season. He then moved on to Fourth Division

where he spent the 1988–89 season playing in 44 matches. He joined non-league Telford United in 1989 and later managed the club between 1990 and 1993.

International career

Daly represented Ireland from 1973 to 1986, earning 48 caps. He won his first cap in a friendly against Poland. He scored 13 international goals, making him one of the top-scoring Irish midfielders. His first goal in 1976 was a penalty in a 1–1 draw against England at Wembley. He scored another goal against England in the Euro qualifiers in 1978. He also scored against Denmark in the Euro qualifiers of 1980. Another goal came in a 2–1 victory over the Netherlands in a World Cup qualifier in 1980. Daly's last goal for Ireland was in 1986 in a match against Iceland in the Iceland Triangular Tournament to earn Ireland a 2–1 win, and his last match for Ireland was against Scotland in 1986 at Lansdowne Road in a Euro 1988 qualifying match.

Career statistics

Club

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

Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup (, 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) was a European football competition. The competition was ...

, Full Members Cup and

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

International

Source:

Honours

Manchester United *

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 tier ...

: 1974–75 *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

runner-up: 1975–76

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Gerry 1954 births Bohemian F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players League of Ireland players Living people Manchester United F.C. players New England Tea Men players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Association footballers from County Dublin Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland expatriate men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-23 international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players English Football League players Stella Maris F.C. players Men's association football midfielders Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Irish expatriate sportspeople in the United States 20th-century Irish sportsmen