Noel Lloyd George Blake (born 12 January 1962) is a former professional

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 ...

and current coach. He was formerly the head coach of the

England national under-19 football team England national under-19 football team, also known as England under-19s or England U19(s), represents England in association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two team ...

. He 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

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

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 ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

and

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

, and in the

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

for

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 ...

Playing career

Born in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...

, Blake moved to England and played football with non-league side Sutton Coldfield Town. He was spotted by scouts at

who signed Blake a year later. He struggled to force his way into the Villa side and went out on loan to

in 1982. He left Villa upon his return and joined local rivals

. He quickly became a fan favourite with Birmingham as he scored against Villa in December 1982. He spent two years with Birmingham before signing with

on the south coast. Whilst he did enjoy some success at 'Pompey' winning promotion as Second Division runners-up in 1987, Blake had problems with racial abuse from his own supporters, at a time when racism was still rife in English football. After making over 150 appearances with Portsmouth, Blake joined

on a free transfer and he helped to club to promotion as Second Division champions in the 1989–90 season. However his opportunities were limited the following season and so he was sold to

just after promotion was achieved, with

Howard Wilkinson Howard Wilkinson (born 13 November 1943) is an English former footballer and manager. Despite having a low-profile playing career, Wilkinson embarked on a successful managerial career. He won the First Division championship in 1992 with Leeds ...

looking to spend heavily on new players to build a squad capable of competing with the very best in the First Division. Blake's old manager at Portsmouth Alan Ball tempted Blake to join him at

in 1990. Ball was sacked in February 1991 as Stoke went on to record their worst league position of 14th in the third tier. Stoke's new 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 Kenn ...

only used Blake sparingly and later joined

on loan in 1992. He joined Bradford permanently and latter played for Scottish side

before ending his playing career with

Coaching career

Blake held the position of manager of Exeter City from January 2000 until September 2001. A qualified coach and holder of the

UEFA Pro Licence The UEFA coaching licences are documents testifying credentials of manager (association football), managers/ coach (sport), coaches among members of UEFA. The governing body for association football, football in Europe mandates several licences, e ...

, Blake was appointed in February 2007 as one of

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

's National Coaches to work with players in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

's youth teams and to assist with coach education. He was placed in charge of the England under-19 team in 2009, leading the side to the semi-finals of the

UEFA European Under-19 Championship The UEFA European Under-19 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-19, is an annual football competition, contested by the European men's under-19 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain is the most successful team in this competit ...

in both

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

before leaving the Football Association in June 2014. On 1 July it was reported that Blake was about to become first-team coach at

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. On 27 October Blake was put in temporary charge following the departure of Jose Riga. He left Blackpool in December 2014.

Personal life

Blake suffered a

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

in August 2015.

Career statistics

As a player

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

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 ...

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

Full Members Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. T ...

As a manager

Honours

; Portsmouth *

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 ...

runner-up: 1986–87 ; Leeds United *

: 1989–90 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

: 1986–87 Second Division

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Noel 1962 births Living people Footballers from Kingston, Jamaica Sutton Coldfield Town F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Dundee F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Exeter City F.C. managers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom Stoke City F.C. non-playing staff Blackpool F.C. non-playing staff Men's association football defenders English football managers English men's footballers Men's association football player-managers Black British sportsmen