Pat Devlin (born 23 April 1953) is an Irish former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager who is current director of football of

Bray Wanderers Bray Wanderers Football Club are an Irish association football club playing in the League of Ireland First Division. The club in its present form was founded in 1942 in Bray, and was known until 2010 as ''Bray Wanderers A.F.C.'' It was elect ...

Playing career

Devlin was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. 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 The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Sports Direct FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as D ...

tie at the

Market's Field The Markets Field is a UEFA category two stadium in Garryowen, Limerick, Ireland with a capacity of around 3,500. Formerly the home of Limerick FC, it is currently the home ground of Treaty United. The ground has hosted underage internation ...

Management career

As player-manager he made his

League of Ireland The League of Ireland is a national association football Sports league, league consisting of professional clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Derry, Derry City in Northern Ireland. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland. It was ...

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) Richmond Park is a football stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Situated in the Dublin suburb of Inchicore, it is the home ground of League of Ireland side St Patrick's Athletic (also known as St Pat's). The area where the ground now stands was form ...

on 1 April where he was also sent off. Devlin departed just before Christmas 1990 to link up with

Noel King Noel King (born 13 September 1956) is a former professional footballer and manager. For 10 years from 2000 until 2010 he was manager of the Republic of Ireland women's national team. He was appointed interim men's national team senior manager ...

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional Association football, football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is List of football clubs by competit ...

by becoming their Technical Director. However his tenure at the

RDS Arena RDS Arena is a multi-purpose sports stadium, owned by the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and located in the Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge, Ireland. The arena was developed to host equestrian events, primarily the annual Dublin Horse Show, which wa ...

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 The League of Ireland First Division Shield was an association football competition featuring teams from the League of Ireland First Division. The inaugural winners were Derry City. It was also the first competition Derry City won after they joi ...

and the

League of Ireland First Division The League of Ireland First Division, also known as the SSE Airtricity League First Division for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in both the League of Ireland and the Republic of Ireland football league system. The division w ...

title. On the back of this he was appointed manager of the

XI and the following season in charge of the

League of Ireland XI The League of Ireland XI, more recently referred to as the Airtricity League XI for sponsorship reasons, is the representative team of the League of Ireland, the national association football league of Ireland. For much of its history, the League ...

. 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 Republic of Ireland B is the reserve team of the Republic of Ireland national football team. There are no competitions for B teams. However, since 1957 the Football Association of Ireland has arranged occasional friendlies. History Early B inte ...

. 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 o
Cabinteely FC
He returned to

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 or attend matches on local radio station

East Coast FM East Coast FM (formerly known as BLB, Horizon FM, then East Coast Radio) is an Irish local radio station broadcasting from Bray, County Wicklow under a sound broadcasting contract from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland The station operates ...

, threatening to issue lifetime bans to anyone criticising his style of management, and approaching Bray fans in an away fixture against Wexford Youths.

Managerial statistics

:''Note: Games included are league games only.''

References

External links

Bray Wanderers ProfileSoccerway Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Devlin, Pat 1953 births Living people Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Association footballers from County Dublin Men's association football forwards Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Shamrock Rovers F.C. players Bray Wanderers F.C. players League of Ireland players Republic of Ireland association football managers League of Ireland managers Drogheda United F.C. managers Athlone Town A.F.C. managers League of Ireland XI managers Bray Wanderers F.C. managers 20th-century Irish sportsmen