Patrick Daniel Joseph Wright (17 November 1940 – 16 April 2023) was an English

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 ...

coach and professional player who made 230 appearances 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 ...

playing for

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 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 ...

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

, Southend United and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

. He played as a full back. He has coached at club and national level all over the world.

Career

Patrick Daniel Joseph Wright was born on 17 November 1940 in Oldbury,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, where he attended St Chad's School. He began playing football for a local boys' team, Springfield, which he helped to found as a 13-year-old, and – despite signing amateur forms with

in 1957 – continued playing for Springfield until the end of the 1957–58 season. He was an apprentice engineer at an ironworks in Oldbury and just shy of his 19th birthday when he signed professional forms as a part-timer with

in 1959. A few days later. he made his debut in the First Division, deputising for Brian Farmer in a 2–1 defeat at

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on 28 November, but played only twice more for the first team, at the end of the 1961–62 season, before moving to Third Division club

. Wright spent the majority of his playing career with Shrewsbury, making more than 200 appearances for the club, and also appeared for

and Southend United. Wright made his first foray into

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

. In 1971, he was appointed

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

Waterlooville Waterlooville is a town in the Borough of Havant in Hampshire, England, approximately north northeast of Portsmouth. It is the largest town in the borough. The town had a population of 64,350 in the 2011 Census. It is surrounded by Purbrook, ...

of the Southern League, and led them to the Division One South title in his first season. He then joined

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 ...

, initially as

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

coach and later as chief coach. He went on to coach all over the world, including spells with the

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

and United Arab Emirates national teams, and scouted both in England and abroad. He set up his own coaching company which he operated from 1980 until well into the 2010s, and was on the planning committee 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 School of Excellence. Wright died on 16 April 2023, at the age of 82.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Pat 1940 births 2023 deaths Footballers from Oldbury, West Midlands English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Birmingham City F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Waterlooville F.C. players English Football League players Southern Football League players English football managers English football coaches Rotherham United F.C. non-playing staff Portsmouth F.C. non-playing staff