Alexander "Sandy" Clark (born 28 October 1956) is a Scottish professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game be ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

who is currently manager of

Lowland League The Scottish Lowland Football League (SLFL, commonly known as the Lowland League) is a senior football league based in central and southern Scotland. The league sits at level 5 on the Scottish football league system, acting as a feeder to the ...

side East Stirlingshire.

Career

Clark played for several clubs in his playing career including his home town club

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie Unite ...

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

, Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium ...

. His longest and most successful spells were those at Tynecastle and Broomfield. In 1982, Clark won the

Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year The PFA Scotland Players' Player of the Year (often called the Players' Player of the Year, or simply the Scottish Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is adjudged to have been the best of the season in Scottish footbal ...

award. In 1984, Clark went on to win the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in exist ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

with Rangers in a 3-2 victory over Celtic. He has managed several clubs, including

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. The club have been mem ...

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scottis ...

, Hearts (twice, once as caretaker),

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an ol ...

and

Berwick Rangers Berwick Rangers Football Club is a football team based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, just south of the border with Scotland. Founded in 1881, they currently play in the , the fifth tier of Scottish football, despite hailing f ...

. His work with

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: ''BBC Alba'') is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. It is one of the four BBC national regions, together with the BBC English Regions, BBC Cymru Wales and BBC Northern Irelan ...

previously included TV commentary, where he was the regular summariser to main commentator

Rob MacLean Robin "Rob" Maclean (born 1958 in Invergordon) is a Scottish television presenter, football commentator and sports writer. He currently works for BBC Scotland and BT Sport. Maclean began his career with the Highland News Group in Inverness b ...

. In 2005, Clark was appointed as a striker coach at

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...

. He left the club in May 2009, along with manager

Jimmy Calderwood James Calderwood (born 28 February 1955) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Calderwood played for Birmingham City and Dutch clubs Sparta Rotterdam, Willem II Tilburg, Roda JC and Heracles Almelo. After retiring as a player, Calder ...

and assistant

Jimmy Nicholl James Michael Nicholl (born 28 December 1956) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who played for several clubs, including Manchester United and Rangers. He was mainly a right-back but could also play in other defensive roles. N ...

. In January 2010 he joined Kilmarnock as first team coach, working under the same management team until the end of the 2009–10 season. Clark was a sports performance lecturer at Cumbernauld College after leaving Kilmarnock. Clark was appointed Queen of the South's assistant manager to

Allan Johnston Allan Johnston (born 14 December 1973) is a Scottish football player and coach, who was most recently the manager of Queen of the South. Johnston started his professional playing career with Heart of Midlothian and then followed on to French ...

on 14 May 2012. Johnston and Clark signed a one-year contract extension on 13 April 2013, but then moved onto Kilmarnock as that club's new management team in June 2013. Clark left Kilmarnock in May 2014 and was appointed assistant manager to

Darren Young Frederick Douglas Rosser III (born November 2, 1983) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is the current Strong Openweight Champion in his first reign. He is best known for his ...

Albion Rovers Albion Rovers Football Club is a semi-professional football team from Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. They are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League Two, the fourth tier of the Scot ...

in June 2014. At the end of the 2014–15 season, Clark departed

and was once again re-united with Allan Johnston, this time as assistant manager of

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Champio ...

club

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish Association football, football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Champ ...

. Johnston and Clark departed the ''Pars'' during January 2019 and returned to Dumfries club Queens for a second spell on 5 May 2019, after the departure of

Gary Naysmith Gary Andrew Naysmith (born 16 November 1978) is a Scottish football coach and former player, who is currently the manager of Scottish League Two side Stenhousemuir. Naysmith, who played as a left-back or left-winger, started his senior car ...

. Johnston and Clark joined on a two-year contract and their first game in-charge came in the

play-off first-leg versus Montrose. On 16 April 2021, Johnston and Clark signed a contract extension to remain the Doonhamers management team until May 2023. On 13 February 2022, Johnston and Clark departed the Doonhamers by mutual consent ''(4 wins in 24 matches)'' as the Dumfries club languished in the automatic relegation place in the

. On 25 November 2022, Clark was appointed manager of

side East Stirlingshire. This was to be Clark's first managerial position since he departed

in 2005.

Personal life

Sandy Clark is the father of Nicky Clark, who has also played for

References

External links

*
Profile
a
londonhearts.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Sandy 1956 births Living people Scottish football managers Scottish footballers Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) players Rangers F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. managers St Johnstone F.C. managers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. players Dunfermline Athletic F.C. non-playing staff Heart of Midlothian F.C. managers West Ham United F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. managers Berwick Rangers F.C. managers Footballers from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire Aberdeen F.C. non-playing staff Scottish Premier League managers Scottish Football League players English Football League players Association football forwards Scottish Football League managers Association football coaches