Donald Scott Leitch (born 6 October 1969) is a Scottish former football player and coach, who played as a
midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...
and
Motherwell
Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...
Leitch began his playing career in 1989 at junior club
Shettleston
Shettleston ( sco, Shuttlestoun, gd, Baile Nighean Sheadna) is a district in the east end of Glasgow in Scotland.
Toponymy
The origin of the name 'Shettleston' is not clear and, like many place-names of possibly medieval origin, has had a mult ...
before turning professional with Dunfermline Athletic in April 1990. After three years at Dunfermline he joined Heart of Midlothian, where he remained for another three years before moving to England with
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...
in a £15,000 transfer. Leitch returned to Scotland in 2000 with home-town team
Motherwell
Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...
where he played 128 league games, scoring 1 goal.
A succession of injury problems prompted Leitch to retire as player in 2006 and turn to management with Ross County, where he was officially appointed on 18 April 2006. He guided the club to their first national trophy in November 2006, when they won the
Scottish Challenge Cup
The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,Clyde, however the club were also relegated from the
Scottish First Division
The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013.
History
The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as ...
the same season.
On 30 April 2007, Leitch resigned as manager of Ross County after the club's relegation. In June that year he became assistant manager to Mark McGhee at Motherwell. In June 2009 Leitch became the assistant manager of
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), ...
when McGhee became their manager. Leitch was sacked by Aberdeen on 1 December 2010 along with manager McGhee and coach Colin Meldrum after a poor run of results left them only spared from the foot of the
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Football League (SFL). It was abolished in 2013, when t ...
by goal difference; they also oversaw the SPL's heaviest ever defeat when Celtic beat Aberdeen 9–0. Leitch was then
academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
director at Motherwell from November 2013 to December 2017.
Personal life
Leitch has two sons,
Jack
Jack may refer to:
Places
* Jack, Alabama, US, an unincorporated community
* Jack, Missouri, US, an unincorporated community
* Jack County, Texas, a county in Texas, USA
People and fictional characters
* Jack (given name), a male given name, ...
and Robbie, who have both played for Motherwell's youth teams. Jack left school in summer 2011 to sign a contract with Motherwell. After serious injury hampered his progress, he moved to
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 ...
in 2016. Having been part of the team which won the 2015-16 Scottish Youth Cup, he also left the club in 2016, moving to
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...