Suzanne Shepherd (née Robertson; born 3 July 1975) is a Scottish

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 beg ...

and former player whose position was defender. She has been the head coach of Dundee United Women since March 2024.

Playing career

Raised in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Robertson did not play organised football until the age of 19.Leading the Line Meets: Boroughmuir Thistle Head Coach Suzy Shepherd
Chris Marshall, ''Leading the Line'', 4 September 2020 She joined Hibernian around the time the team was formed in 1997, and was a major part of their success in the first decade of the 21st century, winning three

Scottish Women's Premier League The Scottish Women's Premier League (SWPL) is the highest level of league competition in women's football in Scotland. Its two divisions are SWPL (previously styled as ''SWPL 1'') and SWPL 2. The league was formed when the Premier Division of th ...

championships, three

Scottish Women's Cup The Women's Scottish Cup is the national knockout cup competition for women's football in Scotland. First held in 1970–71 and known as the Scottish Women's FA Cup, the competition was owned and managed by Scottish Women's Football (SWF), an ...

s and one SWPL Cup. She also spent time on loan in the United States with New Jersey Wildcats (alongside compatriot Debbie McWhinnie) and in Iceland with ÍBV (with fellow Scot Suzanne Malone). In 2007, Robertson was recruited to be part of the new women's football setup at

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

– the team reached the Scottish Cup final in their first season but were defeated by Hibs,Hibernian Ladies 3 - 1 Celtic Ladies: Women's team show male counterparts how it's done

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact (newspaper), compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until ...

, 19 May 2008 and were unable to dethrone the increasingly dominant Glasgow City in the league. Robertson returned to Hibs in 2009 and lifted a further Scottish Cup and SWPL Cup before moving on to smaller Edinburgh teams

Hutchison Vale Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale Football Club (LTHV) are a senior non-league football club based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Currently competing in the , they play their home matches at Saughton Enclosure in the Saughton area of the city. History ...

and finally

Spartans Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

, where she began to transition into a coaching role but also appeared in one more Scottish Cup final at the age of 39 – Spartans were beaten 5–0 by Glasgow City.Scottish Cup Final: Spartans fall at Final hurdle against City
Spartans FC Women, 16 November 2014 During her first spell with Hibs, Robertson was selected 11 times by

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

between 2001 and 2005.

Coaching career

As her playing days drew to a close, Shepherd was appointed as the Spartans manager to succeed Debbi McCulloch in late 2015, taking up the role for the 2016 season in which the club finished 6th. They improved to 5th in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, but she stepped down at the end of the year. At that time she was also working as the assistant to Pauline Hamill, coach of the Scotland under-19 team. Intending to take a break from the game, she was soon invited to take a leading role at Boroughmuir Thistle, an Edinburgh club with an extensive youth team network for girls but no financial backing from a men's club. She remained there for over five years, in which Boroughmuir consolidated their position in the third tier SWFL First Division, then were promoted to the Scottish Women's Premier League 2 in 2020 after the withdrawal of Hutchison Vale from the competition. The club survived at that level for three seasons, but Shepherd resigned as head coach at the end of 2022–23 campaign. In her vocation as a

personal trainer A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, providing m ...

, she had also overseen the development of Boroughmuir's most promising young player,

Emma Watson Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson (born 15 April 1990) is an English actress. Known for her roles in both Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters and independent films, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Emma Watson, ...

, who soon moved on to a professional contract at

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

and became a full international. In March 2024, Shepherd was appointed head coach at

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, after Graeme Hart was sacked with the side struggling near the foot of the table in their first-ever season in SWPL1.Dundee United Women appoint Suzy Shepherd as head coach

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

, 1 March 2024 Two months later, the team retained their place in the top division by defeating

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

in the relegation/promotion play-off.Dundee United come from behind to win SWPL Play-Off

She Kicks ''She Kicks'' is a women's football magazine and website published by Baltic Publications. Produced bi-monthly, costing £4.25, and at 64–72 pages long, it published FIFA Women's World Cup special editions in 2011 and 2015 and a 20th anniversa ...

, 24 May 2024

Honours

Hibernian *

: 2003–04, 2005–06, 2006–07 *

: 2002–03, 2004–05, 2006–07,

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 ...

**Runner-up

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Scottish Women's Premier League Cup The Scottish Women's Premier League Cup, currently known as the Sky Sports Cup due to sponsorship and commonly shortened to the SWPL Cup, is a league cup competition in women's football in Scotland. The cup is open only to the teams in the Scottis ...

: 2004–05,

**Runner-up 2006–07 Celtic *Scottish Women's Cup: Runner-up 2007–08 Spartans *Scottish Women's Cup: Runner-up

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual *

Hibernian F.C. Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the , the top division of Scottish football. The club was founded in 1875 by members of Edinburgh's Irish commu ...

Hall of Fame inductee: 2024Six Hibs legends inducted into Hall of Fame

Hibernian FC Hibernian Football Club (), commonly known as Hibs, is a professional football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The team competes in the , the top division of Scottish football. The club was founded in 1875 by members of Edinburgh's Irish commun ...

, 17 October 2024

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shepherd, Suzy 1975 births Living people Spartans W.F.C. players Hibernian W.F.C. players Celtic F.C. Women players New Jersey Wildcats players USL W-League (1995–2015) players ÍBV women's football players Besta deild kvenna players Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish women's footballers Women's association football defenders Scottish Women's Premier League players Scotland women's international footballers Scottish expatriate women's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Iceland Expatriate women's footballers in Iceland Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Scottish football managers Scottish Women's Premier League managers Female association football managers Dundee United W.F.C. managers