Terence Fitzroy Connor (born 9 November 1962) is an English former professional football player turned coach who is assistant manager at

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre rivers, and ...

. He was born in

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

and was a pupil at

Foxwood School Foxwood School was a Comprehensive school in Seacroft, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It opened in 1956 and closed 40 years later in 1996. History Summary Foxwood School was the first comprehensive school in Leeds and opened on 4 September 195 ...

Seacroft Seacroft is an outer-city suburb/township consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the LS14 Leeds postcode area, around east of Leeds city centre. It sits in th ...

, Leeds. As a player, Connor scored 91 goals from 358 games 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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

as a striker playing for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ...

and

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

once for the England under-21 team. He moved into coaching following his playing retirement, briefly working as a coach at both

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

and

before joining Wolves in 1999. After holding a variety of positions he served as Wolves' manager for thirteen games during their Premier League relegation in 2012.

Playing career

Connor scored on his senior debut for

aged 17, in a 1–0 win over

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional Association football, football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English foo ...

on 17 November 1979. He made 108 appearances in total for Leeds over four seasons, scoring 22 goals. He joined

in exchange for Andy Ritchie, in March 1983. However, he was unable to appear in their

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

appearance just months later as he was already

cup-tied In association football, a player who has appeared for a football club during a knockout cup but subsequently transfers to another club is ineligible to play for the new club in the remainder of that season's cup competition. Such a player is sa ...

. The club ended the season relegated. The majority of Connor's games for Brighton came in the Second Division. His form here won him an

England under-21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the cale ...

cap in November 1986, when he played and scored against Yugoslavia under-21. He scored 51 goals in 156 appearances before leaving Brighton as they dropped into the third tier in 1987. One of his most memorable goals for Brighton came when they knocked

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

out of the 1983-84 FA Cup, a season in which Liverpool won the

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

and were crowned English champions. He moved along the South Coast to sign for

in a £200,000 deal. Portsmouth were newly promoted to the First Division at the time of Connor's arrival, but despite his goals they were relegated after just one season. He remained at

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect Ar ...

for three seasons before joining

for £150,000 in August 1990. After a solitary full season with the Swans in the third tier, he moved to

in September 1991. He failed to make much impact at Bristol City, playing just 16 times and scoring once; he was also briefly loaned back to Swansea in autumn 1992. He dropped into

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is s ...

in summer 1993 when he signed for

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main ...

club Yeovil Town.

Coaching career

Early roles

After retiring, he became one of the coaching staff at

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 ...

. Later, Connor and family friend Maurice Gardner turned to coaching, working under John Ward at

, before moving across the city to work at

Move to Wolves

After John Ward moved to become assistant manager at

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Ro ...

, he recruited Connor to their coaching staff in August 1999. Connor served as a coach – at youth, reserve and first team level – under a succession of Wolves' managers before being promoted to assistant manager under

Mick McCarthy Michael Joseph McCarthy (born 7 February 1959) is a professional football manager, pundit, and former player. He was last in charge of EFL Championship club Cardiff City. McCarthy began his playing career at Barnsley in 1977, and he later ha ...

in August 2008.

Promotion to Manager

In February 2012, he was given the role of manager by Wolves until the end of the current season, after the sacking of Mick McCarthy. chief executive Jez Moxey confirmed that the position was offered to one other candidate, widely considered by the media to be

Alan Curbishley Llewellyn Charles "Alan" Curbishley (born 8 November 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He played as a midfielder for West Ham United F.C., West Ham United, Birmingham City F.C., Birmingham City, Aston Villa F.C., Aston Villa ...

, who refused the position before Connor was appointed. This was despite Moxey previously stating that the job would be given to an experienced manager. Connor took charge with Wolves in 18th place, one of five teams at the foot of the table looking to avoid the three relegation places. His first game in charge brought a 2–2 draw at

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional Association football, football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football league system, English football. The club was ...

on 25 February 2012. However, his side then suffered seven consecutive defeats which left them rooted to the bottom of the table and were relegated on 22 April after a 0–2 defeat to Manchester City. In his thirteen games, he failed to achieve any wins and gained only four points from a possible 39. The team finished bottom of the table with one of the lowest points tallies in their history (25). In May 2012 Wolves announced that Connor would be succeeded by

Ståle Solbakken Ståle Solbakken (born 27 February 1968) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Norway national team. During his playing career, Solbakken was named 1995 Norwegian midfielder of the year, and h ...

as a permanent appointment during the summer. Connor had also been interviewed for the position. It was agreed that he would return to his position as assistant manager following Solbakken's appointment, but he departed after just four games of the new season.

Ipswich Town

On 1 November 2012, Connor renewed his working relationship with

, as he was appointed

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn professio ...

's new assistant manager after McCarthy took charge at the club. On 2 February 2013, Connor took charge of Ipswich while McCarthy was ill and won 4–0 against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

On 30 June 2014 Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor agreed a new three-year deal with Ipswich. On 10 April 2018 they left Ipswich Town and cut the contract short with a 1–0 win over Barnsley.

Republic of Ireland

On 25 November 2018, the FAI announced that Terry Connor would be the assistant coach of the Republic of Ireland for their upcoming European Championships 2020 campaign, joining Mick McCarthy.

After Ireland

After his role with the Republic of Ireland, he followed McCarthy back into club football and worked on the coaching staff at APOEL,

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and then

Managerial statistics

References

Player Profile
at Leeds-fans.org.uk {{DEFAULTSORT:Connor, Terry 1962 births Living people People from Seacroft English footballers Black British sportspeople Footballers from Leeds Association football forwards England under-21 international footballers Football managers from Leeds Leeds United F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players English football managers Premier League managers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. managers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Ipswich Town F.C. non-playing staff Bristol Rovers F.C. non-playing staff Cardiff City F.C. non-playing staff Blackpool F.C. non-playing staff