Darren Moore

Darren Mark Moore (born 22 April 1974) is a professional football coach and former player, who is the current manager of League One club Doncaster Rovers. Born in England, he earned three international caps for Jamaica. Moore is also a member of the management committee of the Professional Footballers' Association. As a player, he represented Torquay United, Doncaster Rovers, Bradford City, Portsmouth, Derby County, Barnsley and Burton Albion. He also played for West Bromwich Albion, going on to serve as their manager between 2018 and 2019.

Darren Moore
Moore while at Burton Albion in 2011
Personal information
Full name Darren Mark Moore[1]
Date of birth (1974-04-22) 22 April 1974[1]
Place of birth Birmingham, England[1]
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)[2]
Position(s) Defender
Club information
Current team
 Doncaster Rovers (manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–1995 Torquay United 103 (8)
1995–1997 Doncaster Rovers 76 (7)
1997–1999 Bradford City 63 (3)
1999–2001 Portsmouth 59 (2)
2001–2006 West Bromwich Albion 104 (6)
2006–2008 Derby County 83 (4)
2008–2010 Barnsley 73 (2)
2010–2012 Burton Albion 38 (0)
Total 599 (32)
National team
1999–2000 Jamaica 3 (0)
Teams managed
2018–2019 West Bromwich Albion
2019– Doncaster Rovers
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Early life

Moore attended James Watt Primary School and Holyhead Secondary, both in Handsworth, Birmingham. He played for Holly Lane Colts and in 1989 had a trial with Walsall.[3]

Club career

Torquay United

He began his football career as a trainee with Torquay United in June 1990,[3] and made his debut while still a trainee on 24 March 1992, in a 2–1 defeat at home to Birmingham City. He turned professional in November 1992.[3] Moore began the following season as first choice in the centre of defence, alongside Wes Saunders and went on to play over 100 league games for Torquay before leaving to join Doncaster Rovers for a fee of £62,500 in July 1995.

Doncaster Rovers

Moore arrived at Doncaster with Torquay teammates Scott Colcombe and Duane Darby.[4] He appeared in the first game of the season, a home victory against Scarborough om 12 August.[4] His first goal came in a draw at Barnet on 4 November that season.[4] Altogether Moore played 84 games and scored 8 goals in his two seasons at Belle Vue.[4]

His time at Doncaster wasn't easy as the club at that time was in the grip of owner Ken Richardson,[4] who had been charged with attempting to burn the main stand down, something that had happened only days before Moore had arrived at the club.[5] Financially the club was in dire straits and worse, Kerry Dixon, the manager, had said Richardson was picking the team not him.[4] On the back of this, on 4 June 1997 he left for Bradford City for a fee of £310,000.

Bradford City

He played 18 times during his first season with injuries limiting his starts. But in 1998–99 he started 44 games helping City to promotion into the Premier League for the first time. During the summer he refused to sign a new contract and fell out of favour with manager Paul Jewell. He played just once more for Bradford, in the League Cup against Reading.

Portsmouth

Portsmouth snatched his services from a collection of other suitors, for a fee of £500,000, in November 1999. He spent less than two years at Fratton Park before returning to the West Midlands with West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £750,000 on 14 September 2001.[6]

West Bromwich Albion

The following day he made his Albion debut, as a 2nd-half substitute in a 2–1 win at Watford. Moore proved to be a rock at the heart of the Baggies defence as they earned promotion to the Premiership in 2001–02, and was named in the PFA Division One team of the year.[7] After Albion were relegated from the top flight, he helped them bounce back at the first attempt, figuring in the promotion winning side of 2003–04.

Moore struggled to hold down a regular first team place during the first half of the 2005–06 season. He was sent off in the match against Wigan Athletic on 15 January 2006, his only dismissal in over 100 games for Albion.[8] It proved to be his last game for the club, and later that month he was signed for Derby County by Phil Brown for a fee of £300,000, rising to £500,000 depending on appearances.[9]

Derby County
Moore while at Derby County in 2007

Moore was a pivotal figure in the 2006–07 Derby side that clinched promotion back to the Premier League after a five-year absence by winning the Championship playoff final 1–0 against his former club West Brom. This was the fourth time he had been part of a squad which won promotion to the Premier League, following on from his successes at West Brom (twice) and Bradford. His form that year led to him being named in the PFA Championship team of the year for 2006–07.[10] In the 2007–08 Premiership season, Derby were relegated as the bottom club, although Moore was awarded the club's internal Player of the Season award.[11] Following the club's relegation, manager Paul Jewell allowed Moore to talk to his former club Bradford City, who were managed by his former teammates Stuart McCall and Wayne Jacobs as assistant.[12] However, Bradford City decided not to pursue their interest in Moore, instead opting to sign Graeme Lee.[13]

Barnsley

Moore signed for Barnsley on 2 July 2008. Barnsley manager Simon Davey said they beat off competition from several sides to land the experienced defender.[14] He scored his first goal for the club on 1 November 2008, with a header in a 3–1 win against Charlton Athletic. He scored his second goal for the club on 17 April 2010 against Swansea City. On 2 May 2010 after the West Bromwich Albion game, Moore was released by Barnsley.[15]

Burton Albion

Moore signed for Burton Albion on 7 May 2010, days after his release from Barnsley, rejecting offers from higher-level clubs.[16] He made his first appearance in a Brewers shirt in a pre-season friendly against former club Derby County on 17 July 2010,[17] and on 3 August 2010 was announced as the club's new captain, replacing Darren Stride.[18] Moore left the club on 7 February 2012. He then played for a while for Wellington Amateurs, before returning to his old club West Brom, employed as a youth coach.[19]

International career

Moore made 3 appearances for the Jamaica national team.

Managerial career

West Bromwich Albion

On 2 April 2018, West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew, was dismissed from his post after a run of poor results, leaving them bottom of the Premier League and ten points from safety.[20] Moore was then appointed as caretaker manager, taking charge of all current first team affairs until the end of the season.[20] This made him the first ever Jamaican to manage in the Premier League.[21] Under his leadership, West Brom went undefeated in April, a run that included a 1–0 away win against Manchester United – handing the league title to United's arch-rivals Manchester City, in part earning Moore the Premier League Manager of the Month honour.[22] However, West Brom were relegated from the Premier League later that day following Southampton's win against Swansea City, ending the club's eight-year tenure in the top-flight.[23]

After much speculation over who would become the next permanent manager of West Bromwich Albion, on 18 May 2018, Moore was appointed as the permanent head coach, after impressing during his caretaker spell with the Baggies.[24] The Baggies walked into the new Championship season as firm favourites for promotion, and by Moore's time of departure, were sat in fourth place and in contention for qualification for the promotion play-offs.[25] On 9 March 2019, Moore was sacked by the club, after a negative string of home results.[26] James Shan temporarily replaced Moore in caretaker charge,[27][28] leading them to the play-off semi-finals against eventual winners Aston Villa, suffering defeat.[29] Slaven Bilić was appointed as Moore's permanent successor in June 2019.[30]

Doncaster Rovers

On 10 July 2019, Moore was appointed as the new manager of League One side Doncaster Rovers,[31] replacing Grant McCann, who left to take charge of Hull City in the Championship.[32]

Personal life

At West Brom he has been known by supporters as "Big Dave".[33]

Moore is a devout Christian. He is active in the Christian charity Faith and Football with Linvoy Primus and Lomana LuaLua and has described the two as his best friends. In 2005, Moore, along with Primus, walked the Great Wall of China to raise money for children's causes. He has raised thousands of pounds for Christian Aid and Oxfam and started to raise awareness about helping children in third-world countries. Moore and Primus have organised another charity bicycle ride from Charlton to Portsmouth, via Barnet and Reading, all clubs where Primus played, to raise money for the Faith and Football charity.[34] In 2004, Moore received an award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Grass Roots and Community Football Projects' as part of the PFA's 'Let's Kick Racism Out of Football' campaign.[35]

Managerial statistics
As of match played 30 January 2021[36]
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
PWDLWin %
West Bromwich Albion 2 April 2018 9 March 2019 48 23 13 12 047.9
Doncaster Rovers 10 July 2019 Present 72 34 14 24 047.2
Total 120 57 27 36 047.5

Honours

Individual

References
  1. "Darren Moore". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  2. "Darren Moore". 11v11.com. AFS Enterprises. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  3. Matthews, Tony (2005). The Who's Who of West Bromwich Albion. Breedon Books. pp. 156–157. ISBN 1-85983-474-4.
  4. Bluff, Tony (2010). Doncaster Rovers F.C.: The Complete History (1879-2010). Yore Publications. ISBN 9780956410375.
  5. "The big man is back". Doncaster Free Press. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
  6. "Baggies finally sign Moore". BBC Sport. 14 September 2001. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  7. "Top three dominate". BBC Sport. 15 April 2002. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  8. "Wigan 0–1 West Brom". BBC Sport. 15 January 2006. Retrieved 14 May 2007.
  9. "Derby sign Baggies defender Moore". BBC Sport. 26 January 2006. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  10. "Ronaldo secures PFA awards double". BBC Sport. 22 April 2007. Retrieved 23 April 2007.
  11. "Moore and Bolder two of a kind in hard times". Derby Evening Telegraph. 6 May 2008. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
  12. "McCall rates Moore deal unlikely". BBC Sport. 13 June 2008. Retrieved 14 June 2008.
  13. Parker, Simon (1 July 2008). "Lee is ready to be new Wetherall". Telegraph & Argus. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
  14. "Darren Moore signs for reds". Barnsley F.C. 2 July 2008. Archived from the original on 27 September 2008.
  15. "Charlton 1–3 Barnsley. On 2 May 2010 after the West Bromwich Albion Moore was released by Barnsley". BBC Sport. 1 November 2008. Retrieved 2 November 2008.
  16. "Brewers Agree To Sign Darren Moore". 7 May 2010. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011.
  17. "Burton Albion 0 – Derby County 1". 17 July 2010. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012.
  18. "Darren Moore Announced As Club Captain". 3 August 2010. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012.
  19. "Darren Moore coming home to West Brom". Express & Star. 9 June 2012.
  20. "Alan Pardew: West Bromwich Albion part company with manager". BBC Sport. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  21. https://www.premierleague.com/news/656072
  22. "Darren Moore: West Brom caretaker boss named Premier League manager of the month". BBC. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  23. "West Brom Relegated From Premier League". Sky Sports. 8 May 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  24. "Moore appointed Head Coach". WBA. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  25. "Standings: EFL Championship". English Football League. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  26. "Darren Moore: West Brom Albion sack head coach after Ipswich draw". BBC Sport. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  27. Wilson, Matt. "West Brom v Swansea preview: Proud moment for proud father James Shan". www.expressandstar.com. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  28. "West Bromwich Albion: Jimmy Shan to stay in charge for rest of season". BBC Sport. 16 April 2019.
  29. "Aston Villa beat West Bromwich Albion to reach Championship play-off final". BBC Sport. 14 May 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  30. "Slaven Bilic: West Bromwich Albion name ex-West Ham manager as head coach". BBC Sport. 13 June 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  31. "Darren Moore: Doncaster Rovers name former West Brom boss as manager". BBC Sport. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  32. "Grant McCann: Hull City appoint Doncaster Rovers boss as head coach". BBC Sport. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2019.
  33. "'Big Dave' is the main man". West Bromwich Albion F.C. 20 February 2007. Archived from the original on 13 February 2008. Retrieved 20 August 2007.
  34. "Tykes stopper gets on his bike". The Football League. 13 August 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2008.
  35. "Moore bags top award". West Bromwich Albion F.C. 21 January 2004. Archived from the original on 6 August 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2008.
  36. "Managers: Darren Moore". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  37. "Manager profile: Darren Moore". Premier League. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  38. "Manager of the Month: Darren Moore".
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