Guy Whittingham

Guy Whittingham (born 10 November 1964) is an English former professional footballer and a manager. He was caretaker manager of Football League Two side Portsmouth from November 2012 until April 2013 when he took the role on a permanent basis before being sacked by Portsmouth in November 2013. On 13 December 2013, he was appointed assistant manager at Crawley Town.

Guy Whittingham
Personal information
Date of birth (1964-11-10) 10 November 1964
Place of birth Evesham, England
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1987–1988 Waterlooville 36 (22)
1988–1989 Yeovil Town 23 (18)
1989–1993 Portsmouth 160 (88)
1993–1994 Aston Villa 25 (5)
1994 → Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) 13 (8)
1994–1999 Sheffield Wednesday 113 (22)
1998 → Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan) 10 (1)
1999 → Portsmouth (loan) 9 (7)
1999 → Watford (loan) 4 (0)
1999–2001 Portsmouth 26 (4)
2000 → Peterborough United (loan) 5 (1)
2000 → Oxford United (loan) 1 (1)
2001 Wycombe Wanderers 12 (1)
2003–2005 Newport (IOW)
Total 437 (178)
Teams managed
2003–2005 Newport (IOW)
2005–2006 AFC Newbury
2011 Portsmouth (joint caretaker manager)
2012–2013 Portsmouth
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

As a player, he was a striker from 1988 until 2005, notably in the Premier League for Aston Villa and Sheffield Wednesday. Having started his career with non-league Yeovil Town he went on to play in the Football League for Portsmouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Watford, Peterborough United, Oxford United and Wycombe Wanderers. He amassed over 450 appearances throughout his career.

Playing career

Born in Evesham, after leaving the British Army, he joined Waterlooville for the start of the 1987–88 season where, after two games for the reserves, he was quickly promoted to the first team and became the club's top goalscorer in the 1987–88 season. One of his goals came in the first round proper of the F.A.Cup against Aylesbury United. He then spent a season at Yeovil Town before, in the summer of 1989, he was signed by Portsmouth, where he then spent the majority of his career, scoring 99 times in 173 league appearances, including Pompey's all-time scoring record[1] of 42 league goals in the 1992–93 season (48 in all competitions) as the club missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League on goals scored. He was known while at Fratton Park as "Corporal Punishment".[2] In 1993 he signed for Aston Villa in the Premier League. He had a good run in the team and scored important goals against Everton, Arsenal and Sheffield United,[3] before leaving on loan in February 1994 to join Wolverhampton Wanderers; this meant he missed out on Villa's victory in the 1994 Football League Cup Final. In December 1994 he joined Sheffield Wednesday, proving to be very popular at the Owls. Whilst at Wednesday he had a second loan spell at Wolves, as well as being loaned to Watford and Portsmouth who he would later rejoin permanently in 1999. At Portsmouth during his loan spell his seven goals in nine matches helped the club avoid relegation to the third tier.

In the 2000–01 season, his last as a professional, he scored for three clubs, notching for Peterborough United (against Oldham Athletic),[4] Oxford United (against Swindon Town)[5] and Wycombe Wanderers (against Bristol City).[6] He also featured in Wycombe's FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool.[7] This was the second time that Whittingham had been denied in an FA Cup semi-final by the Merseyside team, having lost in a penalty shootout to Liverpool whilst at Portsmouth in 1992.

Management and coaching career

Whittingham later went on to become player-manager of Newport (IOW), but left them in May 2005 when the club ran into financial difficulties. He returned to management at AFC Newbury but when that club suffered financial difficulties and the loss of their ground, Whittingham left in June 2006. In August 2006 he took up a coaching role at Eastleigh. In January 2009, he joined the Portsmouth first-team coaching staff as development coach.

He was named joint caretaker manager of Portsmouth together with Stuart Gray on 14 October 2011, when Steve Cotterill left to become manager of Nottingham Forest. The next day the pair won their first game in charge against Barnsley 2–0 at Fratton Park.

Whittingham once again became caretaker manager of the south coast club following Michael Appleton leaving to take the vacant position at Blackpool,[8] and stayed as caretaker until the club exited administration in April 2013, with his full-time appointing imminent.[9] On 25 November 2013, Whittingham was relieved from his duties following a meeting with the Portsmouth board. . The 2–1 loss to Southend proved to be his last game in charge on the south coast.[10]

Whittingham was appointed first team coach at Crawley on Friday 13 December 2013.[11] Whittingham left the club in April 2014 when it was "mutually agreed" that his contract would not be renewed.[12]

Whittingham joined the FA as a coach educator on 1 August 2014.[13]

Managerial statistics
As of 23 November 2013[14]
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Portsmouth 7 November 2012 25 November 2013 51 11 15 25 021.57
Total 51 11 15 25 021.57

References
  1. "Portsmouth, from Tindall to Ball" Farmery, C: Southend-on-Sea, Desert Island Books, 1999 ISBN 1-874287-25-2
  2. Army career
  3. "Games played by Guy Whittingham in 1993/1994". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 3 May 2017.
  4. "Oldham Athletic 1–4 Peterborough United". BBC. 26 August 2000. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  5. "Swindon 2–1 Oxford". BBC. 8 October 2000. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  6. "Bristol City 1–2 Wycombe". BBC. 16 April 2001. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  7. "Liverpool end Wycombe's fight". BBC. 8 April 2001. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  8. Hassan, Nabil (8 November 2012). "Michael Appleton: Portsmouth exit inevitable – Birch". BBC South Sport. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
  9. "Whittingham Appointed Pompey Manager". Portsmouth's official website. 24 April 2013. Archived from the original on 27 April 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2013.
  10. "Guy Leaves Managerial Post". Portsmouth's official website. 25 November 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  11. "Guy Whittingham appointed Crawley Town first-team coach". BBC Sport. 13 December 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  12. "Guy Whittingham: Ex-Portsmouth manager leaves Crawley Town". BBC Sport. 29 April 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  13. "League Managers Association - GUY WHITTINGHAM". www.leaguemanagers.com. Retrieved 15 August 2017.
  14. "Managers: Guy Whittingham". Soccerbase. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
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