Tommy Craig

Thomas Brooks Craig (born 21 November 1950 in Glasgow) is a Scottish football player and coach. Craig had an 18-year playing career as a midfielder, playing over 100 league games for English clubs Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle United. Towards the end of his playing career he became a coach, and he has worked for clubs including Hibernian, Celtic, Aberdeen, Newcastle and St Mirren.

For other people with the same name, see Thomas Craig (disambiguation).
Tommy Craig
Personal information
Full name Thomas Brooks Craig[1]
Date of birth (1950-11-21) 21 November 1950
Place of birth Glasgow, Scotland
Position(s) Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1967–1968 Aberdeen 45 (8)
1968–1974 Sheffield Wednesday 214 (38)
1974–1977 Newcastle United 124 (22)
1977–1979 Aston Villa 27 (2)
1979–1981 Swansea City 52 (9)
1981–1984 Carlisle United 98 (10)
1984–1985 Hibernian 11 (0)
Total 571 (89)
National team
1976 Scotland 1 (0)
Teams managed
1993–1998 Scotland U21
2009–2010 Charleroi
2014 St Mirren
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Playing career

Craig was a midfielder who started his playing career at Aberdeen. In 1969 Sheffield Wednesday paid £100,000 for his services, a club record transfer fee at the time, as well as a British record for a teenager. Craig scored 37 league goals for Wednesday, including many from the penalty spot. During his time at the club, Wednesday were relegated from the top flight following Craig's first full season, and they continued to struggle in Division Two, finally being relegated again shortly after he left for Newcastle United in 1974. While at the club, Craig was the fan favorite and was described as "an adopted Geordie".[2]

After leaving Newcastle he went on to join Ron Saunders' Aston Villa, however, his stay was short lived as Saunders was clearing the decks in order to turn Villa into the Championship and European Cup winning force of the early 1980s. He subsequently moved on to Swansea City, Carlisle United and Hibernian before becoming a coach.

Craig was capped once by Scotland, against Switzerland in 1976.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Craig was made assistant manager to John Blackley at Hibernian, before briefly taking over as caretaker manager upon Blackley's departure. He was then Billy McNeill's assistant manager at Celtic, where they won the championship in their centenary year. A spell at Aberdeen as assistant to Roy Aitken followed, before he took up the coaching role of Scotland's Under-21 team.

Craig spent time as a first team coach of Newcastle United, until he was released in September 2006.[3] While at Newcastle United, Craig stated he learned coaching development under the first team managers during his seven years as a coach.[2] He was then chosen by John Collins to be his assistant at Hibernian. Following Collins' resignation, Craig acted as the caretaker manager of Hibernian for the second time. He left the club after four games, following the appointment of Mixu Paatelainen as manager.[4] Craig joined Charleroi as assistant coach to Collins in December 2008.[5] On 20 November 2009, he was appointed as head coach on a one-and-a-half-year contract.[6] Despite this contract, Craig was sacked on 14 April 2010.[7][8]

St Mirren manager Danny Lennon appointed Craig as first team coach on 22 July 2011.[9] Craig was part of the coaching team that won the 2012–13 Scottish League Cup with St Mirren.[10] On 13 May 2014 Craig was appointed as St Mirren manager, following the departure of Lennon.[10] Immediately after taking the job, Craig included two players on his coaching team, Jim Goodwin and Gary Teale.[10] Craig was sacked in December 2014, after 19 matches in charge.[11] St Mirren were joint bottom of the Scottish Premiership and lost 4–0 to Inverness in the Scottish Cup.[11][12]

Managerial statistics
As of 9 December 2014.
Team Nat From To Record
GWDLWin %
Scotland U21 1993 1998
Charleroi 2009 2010 19231410.53
St Mirren 2014 2014 19331315.79
  • No statistics currently available for Scotland U21 team.

References
  1. "Tommy Craig". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
  2. "Former Newcastle United man on his time at St James' and becoming a manager at 63". Chronicle Live. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 25 May 2014.
  3. Tommy Craig - Statement | Newcastle United | News | Latest News | Latest News Archived 1 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Craig leaves Hibs Archived 14 July 2012 at Archive.today, STV, 11 February 2008.
  5. Le RCSC a un nouvel entraîneur., R. Charleroi S.C., 15 December 2008. (in French)
  6. Le Sporting a son nouveau coach., R. Charleroi S.C., 20 November 2009. (in French)
  7. Communique T. Craig
  8. "Tommy Craig axed as Charleroi boss". Daily Record. 15 April 2010. Retrieved 15 April 2010.
  9. "Saints Appoint First Team Coach". St Mirren F.C. 22 July 2011. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
  10. "St Mirren: Tommy Craig appointed as Danny Lennon's successor". BBC Sport. BBC. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  11. BBC Sport
  12. BBC Sport

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