Phil Brown (footballer, born 1959)

Phil Brown

Personal information
Full name	Philip Brown
Height	5'11'
Position(s)	Defender (retired)
Team information
Current team	Hull City (manager)

Philip "Phil" Brown (born 30 May, 1959 in South Shields, England) is an English former footballer, and the current manager of Hull City.

Playing career

Phil Brown started his career playing Sunday league football for South Shields side Red Duster in the South Shields Business Houses League, in the same team as Bobby Davison who went on to play for Leeds United.

As a professional, Brown played as a full back for many years — most of which were spent at Bolton Wanderers. He also played for Hartlepool and Halifax Town, playing alongside fellow North Easterner Billy Ayre at both clubs and under him at the latter, and finishing his playing career at Blackpool, managed by Sam Allardyce, in 1996.

Managerial career

Brown started taking his coaching badges while playing for Bolton, encouraged by Bruce Rioch. His first managerial role was as assistant to Sam Allardyce at Blackpool. He returned to Bolton after his playing career ended and served as assistant manager to Colin Todd. Following Todd's departure in 1999, he took charge of the team as caretaker manager, winning four games out of five, until the appointment of Sam Allardyce. He then served as Allardyce's assistant for six years, before deciding to forge his own career as a manager.

Derby County

Brown's first full time senior management position was at Derby County, where he succeeded George Burley in June 2005. His time at Derby County proved to be unsuccessful and he was sacked just seven months into his tenure, in January 2006, after a 3–1 defeat to Colchester in the FA Cup fourth round.

Hull City

Brown was appointed as first-team coach at Hull City on 27 October, 2006 under Phil Parkinson, and took over as joint caretaker manager alongside Colin Murphy on 4 December 2006 after Parkinson's sacking, with Hull in 22nd place in the Football League Championship. After taking Hull out of the relegation zone with three wins and a draw in the six matches he took charge of as caretaker, he was appointed as the permanent manager of the club on 4 January 2007.

Brown went on to lead the Tigers to Championship safety, and the following season Hull City won promotion to the top level of English football for the first time in the club's 104-year history, by beating Bristol City at Wembley in the Championship play-off final on 24 May, 2008. Brown described this as "the best day of my life, without a shadow of a doubt".

Brown was rewarded with a new three-year contract, which he signed on the weekend of Hull City's first ever top-flight match, a 2–1 victory over Fulham on August 16 2008. On 28 September Brown managed Hull to a famous away victory over Arsenal by 2 goals to 1. It was only Arsenal's second ever defeat at the Emirates Stadium and was described by the Hull press as the greatest victory in the club's history. After a 1-0 victory at bottom of the table Tottenham the following weekend, Hull stand in a incredible 3rd place in the Premier League and are still unbeaten away from home. On 10 October 2008, he was awarded Manager of the Month for Hull's amazing performance in September.

Managerial stats

Includes all competitive games. Updated 5 October 2008.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Bolton Wanderers (caretaker)		22 September 1999	19 October 1999	5	4	1	0	80.00
Derby County		24 June 2005	30 January 2006	33	7	12	14	21.21
Hull City		4 December 2006	Present	89	39	29	21	43.82

Personal life

Brown is married to Karen, and has two children, Jamie and Sophie. His parents were Ronnie and Peggy, who passed on a love of football and Sunderland football club. At school, one of his teachers was long-distance runner Brendan Foster.

References

• Phil Brown's playing at Soccerbase
• Brown's management career statistics at Soccerbase
• Profile at Neil Brown's statistics site
• BBC Sport profile