Steve Cotterill

Stephen John Cotterill (born 20 July 1964) is an English coach and former player who is the manager of EFL League Two side Forest Green Rovers.

Cotterill, a striker, had a nine-year career as a footballer playing for Burton Albion, Wimbledon, Brighton & Hove Albion and AFC Bournemouth before deciding to take up football management.

He began with Irish side Sligo Rovers and after a year he returned to England and took over at his home town club, Cheltenham Town.

He did well at Whaddon Road guiding the club from the sixth tier to the third in five years.

In 1989, he moved into professional football when signing for Wimbledon in the First Division.

He made 25 appearances in four years at Wimbledon and went out on loan to Brighton & Hove Albion to recapture his fitness following a serious cruciate knee-ligament injury.

Cotterill signed for Bournemouth in the summer of 1993 for the fee of £120,000.

He was out of contract and this fee was set by the then Transfer Tribunal.

In three years at Bournemouth he got his career back in good shape scoring 18 goals in 55 league starts for the club.

While at the club he picked up three player of the season awards but had to finish his career in 1996 after another bad knee injury from which he was unable to fully recover.

Following on from Lawrie Sanchez, Sligo Rovers appointed Cotterill for the 1996 season.

He led the club to third place in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland and his side also reached the League of Ireland Cup final, where they lost on penalties to Shelbourne.

Cotterill also led them into the 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup, playing against teams such as Nantes where they earned a 3–3 draw and another creditable 0–0 draw against Dutch team, Heerenveen.

Cotterill joined Cheltenham when they were still a non-league club and he built up a successful side which won promotion from the Southern Football League Premier Division to the Football Conference in his first full year at the club.

He won the FA Trophy in 1998, beating Southport 1–0 in the final, and Cheltenham finished second in the Conference the same year, their first season in that league.

Cheltenham won the Conference and with it promotion to the Football League the following year.

His first two seasons in the Third Division saw them finish in the top half.

In 2001–02, the club reached the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time in its history, ended only by a 1–0 away defeat to West Bromwich Albion and including the defeat of Cotterill's future club Burnley.

He twice won the prestigious award of Manager of the Year during his tenure.

Cotterill took Cheltenham into the Second Division that season, following a play-off victory over Rushden & Diamonds at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

His success at Cheltenham led to Stoke City appointing him as their manager prior to the 2002–03 season.

He was awarded his UEFA Pro Licence in 2002.

Cotterill left Cheltenham to join First Division side Stoke City in the summer of 2002.

His only major summer signing was that of striker Chris Greenacre from Mansfield Town.

Stoke began the 2002–03 season with a 0–0 draw at Sheffield Wednesday and their first win came on 17 August against Bradford City.

This was followed by a 3–4 defeat by Preston North End and narrow losses to Derby County and Burnley.

The side then went five matches unbeaten before Cotterill shocked the club on 10 October by handing in his resignation after just 13 games to become assistant manager to Howard Wilkinson at Sunderland.

As Howard Wilkinson's assistant, they were tasked with keeping Sunderland in the Premiership.

However, Sunderland recorded just two league victories under the new management team and both Wilkinson and Cotterill were dismissed after just 27 games in charge.

After 13 games as manager, he left to become assistant manager to Howard Wilkinson at Sunderland only to be dismissed from this post with Wilkinson in March 2003 after 27 games in the role.

He joined Burnley in June 2004.

In February 2004, struggling Premiership outfit Leicester City appointed Coterill as coach by manager Micky Adams.

After three years at Turf Moor he moved on to have a short spell at Notts County in 2010 and spent a season-and-a-half at cash-strapped Portsmouth.

In October 2011 he was appointed manager at Nottingham Forest guiding the club out of a relegation battle.

He was dismissed by Forest in July 2012 after the club was taken over by the Al-Hasawi family.

In January 2013, he joined Queens Park Rangers' coaching staff remaining until the end of the 2012–13 season.

Cotterill was appointed manager of Bristol City in December 2013, taking them to the Championship before being dismissed in January 2016.

He was manager of Championship club Birmingham City from September 2017 to March 2018.

Cotterill was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

He started his playing career in non-League football as a forward who could play centrally or in wide positions, playing semi-professionally at clubs like Cheltenham Town, Alvechurch and Burton Albion.