Iain Dowie

Iain Dowie (born 9 January 1965) is a football manager, former professional footballer and sports television pundit.

He played as a striker from 1983 until 2001, notably in the Premier League for Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Ham United.

He earned 59 caps for Northern Ireland, scoring 12 goals.

He also played in the Football League for Luton Town, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers, and in Non-league for Cheshunt, St Albans City and Hendon.

After retiring from playing he went on to manage Oldham Athletic, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City, Queens Park Rangers before joining Hull City in a football management consultant.

He has since worked as a pundit largely for Sky Sports.

Born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Dowie was rejected by Southampton aged 16 and later went to the University of Hertfordshire to study for a MEng degree in engineering.

On completion he became an employee of British Aerospace, whilst keeping up football at non-League level playing for Cheshunt alongside his brother Bob.

He left Cheshunt to improve his fitness and signed for St Albans City, then moved on to Hendon.

While playing for Hendon, Dowie was spotted by Luton Town who signed him in the 1988–89 season, when they were in the First Division.

An old-fashioned centre-forward, he then moved in quick succession to Fulham (a brief loan spell), before establishing himself as a first team player in the 1989–90 season when his eight goals in 29 league games helped Luton finish seventeenth.

He played alongside Alan Shearer and Matthew Le Tissier – two of the country's highest regarded strikers in the early 1990s – and scored nine goals in 30 league games to ensure that the team finished high enough for a place in the newly formed FA Premier League.

On 22 March 1991, with Luton still in the First Division and Dowie still a first team regular with seven goals from 29 games that season, Dowie agreed to join Second Division promotion chasers West Ham United for a fee of £480,000.

He proved himself to be a competent deputy for the injured Trevor Morley as his four goals in the final 12 league games of the season secured the team's promotion as Second Division runners-up.

But when the 1991–92 season began, Morley had returned to fitness and Dowie found himself on the sidelines until his £500,000 move to Southampton on 3 September 1991 after less than six months at Upton Park.

His good form continued in the 1992–93 season, despite the loss of Shearer, as he scored 11 league goals.

His tally dropped to five goals in 39 games during the 1993–94 season, though the club avoided relegation again, and he managed another five goals from 17 league games in the 1994–95 season before manager Alan Ball decided that he wanted younger partners for Le Tissier in attack, signing Gordon Watson and Neil Shipperley while dropping Craig Maskell and selling Dowie to Crystal Palace for £400,000 on 13 January 1995.

His spell at Palace was a frustrating one; he was cup-tied for the League Cup semi-finals against Liverpool, and Palace reached the FA Cup semi-finals where they lost to Manchester United after a replay.

Lastly, despite a dynamic fightback after being three goals down to Newcastle United on the final day of the season, they still lost 3–2 and were relegated from the Premier League one season after promotion.

He then spent nearly three years back at West Ham.

During his time back at West Ham, he came under fire from the supporters for going long periods without scoring at a time when the team were struggling for goals and had a crisis in attack.

In fact, Dowie is probably best remembered by West Ham fans for scoring a bizarre headed own goal in an infamous defeat to Stockport County in the League Cup in front of the live Sky cameras at Edgeley Park.

Dowie then moved across London to Queens Park Rangers (QPR), where he ended his days playing in defence, and being player-manager of QPR's reserve team.

Dowie also had a brief spell as caretaker manager of QPR in the autumn of 1998, between the dismissal of Ray Harford and appointment of Gerry Francis.

Dowie's father was born in Belfast, thus qualifying him to play for Northern Ireland, for whom Dowie gained 59 caps and scored 12 goals.

After retirement from playing, Dowie then became assistant manager of Oldham Athletic.

However, following the dismissal of manager Mick Wadsworth, Dowie became manager and led the club into the Second Division play-offs in the 2002–03 season after spending heavily.

However, financial trouble hit Oldham and Dowie lost much of his first team squad.

Funds were so hard for the club at the time that Dowie along with the remaining members of the squad were not paid for several months.

Dowie tried to stick out the post for as long as possible until he decided to move on citing the need to support his family as a reason.

On 21 December 2003, Dowie was appointed manager of Crystal Palace, inheriting a squad with low morale and occupying 19th place in Division One.

However, under his leadership, the club went on an impressive run that included 17 wins from 23 games after he took over, until the end of the season, enabling the club to finish in sixth place in the First Division, just scraping into the play-off places.

This feat was attributed to complete change in the atmosphere and training regime at the club, including a tougher disciplinary regime, introduced by Dowie.

After beating Sunderland in the semi-final, on a penalty shootout, the club beat Dowie's former club West Ham by a single goal in the Final for a place in the FA Premier League.

Dowie's squad contained some promising footballers, including Andrew Johnson.

Dowie made a couple of signings to the Crystal Palace squad: he signed goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly to challenge Julián Speroni for the number 1 top.

Kiraly was first choice throughout the season.

The club lasted only one season there, being relegated on the final day of the season when Charlton Athletic scored a late equaliser in a 2–2 draw.

He remained at Palace when the club was relegated to the Championship despite rumours that he was approached by other Premier League clubs to take over.

The only actual report of a club approaching Palace to speak to Dowie was when Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandarić approached Palace chairman Simon Jordan to speak to Dowie, in November 2005.