Keith Downing

Keith Gordon Downing (born 23 July 1965) is an English former footballer and football manager. He made the vast majority of his appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he was nicknamed "Psycho" for his robust style playing in central midfield.
A former Chelsea youth team player, he moved from Mile Oak Rovers into the Football League with Notts County in 1984. Three years later he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers. He spent six years with Wolves, winning the Football League Trophy in 1988 and successive Fourth Division and Third Division titles in 1987–88 and 1988–89. He joined Birmingham City in 1993, before moving on to Stoke City the following year. In 1995 he joined Hereford United via Cardiff City, and retired in 1999. He went on to become a coach, and also spent September 2007 to November 2008 as Cheltenham Town manager, and served West Bromwich Albion as caretaker-manager for a brief spell in the 2013–14 Premier League season.

Downing was a junior player at Chelsea, but left Stamford Bridge at the end of the 1982–83 season. He went on to spend a season with Mile Oak Rovers. He began his professional career in 1984 at Richie Barker's Notts County, who went on to be relegated out of the Second Division at the end of the 1984–85 season. The "Magpies" finished eighth in the Third Division in the 1985–86 season and then seventh in 1986–87 under the stewardship of Jimmy Sirrel.

He left Meadow Lane and moved on to Graham Turner's Wolverhampton Wanderers in 1987. Wolves won promotion as champions of the Fourth Division in 1987–88, and Downing also played in the 1988 Football League Trophy final victory over Burnley at Wembley Stadium. Wolves won a second successive promotion in the 1988–89 season, winning the Third Division title by an eight-point margin. The club made a push for promotion out of the Second Division in 1989–90, but ended up in tenth place, seven points outside of the play-off places. Downing appeared 35 times in both the 1990–91 and 1991–92 seasons, as Wolves finished in 12th and then 11th position. He played 37 times in the 1992–93 campaign before leaving Molineux in the summer.

In July 1993 Downing moved to Birmingham City. However he featured only twice for the "Blues" in the 1993–94 season, and left St Andrew's in the summer. He remained in the Midlands and the First Division for the 1994–95 season, playing 24 games for Stoke City. He began the 1995–96 season with Cardiff City, before being reunited with Graham Turner at Hereford United in September 1995. The "Bulls" finished sixth in the Third Division in the 1995–96 campaign, losing to Darlington in the play-offs. He made 13 appearances in the 1996–97 campaign as Hereford dropped out of the Football League with a last place finish. He became player-coach in 1998 and subsequently returned to Wolves as a youth team coach in March 1999.

Downing joined Cheltenham Town as assistant manager in July 2004, working alongside manager John Ward, who he had met through his time at Wolverhampton Wanderers where Ward had been assistant manager. When Ward left the club to join Carlisle United in October 2007, Downing stepped in as caretaker manager, before being given the position on a full-time basis on 2 November. He left the club by mutual consent on 13 September 2008 with the "Robins" bottom of League One.

In February 2009, he was appointed assistant manager at League Two side Port Vale. This was a temporary appointment to help manager Dean Glover, and both men left the club in May 2009.

In July 2009, Downing was appointed the academy coach at West Bromwich Albion. He served as joint-assistant head coach for the "Baggies" under Steve Clarke and in December 2013 temporarily took over first team duties at the Premier League club after Clarke was sacked and before Pepe Mel was appointed as manager early the following month. He was not a popular figure with fans at The Hawthorns due to his years of service at Black Country derby rivals Wolves. However his UEFA Pro Licence and popularity with the players made him a serious candidate to replace Mel in the summer. Alan Irvine got the job however, and Downing left the club in January 2015 following a backroom reshuffle by new boss Tony Pulis.

Downing married in 1993, and has two sons from that marriage, James and Thomas. He is a cousin of Judas Priest guitarist K. K. Downing. He has an interest in criminology and history, specifically the history of World War II.

Playing statistics

• Sourced from Keith Downing profile at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

Managerial statistics

with Wolverhampton Wanderers

• Football League Fourth Division champion: 1987–88
• Football League Trophy winner: 1988
• Football League Third Division champion: 1988–89