Billy Dodds

William 'Billy' Dodds (born 5 February 1969) is a Scottish professional football player and coach.

His playing career started with English club Chelsea and the rest of his career his Scotland with Partick Thistle (two spells), Dundee, St Johnstone, Aberdeen, Dundee United (two spells) and Rangers. Dodds made 26 appearances for Scotland, scoring 7 goals.

He had coaching spells at Queen of the South and Dundee.

He is now assistant manager at Ross County.

Early career

Born in New Cumnock, Dodds first appeared on the books of English club Chelsea in 1986 but had his first taste of professional football in a successful loan period at Partick Thistle in 1987–88. After making only three appearances for the London club he was transferred to Dundee in 1989. It was during his time at Dens Park that Dodds became prolific, netting nearly 70 league goals in his 174 appearances, winning a Scottish First Division title in the 1991–92 season and scoring a hat-trick in the 1990 Scottish Challenge Cup Final.

St Johnstone

Dodds moved to St Johnstone, for a Saints club-record £400,000, in January 1994 but moved to Aberdeen within six months.

Aberdeen

Dodds was Aberdeen's record signing at £800,000. During his time at Pittodrie, he scored important goals to prevent relegation in 1994–95 and was part of the side that won the 1995–96 Scottish League Cup, scoring as The Dons beat his former club Dundee in the November 1995 final. Dodds remained at Aberdeen until September 1998, when manager Alex Miller used him – along with £700,000 – in a swap deal to bring Robbie Winters to Pittodrie Stadium from Dundee United.

Dundee United

Dodds enjoyed something of a rebirth when Aberdeen offered him and cash for Winters. Restored to playing as a striker, Dodds' full debut for United saw a hat-trick against former club St Johnstone, earning him instant hero status. During his time at Tannadice, he scored 25 goals in 45 league appearances.

Rangers

In December 1999, less than fifteen months after joining United, 30-year-old Dodds was signed for Rangers (the club he supported in childhood) by manager Dick Advocaat for £1.3m following injuries to forwards Michael Mols and Jonatan Johansson Dodds proved an instant success at Ibrox, scoring goals domestically and in European competition, and although first team opportunities dried up later in his stay, Dodds proved a key member of the squad that won a League and Scottish Cup double in 2000 and a cup double in 2002. He has described his time with Rangers as "the pinnacle of my career".

Final playing spell

In January 2003, frustrated by the lack of first team chances under new Rangers manager Alex McLeish, Dodds returned to Dundee United in another swap deal that saw Steven Thompson move in the opposite direction. On Dodds' second debut for United, wearing his familiar no.14 shirt, he scored the first equaliser in United's 2–2 draw at home to Kilmarnock.

During 2005, Billy Dodds signed a new contract at Dundee United that would see him work with manager Gordon Chisholm, as both player and first team coach. Dodds moved into midfield and later sweeper as his pace began to slow down, but as Chisholm steered Dundee United away from relegation, Dodds' vision and playmaking skills proved a valuable asset.

After only seven months in the job, Gordon Chisholm was sacked as manager of Dundee United on 10 January 2006. Billy Dodds took over as caretaker manager for one match, a 2–1 win against Falkirk in the Premier League. When Inverness CT player/manager Craig Brewster took over the side the following week, Dodds parted company with the club, signing for Second Division side Partick Thistle as a player on 20 January; however, he left after only three matches.

Dodds gained his first Scotland cap against Latvia while playing for Aberdeen, coming on as a 59th-minute substitute in the October 1996 World Cup Qualifier win in Riga.

His form at Dundee United attracted the attentions of Scotland coach Craig Brown, who restored Dodds to the Scotland squad after a twelve-month absence. During his time with United, he featured in ten competitive international matches, including the UEFA Euro 2000 play-off matches against England, scoring four times during the qualfying, one of which was a long-range winning goal away to Bosnia.

He continued to be selected whilst at Rangers, with his 26th and final cap coming in September 2001 against Belgium, a match which Scotland lost 2-0 meaning they would not qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. He scored three times in the group taking his goals total to seven, all in competitive matches.

Gordon Chisholm appointed Dodds as strikers' coach at Queen of the South. Queens made it to the 2008 Scottish Cup Final, which they lost 3–2 to Rangers. This led to the club's first appearance in a UEFA organised competition, the 2008–09 UEFA Cup.

Chisholm selected Dodds to be his assistant manager when he was appointed manager of Dundee in March 2010. In October 2010, as Dundee entered administration, Chisholm and Dodds were made redundant as the administrator Bryan Jackson set about the task of saving the club from liquidation.

On 9 September 2014, Dodds become assistant manager to Jim McIntyre at Ross County.

Club

International

International goals

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	10 October 1998	Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh	Estonia	1–1	3–2	ECQG9
2.				3–2
3.	14 October 1998	Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen	Faroe Islands	2–0	2–1	ECQG9
4.	4 September 1999	Olimpijski Stadion, Sarajevo	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2–1	2–1	ECQG9
5.	24 March 2001	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Belgium	1–0	2–2	WCQG6
6.				2–0
7.	28 March 2001	Hampden Park, Glasgow	San Marino	3–0	4–0	WCQG6

Club

• Scottish Challenge Cup: 1990–91
• Scottish First Division (second tier): 1991–92

• Scottish League Cup: 1995–96

• Scottish Premier League: 1999-2000
• Scottish Cup: 1999-2000
• Scottish League Cup: 2001-02