Steve Davis (footballer, born 1965)

Club career

Born in Birmingham, Davis started his career with Stoke City as an apprentice in 1982 but never made a senior appearance. However, he played more than 140 matches for both Crewe Alexandra and Burnley, making his Crewe debut at the age of 18, and captaining the team aged 19. He was also a key figure in the time he was at Burnley. He then played over 100 matches for Barnsley in Division 1, in which they won promotion to the Premier League. He had loan spells at York City and Oxford United, eventually being signed by Division 1 outfit, Oxford United in 1998.

The final years of his playing career saw him in Cheshire with Macclesfield Town, and with Northwich Victoria and Nantwich Town – where he was player-manager of both clubs.

International career

Davis was capped by the England national youth team.

Northwich Victoria

He was appointed as player-manager of Northwich Victoria in June 2003. He resigned in September 2003, after the team were second bottom of the Conference National in the 2003–04 season.

Nantwich Town

However, his managerial career at Nantwich Town was the most successful time in the club's long history, converting a club that had never achieved anything above the North West Counties League to one that was challenging for a Conference spot. He led Nantwich to two promotions in three seasons and a FA Vase victory, just missing out on promotion to the Conference North at the end of the 2008–09 season. His abilities attracted the attention of Crewe Alexandra, where he had spent four seasons as a player. On 17 May 2009, it was announced that he would become assistant manager to Gudjon Thordarson at Crewe.

Crewe Alexandra

Davis remained as Thordarson's assistant through the Icelandics short lived tenure at Gresty Road before the former Stoke City manager was relieved of his role in October 2009. Taking up the vacant manager's role was Dario Gradi, now in his third stint as Crewe manager kept Davis as his assistant manager. Gradi remained in the managerial position at the club until the autumn of 2011 his position was starting to become questioned by the Crewe fans, this was only galvanised further by a 3–0 home defeat to Torquay United which left the club near the relegation zone. Although Gradi was still manager of the club, Davis took charge of the next match against Oldham Athletic in the Football League Trophy after the Crewe manager could not attend after feeling unwell. Although Crewe lost the match 3–1, Davis was appointed the new Crewe manager a couple of days later with Gradi moving to his former role as Technical Director - a role he took following the appointment of Steve Holland as first team coach back in the summer of 2007.

Promoting coach Neil Baker as his assistant manager, Davis' first match, officially, as Crewe manager was a home FA Cup tie to Colchester United. Although the railwaymen lost the tie 4–1, Davis' brief for the remainder season was specific: keep Crewe in the football league. Davis was successful in his target keeping Crewe in the football league and, in a run that saw the club go 16 matches unbeaten, the English manager helped Crewe qualify for the League Two play-offs. Following a 3–2 win over two legs with Southend United and a 2–0 win over Cheltenham Town at Wembley, Davis' team were promoted to League One.

Davis had lost two key figures in that season's promotion campaign in the summer with Nick Powell completing a three million pound transfer to Manchester United and captain Ashley Westwood for an undisclosed fee to Aston Villa but they were replaced by a number of summer signings such as forward Mathias Pogba, defender Mark Ellis and midfielder Abdul Osman. Davis successfully secured safety in League One in his first season and also guided his team to a second Wembley appearance this time in the final of the Football League Trophy against Southend. The Railwaymen won the tie 2–0 with goals from Luke Murphy and Max Clayton.

As with the previous summer, Davis lost a key member of his midfield this time in the form of Luke Murphy who left the club for Championship club Leeds United in 2013 for a million pounds. Despite a brief period linking him with the vacant Wolves managerial position, Davis remained at the Alex. The 2013–14 season was less successful than Davis' previous seasons, compacted even more after seven first team players were held by Devon and Cornwall Police for an alleged sexual assault during the team's pre-season training in Redruth. The players were cleared of all charges in November, a few months into the new campaign. Davis described the decision as a "noose being removed from our necks" citing the case as one of the reasons for the team's poor start to the campaign. Further to the sex assault allegations, Davis was also having attitude issues with summer signing Anthony Grant and former Newcastle youngster Brad Inman - listing the pair on loan and isolating them from the rest of the squad in training labelling the pair as a "disruption." The pair were later reinstated to the squad and first team duties following an improvement in their attitudes and helped Crewe avoid relegation on the last day of the season with a 2–1 victory over local rivals Preston North End.

The 2014–15 season was no better in terms of Crewe's performance. The team lost 10 of their first 12 matches, and eventually finished in 20th position - remaining in League One despite losing the final match of the season, against Bradford City, because of results in fixtures elsewhere.

The following season started in a similar pattern, with the team winning just two of their first 15 league matches, and crashing out of the FA Cup in the first round, defeated at Gresty Road by non-league Eastleigh, forcing Davis to defend his position as the 'right man' for the job. Crewe's relegation to League Two was confirmed following a 3–0 defeat at Port Vale on 9 April 2016, with five matches remaining.

Davis was sacked as Crewe Alexandra manager on 8 January 2017.

Leyton Orient

On 10 July 2017, Davis was appointed as head coach of newly relegated National League club Leyton Orient on a two-year contract.

Personal life

His son, Harry, was at Crewe Alexandra but now plays for St Mirren, and is also a centre-back. He made his professional debut at the end of the 2009–10 season, playing for Crewe against Bradford City.

Another son, Joe, is a defender at Port Vale, having made his professional debut at the club during his first spell in April 2011. On 22 February 2014, for 33 minutes of a match at Port Vale, Davis's sons played on opposite teams against each other.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Crewe Alexandra