Giles Coke

Early career

Coke began his career as a youth player at Queens Park Rangers in 2003, before teaming up with his older brother Jon at non-league side Kingstonian a year later.

Mansfield Town

Coke was soon snapped up by Mansfield Town and signed his first professional contract on 31 March 2005. He scored his first goal for the club in the second round of the League Cup in the 1–0 win against Southampton, which still heralds fond memories for Coke. He then went on to score two goals in two appearances against Leyton Orient and Shrewsbury Town respectively, before being linked with several Championship League clubs, including: Southampton, Reading, Norwich City and Wolverhampton Wanderers. In April 2006, Coke turned down a new two-year contract with Mansfield, but was persuaded by manager Peter Shirtliff to sign a one-year contract to remain at Field Mill for another year. However, during the 2006/7 season, Coke suffered an injury that sidelined him for most of the season. His misfortune continued the following season, which resulted in limited appearances for the club. Despite this, Coke had still impressed enough to entice other clubs; most notably Wycombe Wanderers, to want to sign him.

Northampton Town

He signed for Northampton Town on 2 July 2007 on a two-year contract after rejecting a new contract from Mansfield Town. A Football League tribunal on 24 September 2007 ruled that Northampton must pay Mansfield a maximum fee of £70,000 (depending on…

Following the end of his playing contract, Coke made an immediate return to Grimsby Town as a development coach. Grimsby chairman Jason Stockwood hailed Coke on his appointment saying "I've been working with Giles on a couple of projects outside his playing. I'm trying to think of how you help players transition post their football careers. What he did for us last year in the locker room was pretty clear and Paul couldn't speak highly [enough] of him as a character, as a professional. So that was the first thing. And then we've had some interactions around just trying to think about how we help people transition with all the skills that they've got that are transferable. We haven't got an answer for that yet. But Giles showed great capacity and intellect for taking stuff on beyond the playing side of the game. Neil Woods and the staff at the academy are doing an amazing job at developing players. But we thought: 'how do we bridge that gap between the development players and the first team? So Paul came to us with that recommendation. It was an easy yes with the sort of character he is, the way that Paul thinks he can play a positive influence on the first team squad as well, it seemed like an easy yes for us." On 12 July 2022, Coke played for Grimsby in a 6-1 behind the closed doors friendly victory over Hull City U23s. It was announced that Coke would depart his coaching role at Grimsby at the end of the 2022–23 season. He rejoined Sheffield Wednesday as an assistant coach…

Sheffield Wednesday

Football League One runner-up: 2011–12 Grimsby Town

National League play-offs: 2022 Individual

Football League One Player of the Month: August 2010