Peter Doherty

Born in Magherafelt, County Londonderry, Doherty began his career with Glentoran in the Irish League. He worked first as a bricklayer and then as a bus conductor. After helping Glentoran to the 1933 Irish Cup, early in the 1933–34 season Doherty joined English club Blackpool for a £2,000 fee, at the age of 19. He joined Manchester City on 19 February 1936 for a then-club record of £10,000. Blackpool needed the money urgently, and Doherty was summoned from his lunch to report to Bloomfield Road. The Irishman tried hard to persuade Blackpool directors that he did not wish to leave the club, for he was due to marry a local girl and had just bought a new house in the town. The fee was an exceptionally high transfer fee for the period; it came within £1,000 of the British record. Doherty's Manchester City debut, against Preston North End, was not a successful one. Tightly man-marked by Bill Shankly throughout, he failed to make an impact, leading to one catcall from the crowd of "Ten thousand pounds? More like ten thousand cigarette cards". Doherty later described the remainder of his first Manchester City season as "uneventful", but his second was to be anything but. Manchester City started the 1936–37 season poorly and were in the bottom half of the table until December. Occasional big wins, including a 6–2 defeat of West Bromwich Albion and a 4–1 defeat of Everton, were mixed with extended barren runs; at one point the club gained just one win in twelve matches. However,…

Doncaster Rovers

He made his final move to Doncaster Rovers in April 1949, where he assumed the role of player-manager. He scored 30 goals from 39 games in the 1949–50 season and led "Donny" to promotion as champions of the Third Division North. He was again top-scorer with 14 goals in 23 matches during the 1950–51 season as Rovers posted an 11th-place finish in the Second Division. He then settled more into his management role, helping the club to sign players from his home country such as Len Graham, Harry Gregg and Kit Lawlor, whilst overseeing the development of young players such as Alick Jeffrey. The club spent the next six seasons finishing in the lower half of the Second Division table: 1951–52 (16th), 1952–53 (13th), 1953–54 (12th), 1954–55 (18th) 1955–56 (17th) and 1956–57 (14th). He left Belle Vue when he resigned in January 1958 following several disputes with the club's board of directors; the club went on to be relegated at the end of the 1957–58 season.

Northern Ireland

He became manager of Northern Ireland between 1951 and 1962, for whom he had 16 caps as a player. He led the country at the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden after they topped their qualification group ahead of Italy and Portugal. At the tournament itself, Northern Ireland qualified for the knockout stages after finishing second in their group, having beaten Czechoslovakia, lost to Argentina and drew with West Germany. Having finished level on points with Czechoslovakia, they then…

Club statistics

International statistics

Managerial statistics

After management, Doherty went into business. He returned to football becoming a scout for Coventry City during the 1967-68 season. In July 1968, Doherty was appointed chief scout at Tommy Cummings' Aston Villa. In later life he became a scout for Liverpool, helping to unearth such talents as Kevin Keegan. He and Andy Beattie also served Notts County as 'professional advisers' from December 1965 to March 1966, providing council to first-team manager Ernie Coleman. Following his death in 1990, there is a plaque to mark his birthplace in Magherafelt.