Tommy Cassidy

Cassidy was born in Belfast on 18 November 1950. As a teenage striker he made an impressive impact on the Irish League. In 1969, after just a handful of senior appearances, he scored a hat-trick in the City Cup (Northern Ireland) Final, as Glentoran saw off Bangor 7–1. Early the following season, Cassidy having found the net four times in just six appearances, Newcastle United came calling with a £15,000 bid. In October 1970 Cassidy found himself at an English First Division club after just fourteen senior outings for Glentoran. Although Cassidy's Football League debut did not take long to arrive, he made his first appearance in a 2–0 defeat at Southampton on 7 November 1970, he had to wait three seasons to establish himself in the Newcastle first eleven. Prior to establishing himself, a rare senior outing was made in the 2–1 1973 Anglo-Italian Cup Final defeat of Fiorentina. By that time he was playing more normally as an attacking midfielder, and in his first season as a regular (1973–74) he helped Newcastle to a Texaco (British Isles) Cup Final victory over Burnley and an FA Cup Final appearance against Liverpool. The following season Cassidy was troubled by injury and made just nine League appearances, though he did play in the first leg of the Texaco Cup Final as Newcastle retained the trophy 3–1 on aggregate against Southampton. The following season Newcastle were back at Wembley for another final, losing out 2–1 in the League Cup to Manchester City. Cassidy's Northern…

Cassidy later managed APOEL, leading them to the Cypriot League Championship, but left when he blew the whistle on high-level corruption in the game. He returned to the north-east of England to manage Gateshead, and was linked with the Newcastle job in 1992 prior to the arrival of Kevin Keegan. In 1994, he returned to the Oval as manager of a demoralised Glentoran, and helped them to an early success in the Gold Cup. The rest of his time with the Glens proved difficult, with high-profile cup final failures and expensive transfer flops such as Liam Coyle being tempered only slightly by an Irish Cup Final win over Glenavon in 1996. Under pressure from the fans, Cassidy left Glentoran in December 1997. In 1998 Cassidy was appointed manager of Ards, but was sacked in October 1999 when the board were not satisfied with their prospects of promotion from the First Division – they were second at the time. Less than a month later Cassidy took charge of Sligo Rovers. In his first home game Sligo lost 5–3 to Shamrock Rovers and Cassidy got sent off [1]. He could not save them from relegation from the Premier Division at the end of his first season. Sligo just missed out on promotion the following year when they lost the final match of the campaign 4–1 to Home Farm, and Cassidy left the club that summer [2]. He briefly scouted Irish League players for then Northern Ireland manager Sammy McIlroy, before returning to management with Northern League Division One club, Workington. He guided…

In 2021, it was revealed that Cassidy was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Cassidy died from the disease on 1 August 2024. He was 73.

As a player

Glentoran

City Cup: 1969–70 Newcastle United

Anglo-Italian Cup: 1973 Texaco Cup: 1973–74, 1974–75 FA Cup runner-up: 1973–74 Burnley

Football League Third Division: 1981–82 APOEL

Cypriot Cup: 1983–84 LTV Super Cup: 1984

As a manager

APOEL

Cypriot First Division: 1985–86 LTV Super Cup: 1986 Glentoran

Irish Cup: 1995–96 Gold Cup: 1994–95