Darren Kelly

Having played with Trojans in the Derry and District League as a youth, Kelly progressed through the Derry City youth system and made his first-team debut at home to Sligo Rovers on 18 February 1996. Newspaper reports in October 2001 claimed Kelly had joined English Third Division club Carlisle United, which were denied by Derry, who had rejected Carlisle's £100,000 bid for him. He featured for Derry in the League of Ireland Cup Final in April 2002, and scored in the penalty shoot-out, which the team lost 3–2. He eventually became one of many League of Ireland players who joined Carlisle under the management of Roddy Collins in August 2002 for a fee believed to be around £100,000. He made his Carlisle debut in a 2–0 defeat to Darlington on 27 August. He featured for Carlisle in the 2003 Football League Trophy final on 6 April 2003, which they lost 2–0 to Bristol City. His first goal for Carlisle came as the equaliser in a 1–1 draw against York City and he finished the 2002–03 season with 42 appearances. Derry revealed they were interested in re-signing Kelly in December 2003, after he was transfer-listed by Carlisle. Following the end of the 2003–04 season, Carlisle manager Paul Simpson told Kelly he needed to get fit if he wanted to stay at the club. He was one of three players released by Carlisle, after which he signed a two-year contract for Portadown in August 2004. Kelly won the 2004–05 Irish Cup with Portadown, and scored in the 5–1 win over Larne in the final. He…

Kelly was capped 11 times by Northern Ireland at under-21 level from 2000 to 2001.

Kelly was appointed manager of League One club Oldham Athletic on a two-year contract on 4 May 2015, with Dean Holden becoming his assistant. Kelly was dismissed just nine matches into his career at Oldham, after a 5–1 home defeat by Peterborough United on 12 September 2015. On 1 October 2015, Kelly was appointed as manager of National League club FC Halifax Town for the rest of 2015–16, with Jim Harvey as his assistant. Two days later he lost his first match in charge, a 7–1 home defeat to Cheltenham Town. Kelly left FC Halifax by mutual agreement on 17 November 2015, with only two wins from his 10 matches in charge including a 7–0 defeat to Grimsby Town. After leaving Halifax they went on a twelve match unbeaten run. Kelly was handed his third managerial position in a year when being appointed caretaker at Hyde United on 31 March 2016, who were in 20th-place in the Northern Premier League Premier Division table. However, he was unable to save them from relegation, finishing 22nd and losing all six games he took charge of. He left the club on 23 April 2016, though he was then re-appointed a month later and guided the club to the first round proper of the FA Cup in 2017–18, going out to MK Dons at home in a BBC televised match. By the end of the season, Kelly had led Hyde to promotion back to the Northern Premier League Premier Division. Kelly was appointed as manager of Scarborough Athletic on 6 December 2019. He continued his day job as manager of Tadcaster Albion's i2i…

Kelly was born in Derry, Northern Ireland and grew up close to Derry City's ground, the Brandywell Stadium.