David Kelly

Walsall

Kelly was diagnosed with Legg–Calvé–Perthes disease at the age of five, and at one stage his left leg was 4 inches (10 cm) shorter than the right leg, and he was on crutches until the age of ten. He played football for Bartley Green Boys regardless. He was attached to West Bromwich Albion before he was released by Albion. At that stage, he worked as a trolley porter at Cadbury whilst representing the youth team at non-League side Alvechurch. He joined Walsall following a successful trial in 1981, and turned professional at the club under Alan Buckley two years later. He scored three goals in six Third Division games in the 1983–84 season, before winning a regular first-team place in the 1984–85 campaign, scoring 13 goals from 41 appearances. He provided ten goals from 28 league games in the 1985–86 campaign, before his career took off under new manager Tommy Coakley; he top-scored with 26 goals from 55 appearances as the "Saddlers" posted an eighth-place finish in 1986–87, and was named in the Third Division PFA Team of the Year. He then scored 30 goals from 54 matches in the 1987–88 season as Walsall won promotion via the play-offs in 1988; he scored a hat-trick in the replay of the 1988 play-off final as Walsall beat Bristol City to achieve promotion. He went on to have a week-long trial at Bayern Munich but did not join the club despite Uli Hoeneß reportedly comparing him to Denis Law. Bundesliga restricted clubs to just two foreign players. Kelly refused…

Kelly was born in England but was eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland because his father was born in Dublin. He scored a hat-trick on his debut in a 5–0 win over Israel at Dalymount Park on 10 November 1987, becoming only the fifth player to score a hat-trick for the Republic of Ireland. He went on to score nine goals from 26 international caps, and was selected by manager Jack Charlton in the squads for UEFA Euro 1988, the 1990 FIFA World Cup, and the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He also scored against England in what became known as the Lansdowne Road football riot on 15 February 1995, which was abandoned due to rioting by Combat 18. He was unable to play in the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification play-off fixture with Belgium after picking up an ankle injury. Belgium won 3–2 on aggregate, and Kelly never represented Ireland again.

After retiring as a footballer, Kelly was appointed as assistant manager to Ray Mathias at Tranmere Rovers in October 2002. He walked out on the club to work as Neil Warnock's assistant at Sheffield United in July 2003, to which Tranmere responded by threatening legal action; United had made a formal approach to Tranmere, but Kelly resigned after Tranmere rejected the approach. He was announced as Billy Davies's assistant at Preston North End in September 2004. He remained at Deepdale after Davies was sacked and replaced by Paul Simpson in June 2006. He was named as assistant manager to Davies at Derby County in July 2007, a few weeks after the club achieved promotion to the Premier League. He left the club just four months later when Davies left the club by mutual consent following a disastrous start to the 2007–08 season. Kelly followed Davies to Nottingham Forest, again being named as assistant manager in January 2009. He took charge of one game in October 2010 after Davies was absent due to illness. He left Forest along with Davies in June 2011. He returned to former club Walsall as Dean Smith's assistant in January 2013. However, he left the club after nine days to assist Billy Davies, who had been re-appointed as Nottingham Forest manager. He and Davies were sacked by Forest in March 2014, and he settled out of court with the club over alleged unpaid bonuses and for breach of contract. After taking charge at Scunthorpe United in October 2014, Mark Robins appointed…

Kelly has been named in Show Racism the Red Card's Hall of Fame. In the 1990s he started a golf business with his former Walsall manager, Tommy Coakley.