Willie Donachie

Date and Place of Birth 5th October 1951 - GLASGOW   Transfers to and from Burnley from PORTLAND TIMBERS - November 1982 released - May 1984   First and Last Burnley Games CAMBRIDGE UNITED (h) - 13th November 1982   HULL CITY (h) - 15th May 1984   Other Clubs MANCHESTER CITY, PORTLAND TIMBERS, NORWICH CITY, PORTLAND TIMBERS ---------------------------------------- OLDHAM ATHLETIC

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

I read recently that Scotland international left back Willie Donachie had been one of a catalogue of poor signings by John Bond after he brought him to Burnley from Manchester City.

It was almost correct, other than the fact that Donachie had been signed from Portland Timbers and that the deal had been done by Brian Miller in 1982. He went straight into a struggling side against Cambridge United as a replacement for Andy Wharton.

Glasgow born, he was involved with the Celtic junior teams but in 1968 as a 16-year-old Donachie ventured south to join Manchester City who by then had just lifted the championship in England.

As he worked his way through the youth and reserve teams at Maine Road the team continued to do well, but he did get a debut as early as 1970, and a year later he came in for a few games for Alan Oakes as the team began to struggle.

A year later though and he won his place on a regular basis at left back following a serious injury to Glyn Pardoe. It proved to be the chance he needed and for some years he made that position his own in the City side.

Such was his form that he was very quickly called up for the Scotland Under-23 side and in April 1972 won his first full cap for the Scots in a game against Peru at Hampden Park. It was the first of 35 caps he was to win, one of which was memorable because of a calamitous own goal in the last minute of a game against Wales that gifted the Welsh an equaliser.

During his time at City he went on to play in two League Cup Finals. They were losers in 1974 against Wolves but winners two years later against Newcastle.

In his early days as a regular in the side they were under the management of Malcolm Allison and by the time he lost his regular place in 1980 was after Allison had returned. By then he'd played over 350 league games for Manchester City but with a regular place no longer guaranteed he signed for Portland Timbers in a £200,000 deal in March 1980.

He returned to England in the 1981/82 season, signing for Norwich and helping them to promotion at the end of the season. But his stay was short. He played just 11 games for the Norfolk club before returning to Portland in the summer of 1982. Both of these transfers, like the one from City, had been valued at £200,000.

Burnley had won promotion that summer, but after a bright start we were struggling and had suffered nine defeats in ten league games when Brian Miller signed him in November 1982. That debut against Cambridge ended in a 2-0 win and he retained his place that season as we enjoyed two fantastic cup runs but found ourselves relegated again.

He'd played for Manchester City before Bond had arrived at Maine Road, and his time at Norwich was after Bond had departed. So it was that the first time he played for him was at the start of the following season once Bond had been appointed manager of Burnley.

He enjoyed a good season in the side, playing most of the games. Overall he'd played very well for Burnley during his eighteen months at Turf Moor and despite the fact he was now aged 32 it was still something of a surprise when he was released at the end of that season, more so when his replacement was Peter Hampton.

Released by a Third Division club at 32 was hardly likely to get him a good move, but he actually stepped up a division and signed for Joe Royle at Oldham, and so began a long relationship with Royle.

He was immediately first choice in Royle's side and remained a regular until 1988 and didn't bring his playing career to an end until 1991. Within a year of signing for Oldham he'd been appointed player/coach and alongside Royle they took the Latics, incredibly, to the top flight and into the first two seasons of the Premier League.

He remained with Oldham until 1994 when, after Royle had become Everton manager, he moved to Goodison Park as assistant manager. After Everton came a spell as coach at Sheffield United but he then rejoined Royle at his old club Manchester City.

When Royle was sacked he continued in the role of assistant to Kevin Keegan but in 2001 opted to leave to become Terry Yorath's assistant at Sheffield Wednesday. That was until the calling again came from Royle in October 2002 at Ipswich.

Royle and Donachie worked together at Portman Road, but when Royle was dismissed and Donachie didn't get the job he went to Millwall as assistant to Nigel Spackman. That was short lived for Spackman and this time Donachie was appointed manager.

It didn't last. He was appointed in September 2006, two months after joining the club, but after a poor run of form he was sacked just a year later.

That saw him out of the game for just about the first time. He took charge of the Antigua and Barbuda National Team for a short period in late 2008 but for some time it looked as though his career in England might be over. He didn't return to Oldham with Joe Royle in the 2008/09 season but in December 2009 he did make a return as Assistant Director of the Newcastle United academy where he remains at the time of writing.

He was just a short term Burnley player but after his departure the Clarets slumped to their lowest position ever. I often wonder how much better we might have been with Willie Donachie still at the club rather than him by then playing at least two divisions higher. He was better than what followed at Turf Moor - much, much better.

Links

Ex-Claret Donachie back in football with Hartlepool (23/10/14)