Michael Duff (footballer)

Michael James Duff (born 11 January 1978) is a Northern Irish professional football manager and former player. In a career spanning from 1995 to 2016, in which he made over 700 appearances, he played as a defender for Carterton Town, Cheltenham Town, Cirencester Town (on loan) and Burnley. At international level Duff won 24 caps for Northern Ireland. Since 2018, he is the manager of League Two club Cheltenham Town, having previously managed the Burnley reserves for two years.

Michael Duff
Personal information
Full name Michael James Duff[1]
Date of birth (1978-01-11) 11 January 1978[1]
Place of birth Belfast, Northern Ireland
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1]
Playing position(s) Centre back[2]
Club information
Current team
 Cheltenham Town (manager)
Youth career
Darlington
1995–1996 Carterton Town
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–2004 Cheltenham Town 300 (15)
1996–1997 → Cirencester Town (loan)
2004–2016 Burnley 342 (7)
Total 642 (22)
National team
2003 Northern Ireland B 1 (0)
2002–2012 Northern Ireland 24 (0)
Teams managed
2016–2018 Burnley (academy)
2018– Cheltenham Town
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

With Burnley, Duff became the first footballer to be promoted to the Premier League on three occasions with the same club. He is also the only player in history to have played in each of the top eight tiers of English football.

Playing career

Although born in Belfast,[2] Duff was raised in Bedale, North Yorkshire. As a school boy he represented North Yorkshire and joined the Darlington Football Club School of Excellence before moving to Cheltenham in 1994.

Spotted by Cheltenham Town scout Derek Bragg playing for Carterton Town, Duff was invited by Mike Davis, youth team manager to join Cheltenham, then playing in the Southern League. He had a spell on loan at Cirencester Town before returning to Cheltenham when Steve Cotterill took over as manager.[3] He became a regular for Cheltenham, and went on to play 242 games and score 15 times, including a 93rd-minute winner in a 3–2 victory at home to Yeovil Town in 1999 that secured Cheltenham Town promotion to the Football League.

On 5 July 2004, he made a £30,000[4] switch to Burnley where he became a regular, if not always automatic, first-team choice. Over the next couple of seasons he established himself as first choice right-back, although he had equally often played at centre-back. His first Burnley goal was credited in a League Cup game against Carlisle United, even though it might equally have been credited as an own goal. He finally got incontrovertibly on the score-sheet on 14 October 2006 against Hull City.

Duff was part of two of Northern Ireland's finest international moments of recent years; as a late substitute in their 1–0 victory over England on 7 September 2005 and then in a 3–2 victory over Spain on 6 September 2006.

In the 2007–08 season Duff picked up a serious injury during the Championship match against Crystal Palace at Turf Moor. The injury ruled Duff out for almost a year, causing him to miss the first half of the following campaign. He suffered multiple ligament damage and hamstring damage as well as a cruciate knee injury.[5] Duff started his first Premier League match on Boxing Day 2009 against Bolton Wanderers at Turf Moor, having made his debut as a substitute in the preceding game versus Wolverhampton Wanderers. In doing so, he completed the rare feat of having played in each of the top eight tiers of English football in ascending order during his career: the Hellenic League with Carterton Town, the Southern League (Midland Division) with Cirencester Town, the Southern League (Premier Division), Conference (prior to its 2004 re-organisation), League Two and League One with Cheltenham Town, and the Championship and Premier League with Burnley.[6]

After Burnley's relegation, Duff remained with the team and, over the next three seasons, was a frequent, though not automatic, first team choice as injuries and competition for places saw him play in roughly half of Burnley's league matches in each of the seasons through this period. By the summer of 2013, having earned a season extension for 2013–14 on the basis of his appearances, Duff was the longest-serving player at the club. On 2 July 2014, Duff signed a new one-year contract with Burnley, Duff remained the only survivor of the squad that reached the Premier League in 2009 and his final deal meant the former Northern Ireland international entered his 11th season with the club.

Duff retired from playing professionally at the end of 2015–16 season, having helped Burnley win the Championship title and promotion to the Premier League.[7] As a result of this, Duff became the first footballer to be promoted to the Premier League on three occasions with the same club.[8]

Managerial career

On 10 September 2018, Duff was appointed to his first managerial appointment at his former club Cheltenham Town in League Two.[9] He was awarded the League Two Manager of the Month award for September 2019 and February 2020.[10] On 1 November 2019, Duff signed a contract extension which will keep him at Cheltenham Town until June 2023.

Career statistics

Club
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Cheltenham Town
1996–97[11]
 Southern League Premier 17000—00170
1997–98[12] Football Conference 41050—00460
1998–99[13] Football Conference 41310—00423
1999–2000[14] Third Division 31220002[lower-alpha 1]0352
2000–01[15] Third Division 39520201[lower-alpha 1]0445
2001–02[16] Third Division 45350105[lower-alpha 2]0563
2002–03[17] Second Division 44230202[lower-alpha 1]0512
2003–04[18] Third Division 420301000450
Total 300152106010033715
Burnley
2004–05[19]
 Championship 4202040—480
2005–06[20]
 Championship 4101031—451
2006–07[21]
 Championship 4420010—452
2007–08[22]
 Championship 810020—101
2008–09[23]
 Championship 27130703[lower-alpha 3]0401
2009–10[24] Premier League 1102010—140
2010–11[25] Championship 2813010—321
2011–12[26] Championship 3100010—320
2012–13[27] Championship 2411030—281
2013–14[28] Championship 4110010—421
2014–15[29] Premier League 2101000—220
2015–16[30] Championship 2400010—250
Total 3427130251303838
Career total 6422234031113072023
  1. Appearance(s) in Football League Trophy
  2. Three appearances in Football League Third Division play-offs, two in Football League Trophy
  3. Appearances in Football League Championship play-offs

International
Source:[31]
Appearances and goals by national team and year
National teamYearAppsGoals
Northern Ireland 200220
200420
200530
200670
200760
200820
201220
Total240

Managerial statistics
As of match played 22 June 2020[32]
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
PWDLWin %
Cheltenham Town 10 September 2018 Present 91 36 28 27 039.6
Total 91 36 28 27 039.6

Honours

Cheltenham Town

Burnley

gollark: Not in an "actively doing evil" sense, but arguably that's just a matter of where you set some arbitrary zero point.
gollark: For example, I do not really donate money to charity, despite at least having theoretically nonzero money. I feel somewhat guilty about this if I think about it very hard.
gollark: Distributing punishment based on that would make things like advertisements for charities horrible infohazards.
gollark: If you want to know about what *you* should do, then it's more reasonable to ask about the morality of actions, not people, because the people way runs into accursed counterfactuals very fast.
gollark: For that the purpose is probably something like "should you be eternally tortured", which I think the answer to is literally always "no".

References
  1. Hugman, Barry J. (ed) (2008). The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2008–09. Mainstream. ISBN 978-1-84596-324-8.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  2. "Michael Duff". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  3. "The Michael Duff fairytale story". This is Gloucestershire. 18 January 2010. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  4. Michael Duff | Burnley | Team | Profiles Archived 16 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  5. Duff Faces Lengthy Spell Out | Burnley | News | Latest Headlines | Latest Headlines Archived 10 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Duff tips Dyche to manage England". Belfast Telegraph. 2 April 2015. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  7. "Burnley stalwart Michael Duff retires after 383 games for club". Sky Sports. 9 May 2016. Retrieved 15 September 2016.
  8. Quelch, Tim (2017). From Orient to the Emirates: The Plucky Rise of Burnley FC. Pitch Publishing Ltd. p. 342. ISBN 978-1785313127.
  9. "Michael Duff: Cheltenham Town appoint Burnley Under-23 coach as manager". BBC Sport. 10 September 2018.
  10. "Sky Bet League Two: Manager and Player of the Month winners". English Football League. 13 March 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  11. "Games played by Mike Duff in 1996/1997". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  12. "Games played by Mike Duff in 1997/1998". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  13. "Games played by Mike Duff in 1998/1999". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  14. "Games played by Mike Duff in 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  15. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2000/2001". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  16. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2001/2002". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  17. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2002/2003". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  18. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2003/2004". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  19. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2004/2005". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  20. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2005/2006". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  21. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2006/2007". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  22. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2007/2008". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  23. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2008/2009". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  24. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2009/2010". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  25. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2010/2011". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  26. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2011/2012". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  27. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2012/2013". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  28. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2013/2014". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  29. "Games played by Mike Duff in 2014/2015". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  30. "Games played by Michael Duff in 2015/2016". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 9 August 2015.
  31. "Mike Duff". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmerman. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
  32. "Managers: Michael Duff". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  33. "Cheltenham crack Diamonds". BBC Sport. 6 May 2002. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  34. Fletcher, Paul (25 May 2009). "Burnley 1–0 Sheff Utd". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  35. Anderson, John, ed. (2016). Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2016–2017. London: Headline Publishing Group. pp. 94–95. ISBN 978-1-4722-3395-0.
  36. Anderson, John, ed. (2014). Sky Sports Football Yearbook 2014–2015. London: Headline Publishing Group. pp. 90–91. ISBN 978-1-4722-1251-1.
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