Ray Mathias

Raymond Mathias (born 13 December 1946) is an English football coach and former player. He has spent most of his career in the lower leagues of English football. Mathias played for Tranmere Rovers between 1964 and 1985, and remains their record appearance holder having played 637 games for the club. After his retirement he spent three years as manager of Wigan Athletic, briefly returning to the role for the 1998–99 season; between these two spells he returned to Tranmere as a coach, and later managed the side before moving on to Chester City in a caretaker role. He was appointed interim manager of Stockport County on 9 March 2011 until the end of the season, when County were relegated from the Football League for the first time in 106 years. Owing in part to an impressive home record, Mathias was appointed full-time County manager in May 2011, but departed just two weeks later following the takeover of the club by Tony Evans.

Ray Mathias
Personal information
Full name Raymond Mathias
Date of birth (1946-12-13) 13 December 1946
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Height 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position(s) Full back
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1964–1985 Tranmere Rovers 567 (6)
Teams managed
1986–1989 Wigan Athletic
1998–1999 Wigan Athletic
2001 Tranmere Rovers (caretaker)
2002–2003 Tranmere Rovers
2004 Chester City (caretaker)
2011 Stockport County (Interim Manager)
2011 Stockport County
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Career

Playing

Born in Liverpool, Mathias spent his entire playing career with Tranmere Rovers from 1964 to 1985 and earning two testimonials in the process; a true one-club man, making 567 Football League appearances. His most notable achievement being winning promotion from the Fourth Division in the 1975–76 season. He made 637 appearances for Tranmere in all competitions, a club record.[1]

Coaching

After retiring from playing, Mathias joined the coaching staff at Wigan Athletic and spent three years in charge of the Latics from 1986–89. The highlight of this spell was leading Wigan to the FA Cup quarter-finals in 1987. He later returned to Tranmere as a coach but then returned to Wigan as manager for the 1998–99 season; despite leading the club to victory in the Football League Trophy final at Wembley and the Second Division play-offs he lost his job shortly afterwards.

After once again becoming part of the managerial set-up at Tranmere and spells as caretaker manager, he was finally handed the reins on a permanent basis in 2002 but sacked a year later. Mathias then had an unsuccessful caretaker spell at Chester City in 2004 and briefly worked as assistant manager at Bury in 2005. In October 2006 he was appointed as assistant manager to Paul Ince at League Two strugglers Macclesfield Town. The pair were able to guide the Silkmen to an unlikely survival before moving to Milton Keynes Dons where they achieved more success, winning the League Two championship and the Football League Trophy. They subsequently moved on to top-flight team Blackburn Rovers in June 2008.

On 18 December 2008, Mathias was relieved of his duties along with Archie Knox following the sacking of Paul Ince and the subsequent arrival of Sam Allardyce as the new Rovers manager.[2] On 4 February 2011 he joined Stockport County as Technical Advisor to Peter Ward and Alan Lord.[3]

Mathias was appointed manager of Stockport County on 9 March 2011 until the end of the season, with Peter Ward and Alan Lord stepping back to coaching roles. Mathias then became the first manager in Stockport County history to relegate the club from the Football League.[4]

On 25 May 2011, Mathias was given the Manager's job at Stockport County on a full-time basis "After a lengthy process during which we interviewed a number of high calibre applicants for the role" according to Chief Exec Graham Shaw. However, he was dismissed from the position in favour of Dietmar Hamann on 5 July 2011, and subsequently left the club.

Honours

Player

Coach
  • Football League Trophy: 1998–99, 2007–08
  • Football League Two: 2007–08

Managerial stats
Team From To Record
PWDLWin %
Wigan Athletic 1 June 1986 15 March 1989 142 59 50 33 041.55
Wigan Athletic 4 August 1998 21 May 1999 62 32 17 13 051.61
Tranmere Rovers 18 March 2001 7 May 2001 11 1 7 3 009.09
Tranmere Rovers 1 August 2002 29 September 2003 66 29 19 18 043.94
Chester City 6 August 2004 30 August 2004 6 0 4 2 000.00
Stockport County 1 March 2011 5 July 2011 13 3 6 4 023.08
Total 297 123 101 73 041.41
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See also

References
  1. Upton, Gilbert; Wilson, Steve (November 1997). "Players' Data". Tranmere Rovers 1921–1997: A Complete Record. pp. 101–108. ISBN 978-0-9518648-2-1.
  2. "Blackburn Rovers – News – Latest News – Latest News – Neil McDonald is new assistant manager". world.rovers.co.uk. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  3. "Ray Mathias joins". Stockport County official website. 4 February 2011.
  4. "Ray Mathias appointed manager". BBC. 9 March 2011.
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