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Alan Buckley
Personal information
Full name	Alan Buckley
Date of birth	April 20, 1951 (age 55)
Place of birth	Mansfield, England
Playing position	Manager
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1967-73 1973-78 1978-79 1979-84	Nottingham Forest Walsall Birmingham City Walsall Stourbridge Tamworth	18 (1) 241 (125) 28 (8) 178 (49)
Teams managed
1978 1979-81 1981-82 1982-86 1986-88 1988-94 1994-97 1997-00 2001-02 2003 2006-present	Walsall (caretaker) Walsall Walsall (joint with Neil Martin) Walsall Kettering Town Grimsby Town West Bromwich Albion Grimsby Town Lincoln City Rochdale Grimsby Town
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Alan Buckley (born 20 April 1951 in Mansfield, England) is an English football manager for League Two side Grimsby Town and was a former footballer.

Buckley began his career with Nottingham Forest. He became a prolific striker with Walsall, before he was transferred briefly to Birmingham City in October 1979. He returned to Walsall as their record signing (£175,000) in June 1979. He began his managerial career with 'The Saddlers', initially as player/manager and briefly as co-manager with Neil Martin. This was an era that became a hallmark for some of the most attractive football seen in Walsall. Buckley also gained something of a reputation as a giant killer during his time in the Black Country, scoring against Manchester United as a player during an FA Cup upset in 1975, and leading his Walsall side as a manager to victories against the likes of Arsenal, and a draw at Anfield during a League Cup run which took them to the semi-finals, just '90 Minutes From Europe'. He was sacked in the summer of 1986, as enigmatic millionaire Terry Ramsden bought the club, installing his own managerial team.

Later as a manager, after a spell with non-league Kettering Town, he guided Grimsby Town to promotion from the Fourth Division in 1990 and they reached the Second Division a year later - where they spent all but one of the next 12 seasons. Buckley remained at Blundell Park until the autumn of 1994 when he joined Grimsby's Division One rivals West Bromwich Albion. His spell at the Hawthorns lasted two-and-a-half years before he was sacked for failing to get Albion anywhere near a promotion challenge.

Soon after being sacked by Albion, Buckley returned to Grimsby for his second spell as manager. They had just been relegated to Division Two but he took them back to Division One at the first time of asking, and he remained in charge for one season after that. Two brief, short-lived spells in Division Three followed - first with Lincoln City and then with Rochdale. Buckley is one of only 14 managers to have reached 1,000 matches in charge of a league team. Buckley is however the only one of the 14 never to have managed a team in the Premiership or its predecessor, the First Division.

On 9 November 2006 Buckley was appointed manager of Grimsby for a third time.

He also played for Tamworth and many more lower league clubs.

Contents 1 Honours as a player 1.1 Walsall 2 Honours as a manager 2.1 Kettering Town 2.2 Grimsby Town 3 Managerial stats 4 External links

• All time scoring record: 202 goals in all major competitions
• Most expensive signing: £175,000 from Birmingham City in June 1979

• GMAC Cup winner: 1987

• Division Four runners up, Promoted: 1990
• Division Three 3rd place, Promoted: 1991
• Auto Windscreens Shield winner: 1998
• Second Division playoff winner: 1998

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Walsall		June 27, 1979	July 1, 1981	93	36	24	33	38.70
Walsall		July 1, 1981	January 1, 1982	18	9	4	5	50.00
Walsall		July 1, 1982	August 1, 1986	201	87	66	48	43.28
Grimsby Town		June 6, 1988	October 20, 1994	327	130	109	88	39.75
West Bromwich Albion		October 20, 1994	January 22, 1997	118	39	45	34	33.05
Grimsby Town		May 21, 1997	August 22, 2000	175	67	63	45	38.28
Lincoln City		February 28, 2001	April 25, 2002	69	16	29	24	23.18
Rochdale		June 1, 2003	December 30, 2003	28	8	15	5	28.57
Grimsby Town		November 9, 2006	Present	24	11	11	2	45.83

Correct upto and including 24th March 2007.

• Alan Buckley management career stats at Soccerbase
• sporting-heroes.net - Alan Buckley, Birmingham City FC, 1978-1979
• Saddlers World - Player profile
• BBC Sport - Walsall Cult heroes

Preceded by Frank Sibley	Walsall Manager (with Neil Martin in 1981-82) 1979 - 1986	Succeeded by Tommy Coakley
Preceded by Bobby Roberts	Grimsby Town Manager 1988 - 1994	Succeeded by John Cockerill (caretaker)
Preceded by Keith Burkinshaw	West Bromwich Albion F.C. Manager 1994-1997	Succeeded by Ray Harford
Preceded by Kenny Swain	Grimsby Town Manager 1997 - 2000	Succeeded by John Cockerill (caretaker)
Preceded by Phil Stant	Lincoln City F.C. Manager 2001 - 2002	Succeeded by Keith Alexander
Preceded by Paul Simpson	Rochdale F.C. Manager 2003	Succeeded by Steve Parkin
Preceded by Stuart Watkiss (caretaker)	Grimsby Town Manager 2006-present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Grimsby Town F.C. - Current Squad
1 Barnes | 2 McDermott | 3 Newey | 4 Harkins | 5 Fenton | 6 Whittle | 7 Rankin | 8 Bolland | 9 Reddy | 10 Toner | 13 Murray | 15 Cohen | 16 Boshell | 17 Till | 18 Bore | 19 Jones | 20 Croft | 22 North | 23 Hegarty | 24 Grand | 25 Hunt | 26 Taylor | 27 Thorpe | 28 Bennett | 29 Bloomer | Manager: Buckley