Steven Pressley

8th March 2013 – 23rd February 2015

By Rob Mason

Born in Elgin in the north-east of Scotland in October 1973, Coventry City became the only English club Pressley played for, alongside five teams in his home-land, with a short spell in Denmark for good measure. He also gained substantial experience at international level, topping his 26 Under 21 caps with 32 at full level.

International experience in management was also part of Steven’s CV before coming to Coventry. He had served his country as assistant manager, briefly been in caretaker charge of Hearts and managed Falkirk for over three years before leaving the Scottish First Division outfit to come to Coventry. He arrived in February 2013 as a replacement for Mark Robins after Mark took over at Huddersfield.  

Falkirk finished third after being fifth when Pressley left them. In contrast the Sky Blues were neatly placed in eighth position in League One after winning at Scunthorpe on the day after he took over. Two points and one place better off at the time were AFC Bournemouth. The Cherries went on to win promotion. Two years later they were in the Premier League where they have remained ever since. 

It was a starkly different story for Pressley’s Coventry. The club were forced into administration within a fortnight of the new manager’s arrival, the accompanying deduction of 10 points derailing any hopes of ‘doing a Bournemouth’.

As ever in such a difficult situation all the manager and players can do to deal with matters beyond their control is to maintain professional standards, focus on games and affecting the things they can influence, rather than being distracted by issues away from the pitch.  Four points were taken from the new manager’s first two home games but the remaining seven fixtures delivered just one more three-point maximum and a couple of draws.

The final table showed City in 15th place. With the restoration of the docked double-digit points penalty they would have only been two places higher. What hurt the new manager much more as he prepared for his first full season was the docking of another ten points on the eve of the new campaign. 

Falling two behind with less than a quarter of the opening day game at Crawley played, City showed spirit to come back only to concede a sickening third in the 84th minute, just two minutes after drawing level. The boot was on the other foot a week later when Bristol born Billy Daniels’ 87th minute winner ended Bristol City’s fightback after the Robins had come back to 4-4 having been three down at half time. Unfortunately, there were only 2,204 people there to witness the nine goal thriller. The game was the first of Coventry’s home games to be staged at Northampton’s Sixfields Stadium.

Had ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ been the first of his near namesake’s hits to come to Pressley’s mind he wouldn’t have been far off the mark as at this point, in addition to having to play home games at Northampton, the club had still been deducted five more points than they had won since the gaffer arrived five months earlier. It is hard enough for a new manager to establish himself at the best of times but evidently the odds were stacked heavily against the former City defender. 

To the credit of the team and manager the Sky Blues took their tally of goals to 13 in a three game run. Victory over Bristol City was followed up with a 4-0 win at Carlisle (Perhaps that was remembered when they later appointed him) and another goal-fest in a 4-4 draw with Preston. The gate for that second home game was even fewer than for the opener but with 17 goals in two games those making the trip to Northampton were being well rewarded in terms of entertainment. Nonetheless still on minus three points the Sky Blues were bottom of the table despite their valiant efforts.

A further seven points from the next three games saw City clamber outside the relegation zone on goal difference. Without the points deduction at this stage they would have been fifth. After a couple of defeats a run of five wins and a draw lifted Steven’s side into the top half of the table by early November. Amazingly considering the handicap they were under just three points away from the Play-offs. 

It was to be the high point of the season. Eleven goals were conceded in the next three league games and though things picked up around the turn of the year, momentum had largely been lost with top striker Leon Clarke sold to Wolves and Callum Wilson out injured for two months. However, City had climbed up to 10th by the time they retrieved a deficit to win at championship Barnsley with two late goals and set up a fourth round trip to Arsenal. 

With a following of over 5,000 at the Emirates – more than attended any home game that season – the Sky Blues gave an excellent account of themselves against Arsene Wenger’s superstars who needed two late goals to take the game out of the reach of the visitors. 

Back to reality in the capital four days later at Leyton Orient, where the total gate was fewer than had followed the Sky Blues to the Emirates, a tame defeat set the tone for the rest of the season. Only three of the final 20 league games would be won. In the end just four points separated Pressley’s 18th placed team from Tranmere who went down.  Without the points deduction there would still have been a 13-point gap to the Play-offs.   

Including loans there was one new face for every one of those 13 points to be made up during a busy summer, but perhaps the best deal was the arrangement to return to the Ricoh. The Coventry public certainly responded with over 27,000 turning up for the first game back in the city in what was the third home league game of the season against Colchester United.

By the time Yeovil were beaten next time out City were up to fifth. With no points deduction for the first time in the three seasons Pressley had been involved and the club back in Coventry the sky seemed that bit brighter for the Sky Blues. 

Sadly for Steven and the club it was to be a false dawn. Just one point from the next seven fixtures plummeted the team to 20th. Even when that slide seemed to have been arrested with a couple of decent results a new low was suffered. Having provided high spots the previous season the FA Cup showed its ability to disappoint as well as delight.  At home to Conference North side Worcester City Coventry had goalkeeper Lee Burge sent off and missed a penalty, as they lost 2-1 to go out in the first round for the first time since 1959 – the same year Worcester had knocked Liverpool out. 

Faced with a result like that teams need a response, especially in front of home fans. Instead Ricoh regulars saw a 1-0 home defeat to Notts County and a goalless draw with Walsall before finally there was a goal to celebrate in a home draw with Fleetwood. In between there had been a couple of creditable away wins but the overall mood was one of disappointment and frustration.

Although it would be another two months until the axe fell on the manager there would not be another home win to savour until after Steven’s time as supremo was over. In ten games after the home draw with Fleetwood the only victory came at Walsall. In what was the manager’s 100th league game City led 2-0 at Sheffield United – who had been reduced to 10 men with under 20 minutes gone – when with quarter of an hour left Michael Doyle scored to put the Blades on the road to a point. The result dropped Coventry into the relegation zone and 48 hours later Pressley’s time at Coventry was over. 

It was over 20 years since he had first arrived at the club, a £600,000 purchase from Rangers. Goodness knows how much Steven wished he had that sort of money at his disposal when it was his turn to try and assemble a team. Debuting at Arsenal in a 2-1 defeat in October 1994, 12 days after his 21st birthday, Pressley went on to play 22 times in that first season, scoring in his penultimate home game against Manchester United.

On the surface Steven seemed to have settled south of the border but on the day Coventry kicked off the new campaign at Newcastle, Pressley was even further north at Cowdenbeath, playing for Dundee United who he had signed for in the summer, the Sky Blues bagging a profit of £150,000. Pressley proved worth the Terrors’ investment, missing just one game as they won promotion via a Play-off with Partick Thistle.

The following 1996-97 season he did even better, being ever present as the Tannadice club finished third in the SPL. Pressley scored twice, both coming in a New Year’s Day win over Aberdeen, the club he had won a Scottish Cup winner’s medal against with Rangers in 1993. 

Having moved to Ibrox from Inverkeithling Boys Club, Pressley’s league debut had been as a sub for England full back Gary Stevens in a win at Motherwell in April 1992. In this pre English Premiership era Scottish football wasn’t as far behind the English game as it is now in terms of money. Mark Hateley, Ally McCoist, Stuart McCall, Richard Gough, Nigel Spackman, Paul Rideout and big money signing Alexei Mikhailichenko (who got both goals on Pressley’s debut) were all in Walter Smith’s squad Pressley was trying to establish himself in. It was Rangers’ turn to dominate in Scotland as they did the double of league title and Scottish Cup.

Rangers retained the title a year later as the teenage Pressley pressed for inclusion, as his club did the treble, one of his 11 appearances coming in the European Cup against Marseille after Rangers had knocked out English champions Leeds. Steven played in the European Cup again the following year, one of his 29 appearances as Rangers retained the League and League Cup coming against Levski Sofia. At this point Coventry had seen enough with Phil Neal being the Sky Blue supremo who brought him to Highfield Road.

The biggest part of Pressley’s playing career was still to come. Following his spells at Rangers, Coventry and Dundee United, he had eight years with Hearts who he captained with distinction. In over 300 games for the Edinburgh club Pressley added another Scottish Cup winners medal, scoring in the successful shoot out against Gretna in 2006 and setting a club record 22 appearances in European competition. At the end of the 2004-05 season he stepped in as caretaker-manager for a couple of games but in October 2006 was at the centre of controversy at Tynecastle when along with a couple of team-mates he acted as spokesman for players deeply concerned about the direction of the club over Russian / Lithuanian owner Vladimir Romanov. Ironically it was in an away international with Lithuania in September 2006 that Pressley became the most capped player in Hearts history. 

Within a couple of months after speaking out against his club’s hierarchy Pressley left Hearts and joined Celtic, later scoring his only goal for the club against Hearts. Winning the Scottish Cup again he became the first man to do so with three clubs  after which he joined Danish club Randers on a short-term deal in 2008, signing for former England international Colin Todd. 

Coming back to Scotland Steven’s swansong was with Falkirk, debuting in January 2009 back at his first club Rangers against whom at the end of the season he was an unused sub in yet another Scottish Cup final. 

Having assisted Scotland as a coach under George Burley between February 2008 and September 2009, a period that overlapped his spells with Celtic, Randers and Falkirk, after his retirement from playing Steven accepted a post as assistant manager at Falkirk, taking over as manager in February 2010 although he couldn’t prevent the Bairns from going down. 

Staying with Falkirk until leaving for Coventry in March 2013, 59 of his 138 matches were won, the win percentage of 42.75% being the highest of his career so far. Following the 32% win ratio at Coventry it was with Fleetwood that Steven produced his lowest success rate of 27.50%, winning just 11 of his 40 games. 

Pressley took over at Fleetwood on 6 October 2015 having scouted for Southampton since leaving the Sky Blues. Losing to a last minute own goal in his first game against Coventry of all teams wasn’t the idea start for Steven but a 4-0 victory over Burton next time out got the show on the road.

Although he resigned at the end of his first season with the club and had more lows than highs there were some good days. Fleetwood could have gone down on the last day but beat Crewe to secure their place in League One. A 5-1 win over Swindon was another highlight but that was perhaps topped by a 2-1 win at Coventry in February. 

From February to October of 2017 Pressley again dabbled with football abroad, managing Cypriot side Pafos. They escaped relegation in his first season after being involved in the complicated Cypriot relegation round. Back in England managing Carlisle, things began well with back to back wins before a run of just two points from four games for a team who had previously won eight of their previous nine games. However he was sacked in November 2019 after a poor run of results. In 2021 he joined Brentford as Development Coach and only left the Bees in 2024 to take up the manager’s post at Dundee.

As someone who played for Coventry and managed the club in a particularly difficult period, Pressley showed he is a man ready to accept a challenge. He has packed an awful lot into a career that still has some way to go.

League One Manager of the Month October 2013

Click here to see details of Steven Pressley’s playing career with the Sky Blues

From: 8th March 2013
First game: 9th March 2013 v Scunthorpe United A, League One, won 2-1

Until: 23rd February 2015
Last game: 21st February 2015 v Sheffield United A, League One, drew 2-2

100 games as manager

	Lge	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Win %	Pos
2012-13	Lge 1	10	3	3	4	9	15	12	30.0	15th
2013-14	Lge 1	46	16	13	17	74	77	51	34.7	18th
2014-15	Lge 1	31	7	12	12	32	43	33	22.5	21st
Totals		87	26	28	33	115	135	96	29.8

League Cup: 2 games (2 losses)

Football League Trophy: 5 games, 1 draw – lost on pens, 1 loss)

FA Cup: 6 games (3 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses)