DSA Director Simon Davey

Simon started his career in 1987, making his league debut for Swansea City at the age of 16. He went on to make 58 appearances, scoring 5 goals in 4 years, as a midfielder. During this 4 year period he earned a Welsh Cup Winners medal and also gained European experience playing in the Cup Winners Cup against Monaco and Panathaniakos. In August 1992, he went from Swansea to Carlisle United. Within a few games, at the age of 22, he took over as team captain and led the club for a further 2 and a half years. In the 1993-94 season he played every game and was selected for the PFA team of the season. He was also Carlisle's 2nd top scorer with a respectable tally of 13. All told, Simon went onto make 132 appearances for the club and scored a total of 23 goals for the club assisting them to gain promotion to what is now the English Championship division.

Simon Davey is a young but highly experienced and widely respected Fifa Pro licensed Manager / Coach.

Preston North End FC - In February 1995 Simon was sold to Preston North End for £125,000. At Preston, Simon earned a consecutive championship medal when Preston North End won the old Division 3 title. Simon went onto to score 22 times in 122 games for Preston and was named in the PFA Team of the Season in 1995.

From Player to Coach

Simon's playing career was sadly cut short at the age of 27 following a back injury sustained whilst training. However, Preston's then manager, David Moyes, saw his potential as a coach and within a short time Simon was in charge of Preston's Youth Academy, later accepting an invitation to run the Youth Academy at Barnsley.

A keen observer of the game whilst a player, during this period he quickly went on to obtain his FA Academy Manager and UEFA Youth Licences and also his UEFA, C, B & A licenses. Ultimately he obtained his UEFA Pro Licence in 2005.

From Coach to Manager

Simon was appointed caretaker manager of Barnsley in November 2006, following Andy Ritchie's dismissal. After a successful start he was given the job on a permanent basis at the end of the year and later led the club to a successful fight against relegation at the end of the 2006-07 season. He later signed a four-year contract in December 2007 after an impressive start to the following season.

Indeed 2 months later, he led the club to a shock FA Cup win at Liverpool and 3 weeks after that, led them to victory over Chelsea to take the club into the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley Stadium for the first time in 96 years, before losing to Cardiff City.

In addition to managing Barnsley Simon has recently managed Darlington FC and Hereford United at in the English Professional League.