Colin Dobson

For the Australian rules footballer, see Colin Dobson (Australian footballer).

Colin Dobson

Personal information
Date of birth	(1940-05-09) 9 May 1940
Place of birth	Eston, England
Position(s)	Inside-forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1961–1966	Sheffield Wednesday	177	(49)
1966–1972	Huddersfield Town	155	(50)
1972	→ Brighton & Hove Albion (loan)	4	(0)
1972–1976	Bristol Rovers	62	(4)
Total		398	(103)
International career
1961	England U23	2	(0)
Managerial career
1984–1985	West Riffa
1985–1987	Al Rayyan
1994–1995	Al Arabi
1997	Oman U17
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Colin Dobson (born 9 May 1940) is an English former footballer, who played as an inside-forward. He has also had a long career in coaching and has coached domestic and national teams in Arabia. He is now scouting for Premier League side Stoke City.

He began his career with Sheffield Wednesday in 1961, and went on to score 52 goals in 193 games for the First Division club. He was sold on to Huddersfield Town for a £20,000 fee in August 1966, and helped the club to the Second Division title in 1969–70. He was loaned out to Brighton & Hove Albion in 1972, before joining Bristol Rovers as a player-coach in the summer. He was promoted out of the Third Division with Rovers in 1973–74. Over 15 years in the Football League he scored 103 goals in 398 league appearances. He also won two caps for the England under-23s.

After retiring as a player, he embarked on an extensive career in coaching and scouting. He has managed the Bahrain national side, Qatari club Al Rayyan, Kuwaitee side Al Arabi, as well as the Oman under-17s. He has worked behind the scenes for Bristol Rovers, Coventry City, Port Vale, Aston Villa, Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), Gillingham, Stoke City, and Watford.

Club career

Dobson began his career at Sheffield Wednesday, who finished the 1961–62 season in sixth place in the First Division under the stewardship of Vic Buckingham. He scored one goal in the 1961–62 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, in a 5–2 home victory over Lyon; Wednesday went on to reach the quarter-finals, where they were knocked out by Barcelona after a 2–0 defeat at Camp Nou. The "Owls" again posted sixth-place finishes in 1962–63 and 1963–64, before slipping to eighth position in 1964–65 under new boss Alan Brown. They dropped down to 17th spot in 1965–66. In league and cup competitions, Dobson scored 52 goals in 193 first team appearances at Hillsborough.

He moved on to Tom Johnston's Huddersfield Town for a £20,000 fee in August 1966. He made a big impact with 17 goals in 39 games in the 1966–67 season; strike partner Tony Leighton also claimed 20 goals to help Town to a sixth-place finish in the Second Division. Dobson finished as the club's top-scorer with 14 goals in 47 games in the 1967–68 campaign, including one in the League Cup semi-final defeat to Arsenal at Highbury. He then was top-scorer for a second time as he bagged 11 goals in 43 matches in the 1968–69 season, as new boss Ian Greaves took the "Terriers" to within 10 points of promotion. Dosbon built a successful partnership with Frank Worthington and claimed nine goals in his 33 appearances as promotion was achieved with a first-place finish in 1969–70. However he appeared just 12 times in the 1970–71 campaign, claiming one goal, and departed Leeds Road at the end of the season. He also played four Third Division games on loan at Pat Saward's Brighton & Hove Albion in January 1972.

Dobson signed with Don Megson's Bristol Rovers as a player-coach. The "Pirates" finished fifth in the Third Division in 1972–73, before winning promotion in second place in 1973–74. The "Gas" avoided relegation by a three-point margin in 1974–75 and then by a five-point margin in 1975–76. He scored four goals in 63 league and cup games during his time at the Eastville Stadium.

International career

Dobson won two England under-23 caps in 1961. In the summer of 1968, he was selected by the Football Association for a Commonwealth tour of the United States, New Zealand, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

Coaching career

Dobson left Bristol Rovers to become the youth coach at Coventry City. He acted as Port Vale's coach on a voluntary basis from December 1983 to March 1984 to help out former teammate turned manager John Rudge, before managing West Riffa in Bahrain. Later he became the coach of Qatar side Al Rayyan, before returning to England to take up the youth coach position at Aston Villa. He also was the youth coach at Portuguese Sporting Lisbon, the youth coach and chief scout at Gillingham, a coach back at the Coventry City youth set-up, before taking up the position as first team coach of Kuwaitee Al Arabi. In September 1995 he returned to Port Vale as a temporary coach, and departed Vale Park again in May 1996. He went on to coach Oman at the 1997 FIFA U-17 World Championship in Egypt. He later worked as chief scout at Stoke City, and was credited with the discovery of England international goalkeeper Ben Foster. He was appointed chief scout at the Britannia Stadium in 2000 by director of football John Rudge, but left to scout for Watford in June 2005, only to return to the "Potters" by 2008. He is expected to leave the club in June 2013.

Honours

with Huddersfield Town

• Football League Second Division champion: 1969–70

with Bristol Rovers

• Football League Third Division runner-up: 1973–74