Dowie In - Hughton Edged Out Of The Way!

Dowie, a former Oldham, Crystal Palace, Charlton and Coventry boss, has been out of work since being sacked by Queens Park Rangers in October last year.

FACT FILE:

Iain Dowie (born 9 January 1965 in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England) is a football manager, who most recently managed Queens Park Rangers F.C., and former professional footballer and Northern Ireland international. He is currently Assistant Manager to Alan Shearer at Newcastle United.

Playing career
At 16 Dowie was rejected by Southampton and later went to the University of Hertfordshire to study for a M.Eng Degree in Engineering. On completion he became an employee of British Aerospace, whilst keeping up football at non-league level playing for Cheshunt alongside his brother Bob. He left Cheshunt to improve his fitness and signed for St Albans City, then moved on to Hendon. While playing for Hendon, Dowie was spotted by Luton Town who snapped him up. An old-fashioned centre-forward, he then moved in quick succession to Fulham (a brief loan spell), and West Ham United.

He then moved to Southampton, where he had over 100 appearances. He then moved back to London with Crystal Palace in January 1995, which after they were relegated led to another spell at West Ham, and finally Queens Park Rangers, where he ended his days playing in defence, and being player-manager of QPR's reserve side. Dowie also had a brief spell as caretaker manager of QPR in the autumn of 1998, between the dismissal of Ray Harford and appointment of Gerry Francis.

International career
Although Dowie was born in England, his father was born in Belfast and Dowie scored 12 goals and gained 59 caps for Northern Ireland.

After retirement from playing, Dowie then became assistant manager of Oldham. However, following the dismissal of manager Mick Wadsworth, Dowie became manager and led the club into the Division Two play offs after spending heavily. At the end of the 2002-03 season. Unfortunately financial trouble hit Oldham and Dowie lost much of his first team squad. Funds were so hard for the club at the time that Dowie along with the remaining members of the squad were not paid for several months. Dowie tried to stick out the post for as long as possible until he decided to move on citing the need to support his family as a reason.