Wally Downes

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Personal information
Wally Downes
Full name	Wally Downes
Date of birth	June 9, 1961 (age 45)
Place of birth	Unknown, England
Club information
Current club	Reading (coach)
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1979-1988 1987 1988	Wimbledon Newport County (loan) Sheffield United	? (?) ? (?) ? (?)
Teams managed
1988-2000 2000-2002 2002-2004 2004-	Crystal Palace (coach) Brentford (coach) Brentford Reading (coach)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Wally Downes (born 9 June 1961) is an English former football player and manager. He is currently a first team coach at Reading. Related to the boxer Terry Downes

Downes started out as an apprentice with Wimbledon and was one of the instigators of the Crazy Gang spirit at the club as it rose from the Fourth to the First Division inside a decade. He made almost 200 league appearances for Wimbledon.

Forced to retire through injury, Downes took a coaching position at Crystal Palace, and spent twelve years at Selhurst Park, most of these under Steve Coppell. Downes left in 2000, following Coppell (who had left Palace following a takeover) to Brentford, where he became assistant manager. When Coppell left Brentford in June 2002, Downes was appointed manager. He led the club to a mid-table finish in the Second Division in 2002-03, but was sacked in March 2004 with the club near the bottom of the table and facing relegation.

He then once again rejoined his Coppell, this time at Reading, initially on a casual basis, but quickly proved himself invaluable, and took on the job of coaching Reading's defence. As a result, Downes was a major reason for Reading's impressive defensive display in the 2005-06 Championship season, where Reading had the best defensive statistics in the entire English football pyramid, and were promoted to the Premier League with a record 106 points.

In January 2007 Downes was involved in a touchline scuffle with Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock after he accused Warnock of telling his players to 'break legs'. However Warnock said: "I made the kicking gesture to tell the referee that Steve Sidwell's tackle on Chris Armstrong had been the worst of the game. Fortunately for me, the referee heard exactly what was said and confirmed that." Downes has been charged with improper conduct for his role in the affray.[1]