Billy
Jeffrey was appointed
as the new Rugby Town
manager following Tony
Dobson's departure in
June 2005 after spending
six years at Stamford.
Jeffrey
had a good track record
in management roles in
non-league football, following
a successful professional
playing career which saw
him make more than 400
league appearances at
three clubs – Oxford United,
Blackpool and Northampton
Town.
As
a player, Billy was capped
as a youth international
with Scotland before embarking
on a lengthy career with
Oxford, where he was the
youngest ever player at
the time culminating in
a spell as the club captain.
After spells at Northampton
and Blackpool, Billy spent
time with Kettering in a
player/coach role before
having a short stay in Australia
to see out his playing career.
He
joined the club after
six and a half years as
manager of Stamford –
where after securing four
consecutive top seven
finishes in the Southern
League Eastern Division,
he led the club into the
Premier Division for the
first time in 2004.
Prior
to this Billy had had
a lengthy spell as assistant
manager at Rushden &
Diamonds, where under
manager Roger Ashby and
then Brian Talbot he helped
the club gain promotion
to Conference level football.
Billy
started life at Rugby
with the mammoth task
of finding an entire new
squad as most of the 04/05
team left with Tony Dobson
to Solihull.He
made some shrewd signings
and led the team to a
credible 15th place finish.
His
second season in charge
saw the arrival of several
young talents and Rugby
started the season very
well and by November were
2nd in the table having
had a reasonable run to
the 3rd Qualifying Round
of the FA Cup. However,
Valley had a barren run
and eventually finished
the season in 17th place.
Billy
resigned in December 2007.
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