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Hereford United have confirmed that their new manager is Simon Davey who was recently with Darlington.
He has signed a two year deal.
Andy Fensome is to be his assistant. He and Davey worked together at Preston.
Below is a profile of Simon Davey originally published on BN two weeks ago:
Simon Davey was born in Swansea in 1970.
In 1987, Davey made his League debut for Swansea City at the age of 16 against Torquay United and became the second youngest player ever to play for the Swans. Davey 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, the French Cup winners, and Panathanaikos, the Greek champions.
In August 1992, he went from Swansea to Carlisle United on a free transfer. Within a few games, at the age of 22, he took over as team captain and led the club for a further 2 years and 5 months. In the 1993–94 season he played every game earning recognition amongst his fellow professionals by being selected for the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) Team of the Season, an award voted for by all the professional players in the Football League. He also challenged for the title of leading scorer, eventually finishing second to David Reeves with a tally of 13. Carlisle United supporters voted one of these goals, a 35-yard free-kick against Shrewsbury Town, as their second best goal of all time. Davey went onto make 132 appearances for the club and scored a total of 23 goals. In February 1995 Davey was sold to Preston North End for £125,000. At the end of that season, Carlisle won the Division Three Championship and although Davey had already left the club he had played the minimum requirement of 26 games to qualify for a Championship medal.
At Preston, Davey earned a consecutive championship medal when Preston North End won the divisional title, Davey made his full home league debut in midfield alongside a youngster on loan from Manchester United who arrived to make his league debut too, David Beckham. They played 5 games together, Beckham scored his first league goal when the novice asked Davey if he could have a go at a free-kick Davey was planning to take; Davey stepped aside and let him have it. Davey went onto to score 22 times in 122 games for Preston and was named in the PFA Team of the Season in 1995. While with the club, he also made 11 loan appearances for Darlington. Davey's playing career was cut short at the age of 27 following a back injury while training with a medicine ball.
After retiring, Preston manager David Moyes gave Davey a chance at coaching with the club and within a short time Davey was in charge of Preston's Youth Academy, later moving to the Youth Academy at Barnsley. As part of his coaching education, he gained the UEFA C Licence, the UEFA B Licence, the UEFA A Licence and the UEFA Pro Licence in 2005 as well as the Academy Managers licence and the UEFA Youth Licence.
Davey 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. Two 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. Davey successfully kept Barnsley in the Championship for 3 consecutive seasons.
The 2009/10 season didn't start well for Davey as by August 29th Barnsley were bottom of the table with just one point from five games and the club reacted swiftly after this defeat, during which the manager was booed by some home supporters.
"It is with regret that Barnsley Football Club and first-team manager Simon Davey have tonight mutually agreed to part company," the club said in a statement. "We would like to place on record our sincere thanks for all the hard work Simon has put in during his 2.5-year tenure as manager and wish him every success in the future."
And this from the Guardian:
Simon Davey was dismissed by Barnsley on Saturday, shortly after conducting a press conference following the 3-1 home defeat by Reading which left his side stuck to the foot of the Championship. It seems like no time since Davey was flavour of the month after leading Barnsley to FA Cup victories at Liverpool and at home against Chelsea in 2007-08 before finally losing to Cardiff in the semi-finals.
Back then we applauded the Welshman for his collection of every conceivable coaching badge, pointed to the fact that he was mentored by Everton's David Moyes and praised his imagination in beating Barnsley's budgetary restrictions by signing an eclectic collection of players on loans and free transfers from all corners of the globe. Even better, Oakwell once again boasted the sort of sweet passing football that had persuaded locals to make "it's just like watching Brazil" the team's anthem. Nothing lasts for ever though, and one point from five games duly did for Davey. Let's hope someone somewhere gives him a second chance to prove he was no nine-day wonder.
On 1 April 2010, Davey was appointed manager of League Two club Darlington, following the dismissal of Steve Staunton.
"It's an opportunity to get the club going again and get the fans back onside," Davey told BBC Tees.
"I'm really looking forward to the task, it's a fantastic stadium and it's a pleasure to come into work everyday."
Recently Davey has been helping Paul Scholes of Manchester United at a soccer school in the USA.
