Robert Davison (born 17 July 1959) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He began his professional career with Huddersfield Town before spending time at Halifax Town, Derby County (twice), Leeds United, Sheffield United (twice), Leicester City, Rotherham United and Hull City. After he retired from playing he spent time on the coaching staff of a number of clubs, including brief spells as manager of Guiseley and Ferencváros, and is currently youth team coach at Crystal Palace and assistant manager to Noel Blake's England national under-19 football team.
Playing career Davison was born in South Shields. started his career at Seaham Colliery Welfare Red Star, before making two appearances for Huddersfield Town between 1980 and 1981. He moved on to Halifax Town on 1 August 1981 and holds a good record 29 goals in 63 appearances. This caught the eye of Derby County and between 1982 and 1987 he made 206 appearances scoring 83 goals, contributing towards their promotion to the Second Division in 1986 and the First Division a year later. He played a total of 206 league games for the Rams, scoring 83 goals and became a Derby legend.
Much to Derby fans' disappointment he was sold for £350,000 to a rebuilding Leeds United squad, managed by Billy Bremner, in November 1987.
Howard Wilkinson succeeded Bremner as Leeds managed in September 1988 and in the subsequent push for promotion Bobby became a cult hero for Leeds due to a high work rate and general rapport with the crowd. His scoring record of 35 times in 110 games is a good one for Leeds at that time. He helped them seal a return to the top flight as they sealed the Second Division title on the last day of the 1989–90 season by beating AFC Bournemouth 1–0 at Dean Court.
However, Davison lost his first team place for the 1990–91 season following the arrival of Lee Chapman, who was established as a top goalscorer. He played just five times in the 1990–91 First Division campaign and scored once as Leeds finished fourth. He managed just two league appearances in the 1991–92 campaign, which Leeds ended as champions. He was loaned back to Derby County (who suffered Second Division playoff disappointment in 1991–92) that season, scoring an impressive eight goals in just 10 league games, but the permanent return to the Baseball Ground never happened.
In 1992, he was released to Leicester City. After helping Leicester come close to achieving promotion to the Premier League, he found himself out of favour with the club, so joined Sheffield United in 1993. Again, after coming close to achieving promotion, he found himself out of favour before joining Rotherham United. After a loan spell at Hull City, Davison returned to Halifax Town, where he made 30 appearances in all competitions, scoring once.
Coaching career In February 1998, Davison was appointed player-manager at Guiseley. He offered his resignation in October 2000 after a string of poor results left them dicing with relegation. Davison was Assistant Manager to Colin Todd at Bradford City for three years, he left the club in June 2007 when Stuart McCall brought in Wayne Jacobs. He also had short a short spell coaching Sheffield United.
On 20 February 2008, when Sheffield United announced their takeover of Ferencváros, they also announced the appointment of Davison as an advisory coach to the Hungarian side. On 16 April 2008, after the removal of János Csank, Davison became Ferencváros's new head coach. His first game in charge was a 1–0 victory against Bõcs KSC, and the team went on to win promotion the next season by 17 points. On 30 October 2009, Ferencváros replaced the dismissed Davison with Craig Short.
In November 2010, Davison joined his former club Leeds United as youth team coach.
In December 2012, Davison was appointed head coach at Eccleshill United.
Career statistics + Appearances and goals by club, season and competitionClubSeasonLeagueFA CupLeague CupOtherTotalDivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsHuddersfield Town1980–81Third Division200000—20Halifax Town1981–82Fourth Division46201021—49211982–83Fourth Division1791023342316Total63292044347237Derby County1982–83Second Division268———2681983–84Second Division40145420—47181984–85Third Division462410402253261985–86Third Division411743530050231986–87Second Division401910632049221987–88First Division131—10—141Total206831171864223998Leeds United1987–88Second Division16511—201961988–89Second Division391420212245171989–90Second Division291000202133111990–91First Division5120—301011991–92First Division201000—30Total913061419311035Derby County (loan)1991–92Second Division108—0000108Sheffield United (loan)1991–92First Division114———114Leicester City1992–93Division One2560031223091993–94Division One00—001010Total256003132319Sheffield United1993–94Premier League900011—1011994–95Division One31—102061Total121002120162Rotherham United1994–95Division Two21423—202571995–96Division Two1000100020Total224231020277Hull City (loan)1995–96Division Two114——10124Halifax Town1996–97Football Conference25120—30301Guiseley (loan)1996–97Northern Premier League Premier Division47——2067Guiseley1997–98Northern Premier League Premier Division331523—14349211998–99Northern Premier League Premier Division21620—733091999–00Northern Premier League Premier Division16100—211822000–01Northern Premier League Division One1000——10Total752943—25710439Career total553199271432135218664244
Honours Individual PFA Team of the Year: 1986–87 Second Division
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