Northern Ireland Manager
Dave Clements tenure as Northern Ireland manager lasted for eleven matches, he took over in the winter of 1974–75, part way through the qualification matches for Euro 76. He took over as manager at the age of only 29 and his first game as manager was on 16 March 1975 and was a Euro 76 qualifier against Yugoslavia in Belfast. This was the first time that Northern Ireland had played a home match in the province since 1971 and resulted in a fine 1–0 victory which put the Northern Irish in with a chance of qualification. However a home defeat to Sweden in October 1975 and a loss in Belgrade to Yugoslavia in the final group qualifier the following month stopped Northern Ireland progressing to the last eight knock out stage.
Dave Clements continued as manager into 1976, however results were disappointing culminating in Northern Ireland losing all three matches in the British Home Championship in May of that year. They lost heavily to Scotland 0–3 in Glasgow and to England 0–4 at Wembley before losing 0–1 to Wales in Swansea. The Welsh defeat was Dave Clements last game as both manager and player for the national team on 14 May 1976.
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