Ian Atkins - Coaching and Managerial Career

Coaching and Managerial Career

In the summer of 1990, Atkins was appointed player-manager of Colchester United who had just been relegated to the Conference. Despite being one of the few teams with a full-time squad, Colchester finished runners-up to Barnet. Atkins left Layer Road in July 1991 to return to Birmingham City as player-assistant manager under Terry Cooper, while Roy McDonough took over at Colchester and guided them to promotion back to the Football League as Conference champions.

In December 1992, Atkins took over as manager at Cambridge United, but was unable to prevent their relegation from the new Division One and was dismissed in May 1993. He then briefly returned to Sunderland as assistant manager, but was dismissed along with manager Terry Butcher towards the end of November 1993.

In January 1995, he was appointed manager of Northampton Town. In the 1996–97 season, he guided Northampton Town to promotion by winning the Division Three promotion playoffs. They reached the Division Two playoff final the following season losing out to Grimsby Town.

The 1998–99 season saw Northampton relegated to Division Three—the third season in a row that the previous year's playoff losers had been relegated. Atkins left the Cobblers by mutual consent early in the 1999-2000 season following a disappointing start to a season in which they were expected to do well, his successor Kevin Wilson guided the Cobblers to promotion.

He was appointed manager of Division Three strugglers Chester City in January 2000, but he quit six months later, after the club were relegated to the Conference after 69 years in The Football League. Most of the damage had been inflicted before Atkins arrived, as he came within a whisker of overturning a major points deficit inherited from the time chairman Terry Smith had been manager. Atkins later had a year-long spell in charge of Carlisle United (who had survived at Chester's expense) between June 2000 and July 2001, helping them beat the drop to the Conference in difficult circumstances.

Atkins left Carlisle to become assistant manager to Alan Cork at Cardiff City in July 2001, but was sacked in December 2001, and soon after joined Oxford United as director of football. He took over from Mark Wright as the man in charge in November 2001, but was not formally named as manager of Oxford until April 2002. 2001–02 was Oxford's first season in the bottom division of the football league for over 30 years, and they finished a record low 21st place in the final table. Atkins rebuilt the team during the 2002 close season and the new-look squad looked capable of achieving a far higher position in the coming season. Oxford United occupied the automatic promotion and playoff places in Division Three for much of the 2002–03 season, but a slight dip in form during the final weeks of the season saw them finish eighth in the final table—one place short of the playoffs. A lively start to the 2003–04 season saw Oxford United leading the Division Three table at Christmas with just one defeat in over 20 fixtures. Atkins was suspended in March 2004 and then dismissed the following month for talking to Bristol Rovers about the possibility of taking over as manager, which he subsequently did.

Atkins was at Bristol Rovers for just over a year, and he was sacked after a disappointing start to the 2005–06 season. He returned to management in April 2006 when he was handed the seemingly impossible task of keeping Torquay United in The Football League, having joined the club as an advisor to John Cornforth the previous month. However, a run of four straight wins and a draw on the last day of the season lifted Torquay out of the relegation zone, and then Atkins was appointed manager for the following season.

However, on 27 November 2006, Atkins was replaced as manager by former Czech World Cup star Luboš Kubík. Atkins was offered the role of Director of Football, but turned it down.

For the 2007-2008 season, Atkins joined Tom Ross on the Birmingham radio station BRMB to co-commentate on Birmingham City matches.

He now works for AFC Sunderland as a recruitment officer (scout).

He joined BBC Radio Suffolk as a summariser for their coverage of Ipswich Town F.C. for the 2009–10 season.