Thomas Henry "Tommy" Cavanagh (29 June 1928 - 14 March 2007) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 and coach. As a player, he was an inside-forward at six professional clubs, most notably Huddersfield Town

Huddersfield Town F.C.

Huddersfield Town Football Club is an English football club formed in 1908 and based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. They currently play in League One...

 and Doncaster Rovers

Doncaster Rovers F.C.

Doncaster Rovers Football Club is an English football club, based at the Keepmoat Stadium in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. The team currently competes in the Football League Championship, after being promoted via the League One play-offs in 2008, and have remained there since.The club was founded in...

.

After retiring as a player, Cavanagh coached and later managed Brentford

Brentford F.C.

Brentford Football Club are a professional English football club based in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow. They are currently playing in Football League One....

. He coached at Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...

 from 1966 until 1972. He then linked up with his former Preston

Preston North End F.C.

Preston North End Football Club is an English professional football club located in the Deepdale area of the city of Preston, Lancashire, currently playing in the third tier of English league football, League One...

 teammate Tommy Docherty

Tommy Docherty

Thomas Henderson "Tommy" Docherty , commonly known as "The Doc", is a Scottish former footballer and football manager.-Playing career:...

 as a coach at Manchester United

Manchester United F.C.

Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...

. Cavanagh stayed at United when Docherty was sacked in 1977 and became assistant manager under Docherty's successor, Dave Sexton

Dave Sexton

David "Dave" Sexton OBE is an English former football manager and player.-Playing career:Son of former professional boxer Archie Sexton, he started his playing career with West Ham United in 1948. Playing mainly at inside-forward, he would finish his career with time at Luton Town, Leyton Orient,...

, but he left the club following Ron Atkinson

Ron Atkinson

Ronald Ernest Atkinson, commonly known as "Big Ron" and "Bojangles" is an English former football player and manager. In recent years he has become one of Britain's best-known football pundits...

's appointment in 1981.

He later had coaching spells at Newcastle United

Newcastle United F.C.

Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since the merger...

, and Rosenborg

Rosenborg B.K.

Rosenborg Ballklub is a Norwegian football club from the city of Trondheim, currently playing in the Norwegian Premier League. With 22 league titles and nine Norwegian Cup titles, the club is the most successful in Norway and has dominated Norwegian football since the start of the 1990s...

 in Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. In 1985, he became Martin Buchan

Martin Buchan

Martin McLean Buchan is a Scottish former footballer. Buchan was a central defender for Manchester United in 1972–1983, and captained the late 1970s teams for six years...

's assistant at Burnley

Burnley F.C.

Burnley Football Club are a professional English Football League club based in Burnley, Lancashire. Nicknamed the Clarets, due to the dominant colour of their home shirts, they were founder members of the Football League in 1888...

, and took over as manager when Buchan was sacked later that year.

After leaving Burnley in 1986, he worked at the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall until his retirement. In 2002, Cavanagh was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...

, and died in March 2007, aged 78.

External links

• Manchester Evening News Obituary