Richard Hill (footballer, born 1963)

Richard Hill

Personal information
Date of birth	20 September 1963
Place of birth	Hinckley, England
Position(s)	Midfield (Utility)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	Leicester City
1982–1985	Nuneaton Borough
1985–1987	Northampton Town	104	(52)
1987	Watford	4	(0)
1987–1989	Oxford United	63	(13)
	Kettering Town
Managerial career
1998–2000	Stevenage Borough
2012–2015	Eastleigh
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Richard Hill (born 20 September 1963) is an English football coach who most recently was the manager of Conference National club Eastleigh. He is also a former English footballer who played for Oxford United, Watford, Northampton Town and Leicester City. He has been assistant manager at 6 different clubs, including Queens Park Rangers, and had a difficult but successful stint as manager of Stevenage Borough.

Playing career

During his playing days Hill played for Northampton Town, Watford and Oxford United. In his time at Northampton, Hill scored 33 league and cup goals in one season, winning the golden boot for finishing as the club's top goal scorer.

Hill was transferred from Northampton Town to Watford for a Fourth Division record fee of £258,000. He was the last signing made by Graham Taylor before his departure from Watford to manage Aston Villa at the end of the 1986–87 season. He did not feature in the plans of incoming manager Dave Bassett and consequently, his stay at Vicarage Road was brief only appearing 4 times: he was transferred to Oxford United for £260,000.

Hill had to finish a flourishing career due to a serious knee injury, having amassed 69 goals from just 170 Football League games.

Managerial career

Since retiring from playing the vastly experienced Hill has been assistant manager to John Gregory at both Wycombe Wanderers and Queens Park Rangers, Brian Little at Aston Villa, Martin Wilkinson at Northampton Town, Andy Hessenthaler at Gillingham, Tranmere Rovers and was first-team coach at Reading. He has also coached at Swindon Town, scouted for Derby County and managed Stevenage Borough.

In June 2010, Hill was appointed technical advisor to the Ethiopia national football team and worked with them during African Nations qualifying games.

In June 2011, Hill was appointed assistant manager to FC Kairat in the Kazakhstan Premier League.

On 12 September 2012, Hill was appointed manager of Conference South club Eastleigh. In his first season he led Eastleigh to the Conference South Play Off Semi Finals. At the start of the 2013-14 season Eastleigh were big favourites to win the league. Under HIll's guidance he led Eastleigh to the Conference South title and promotion in the 2013–14 season. The 2014-15 season saw Eastleigh in the Conference Premier the highest level of football they'd ever competed at and Hill took Eastleigh to the Play Off Semi Finals at the end of that season. In his 3 seasons Hill had achieved Conference South Play Offs, Conference South Champions and Conference Premier Play Offs a remarkable achievement. In his time at Eastleigh, Hill achieved a win ratio of 62% Hill resigned at Eastleigh on 23 September 2015 after just over 3 years in the job, feeling it was time for a change for both himself and the club.