John Schofield (footballer)

English professional football coach and former player

On 18 November 1994, Schofield joined Sammy Chung's Doncaster Rovers. Schofield returned to Lincoln City on 6 June 2000 to take up the post of Head of Youth Development. With Lincoln beginning to struggle financially, Schofield was also called upon as a player, making a further 24 appearances in the 2000–01 campaign, before he finally wound his playing career down. made impressive progress with Lincoln's youth team set up. A number of promising players, such as Lee Frecklington, either making the first team squad or being sold to higher level clubs such as Jack Hobbs who was sold to Liverpool and Scott Loach who moved on to Watford. His good work was rewarded with an increasing role with the first team and he was appointed first team coach before the start of the 2005–06 season. The departure of Keith Alexander as Lincoln's manager on 24 May 2006 saw Schofield take over as caretaker manager. He was appointed as Lincoln's head coach on 15 June 2006, with John Deehan appointed as director of football. The 2006–07 season started promisingly for Lincoln with a new found commitment to attacking passing football which saw them top the table in October 2006 and be amongst the leading scorers in the league. He was named as League Two Manager of the Month for October after winning all four games that month. His was contract extended to three years on 6 August 2007, and his title was changed from head coach to manager. The poor form exhibited by Lincoln in the second half of the 2006–07 season continued into 2007–08 and this was met with increasing unease by the Lincoln supporters with a feeling that Schofield has neglected the defence of the squad in favour of his attacking strategy. Schofield was sacked by Lincoln on 15 October 2007, after a run of nine matches without a win.

Schofield began coaching at Scunthorpe United in February 2008, where he helped carried out extra training sessions for players not involved in the first team, before he departed at the end of the 2007–08 season. On 17 June 2008, he was appointed first team coach at Walsall, to work under manager Jimmy Mullen. Schofield was appointed manager on a caretaker basis after Mullen was sacked on 10 January 2009. He took charge for just one match, a 1–0 defeat away to Peterborough United, but left the club ten days later ahead of the appointment of manager Chris Hutchings, who brought in his own right hand man in former Walsall player Martin O'Connor. On 20 March 2009, Cheltenham Town's manager Martin Allen appointed Schofield as his assistant on an initial expenses only basis. The appointment was made full time on 14 May, when Schofield agreed a two year contract. On 20 October, he became caretaker manager of the club after Allen was placed on gardening leave whilst an alleged incident involving Allen at a nightclub was investigated. Although Allen was subsequently cleared by an internal club investigation, on 11 December he left the club by mutual consent with Schofield remaining in temporary charge. Although he was interviewed for the permanent manager's role, his erstwhile Lincoln teammate Mark Yates was appointed with Schofield reverting to his role as assistant manager. His spell as caretaker manager had consisted of nine matches with just a single victory: a 5–1 defeat of Barnet. A restructuring of the backroom team at the end of the 2009–10 season saw Schofield depart Whaddon Road after fifteen months at the club. On 6 July 2010, he joined Cambridge United on a trial basis to assist manager Martin Ling with the club's pre season preparations. Having impressed, he joined the club on a two year contract to become first team coach. Following a run of four successive defeats, he and Ling were sacked by Cambridge on 1 February 2011. On 11 April 2011, Notts County appointed Martin Allen as manager on a one year rolling contract and he quickly appointed Schofield as first team coach. Although Allen steered the club clear of relegation at the end of the 2010–11 season, he was sacked on 18 February 2012 with the club occupying 11th place in League One. Two days later, following the appointment of Keith Curle as manager, Schofield also departed Meadow Lane. In July 2012, he linked up with Martin Allen for a third time, when he became his assistant at Gillingham. Although Allen led the club to the League Two title in 2012–13, after winning just two of their first eleven league games in 2013–14, he was sacked on 13 October 2013. Schofield was placed in caretaker charge, before Peter Taylor was appointed interim manager a day later. He remained part of the backroom staff under Taylor, before leaving his role on 6 May 2014. On 23 June 2014, Schofield was appointed assistant manager at Scunthorpe United. He had played with the club's manager Russ Wilcox at Doncaster whilst the two also completed their coaching badges and pro licence on the same courses. On 30 December 2014, he returned to Lincoln City in a voluntary coaching capacity to assistant recently appointed manager Chris Moyses, before resuming his relationship with Wilcox through being appointed his assistant at League Two club York City on 21 May 2015. With York 21st in the table after a nine match run without a win early in the 2015–16 season, Wilcox and Schofield were sacked on 26 October. On 7 September 2016, Schofield returned to former club Doncaster Rovers as a Senior Professional Development Coach, working with youth players and younger first team players to bridge the gap between the squads. He trained the first team in the summer of 2019, before Darren Moore was appointed to the vacant manager role. He later coached at Peterborough United's youth team.

On 26 July 2021, Schofield became the new manager of Northern Ireland under 21 team. He stepped down from the role on 1 February 2023 after Northern Ireland finished third in their group for 2023 UEFA European Under 21 Championship qualification, having won two and drawn one of his ten games in charge.

On 18 April 2023, Schofield joined the backroom staff at Port Vale to assist interim manager Andy Crosby – his predecessor as Northern Ireland U21 manager – in steering the club away from the League One relegation zone. Having achieved this aim, he was confirmed as Crosby's assistant manager in June 2023. He left the club when Crosby was sacked on 5 February 2024.