Gray: Francis Tierney (Frank)

1971-1979&1981-1985 (Player Details)

Midfield/Left Back

Born: Castlemilk, Glasgow: 27-10-1954

Debut v Leicester City (a) (substitute): 10-02-1973

5’9 1/2” 11st 10lb (1973)

#43 in 100 Greatest LUFC Players Ever

Although not as gifted as elder brother Eddie, he won thirty-two caps for Scotland in a career which saw him avoid major injury. His career in his early days followed those of his older brother, Glasgow Schools representative and Schoolboy International. He was a former Parkhead ball-boy and Celtic fanatic, but he went to Leeds in the summer of 1970, after United signed him in the face of opposition from about thirty other clubs. He turned professional in November 1971 and, after two games as a substitute, one in the League at Leicester City on 10th February 1973, and the second in an away European Cup-winners' Cup tie with Rapid Bucharest on 21st March 1973, scored on his full debut on 21st April 1973 against Crystal Palace at Elland Road, to emulate another feat of his elder brother. Frank Gray was one of the new generation of Leeds United players of the mid-1970s charged with the task of maintaining the club's success after the Don Revie era. Revie had lost regular left back Terry Cooper to an horrific broken leg the year before and needed to find a replacement. Therefore the young Gray was given his chance at left-back as a result. He didn't stay long in the side, as a reshuffled defence allowed Trevor Cherry to take the left back spot for the business end of the season which consisted of two Cup finals, the FA Cup and the European Cup-winners Cup, both of which Leeds lost. Revie did, however, invite Gray to travel with the squad to Wembley and he sat next to his manager during the defeat by Sunderland. Gray was similarly spared regular football in the first team at such an early age during the following year, with Cherry settled into the left back role. Leeds won the League Championship thanks to mainly to a twenty-nine games unbeaten start to the season. Gray only played three times and didn't qualify for a medal. He got his chance the following season though, making eighteen appearances in the League and usurping Cherry for the No.3 shirt in the European Cup final in Paris, which Leeds lost 2-0 to Bayern Munich. As the Revie team disbanded due to age, Revie himself had quit for the England manager's job the year before, Gray found himself tagged as one of the bright young stars who would try to maintain the standard of the previous team, alongside the likes of Gordon McQueen and Joe Jordan. It never quite worked like that, with Leeds sliding into comparative mediocrity for the rest of the 1970s. He was such a naturally gifted player that things came easy to him. He had speed, was a superb passer of the ball and read the game with intelligence, took penalties with ease and played a simple but stylish game. He had all those great natural gifts but did not have the passion of a Bremner, Collins or Hunter, if he had he would have been world-class. Like Eddie, he also played on the left but in a deeper midfield role, and won five Scotland Under-Twenty-Three caps. He won them from 13th March 1974, when he made his debut at St James' Park, Newcastle, until 24th March 1975 at Easter Road, Edinburgh against Holland, when still just turning twenty-one. Later he switched to left back and often played in the same team as his elder brother, providing United with a very solid left side. He made his full Scotland debut on 7th April 1976 in Scotland's 1-0 win over Switzerland at Hampden Park and had made six starts and one substitute appearance when Leeds received a then club record £500,000 when he moved to Nottingham Forest in July 1979, whose manager Brian Clough, had been clearly impressed with what he'd seen of the defender during his infamous forty-four-day spell in charge at Leeds four years earlier. Gray slotted into the team and played in his second European Cup final in 1980, making him the first player to appear in the final for two different English clubs. This time he was successful as Forest won 1-0 against a useful Hamburg SV side which included Kevin Keegan. Gray also finished on the losing side earlier in the season when Forest were beaten in the League Cup final by Wolves, thanks to a single goal from unrelated fellow Scotsman Andy Gray. Under Brian Clough, Gray enjoyed his best years, scoring five times in eighty-one games, climaxing in a European Cup Winners’ Medal in 1980 to go with the Losers’ Medal he had got with Leeds in 1975. Despite his success, Gray never fully settled at Forest and accepted an invitation in May 1981 to return to Leeds by former team-mate Allan Clarke, who was now manager, Gray had been Scotland’s left back in the 1982 World Cup in Spain and had added another six starts and one substitute appearance to his growing tally of caps which now numbered fourteen. It was a cut-price £300,000 deal which got Gray back into Elland Road, but in the first season after his return Leeds were relegated. Clarke was fired from Leeds after the drop and Gray's brother Eddie took over. The younger Gray played for four years under his brother's stewardship but Leeds couldn't gain promotion and regain their First Division status. He also featured regularly for Scotland, and scored his first and only goal for his country on 23rd March 1982 with a thirteenth minute penalty against Holland at Hampden, but played his final game for them in Edmonton Canada on 16th June 1983, when the hosts were beaten 3-0 and by then Gray had made thirty starts and two games as a substitute. He left for Sunderland in 1985, for £100,000, helping them gain promotion from Division Three in 1987-88. After ten goals in one hundred and fifty-nine games, he was freed by Sunderland in April 1989 and was appointed Player-Assistant Manager at Darlington, helping to steer them back to the Fourth Division as Champions of the GM Vauxhall Conference in 1990. He took over as Manager when Brian Little departed, but he too left the Feethams after just one year. He remained at the Feethams until February 1992, scoring seven goals in forty-nine League games and a total of eight goals in eighty-five in all games. He then scouted for Blackburn Rovers and Sheffield Wednesday, before taking over as Manager of Harrogate Town in December 1993, resigning the following June to take charge of Al Mananmah in Bahrain. He later became an Academy Coach with Southampton and an agent. He became Manager of Farnborough Town on 5th May 2005 and took them to the Nationwide Conference South play-offs in 2005–06 before joining Grays Athletic a year later on 26th May 2006. He left them in October 2006 and the joined Woking in May 2007 on a two year contract, but left by mutual consent on 8th April 2008. He then joined Conference South Club Basingstoke Town in May 2008, where is he is still their Manager. Apart from being the younger brother of Eddie Gray he is also the father of Andy Gray.