Tam Courts

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Tam Courts
Personal information
Date of birth (1981-08-10) 10 August 1981 (age 42)
Place of birth Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s) Full back
Youth career
Milton Green
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2002 Livingston 5 (0)
2000–2001 → Cowdenbeath (loan) 25 (1)
2002–2004 Kelty Hearts
2004–2006 Hill of Beath Hawthorn
2006–2007 East Fife 26 (0)
2007 → Hill of Beath Hawthorn (loan)
2007–2018 Kelty Hearts
Total 56 (1)
Managerial career
2013–2018 Kelty Hearts
2021–2022 Dundee United
2022 Budapest Honvéd
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Thomas "Tam" Courts (born 10 August 1981) is a Scottish football coach and former player.

As a player, he appeared in the Scottish Football League for Livingston, Cowdenbeath and East Fife. After a previous spell at the club from 2002 to 2004, he rejoined Kelty Hearts as a player in 2007 and went on to be their player-manager from 2013 until 2018. After joining Dundee United in 2020 to work in their youth academy, he was their head coach during the 2021–22 season.

Playing career[edit]

Courts began his professional career at Livingston and made his first team debut in February 1999 against Clyde in a Scottish Football League Second Division game. With Livingston promoted as champions that year, Courts made four league appearances in the First Division the following season before departing for a loan spell at Cowdenbeath.

Courts dropped into Junior football with local Fife sides Kelty Hearts and Hill of Beath Hawthorn after his release by Livingston in 2002. A further spell in senior football with East Fife in 2006–07 ended with Courts being loaned back to Hill of Beath before joining Kelty for a second time in late 2007.

Courts has also played for the Scotland Junior international team and captained the squad in the 2013 Umbro Quadrangular Trophy in the Republic of Ireland.[citation needed]

Coaching career[edit]

Kelty Hearts[edit]

After the sacking of Willie Newbigging in October 2013, Courts was appointed player-manager of Kelty Hearts at the age of 32.[1] He saved the club from relegation before winning the East Region Super League title for the first time in the club's history in 2015. Kelty went onto win the title again in 2017 before joining the East of Scotland Football League.[2]

Kelty won the East of Scotland League in 2018 under Courts[3] and were promoted to the Lowland League, the fifth tier of the Scottish football league system, where they competed for the first time during the 2018–19 season.[4]

Courts retired from playing to focus on managing Kelty Hearts in the Lowland League, however he resigned his position as manager on the 11 October 2018, which the club reluctantly accepted.[5]

Dundee United[edit]

Courts joined Dundee United in February 2020 as head of tactical performance in the club's youth academy.[6] In December 2020 he was put in temporary charge of the club's first team when manager Micky Mellon and his coaching staff had to self-isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic,[7] overseeing a 2-0 defeat against Livingston.[8] In June 2021 Courts was appointed as the club's head coach following the departure of Mellon.[9]

Courts guided United to a fourth-place finish, and European qualification, in the 2021–22 Scottish Premiership. He was linked with Croatian club HNK Rijeka in June 2022 and soon afterwards left United by mutual consent, as he had expressed his "desire to explore other options".[10]

Budapest Honvéd[edit]

After his departure from Dundee United, Courts signed a two-year deal to become the new manager of Budapest Honvéd.[11] In an interview with Hungarian Nemzeti Sport, he said that the first match he saw in a stadium was between Celtic and Honvéd. He also added that the fact that Chris Docherty was appointed as the sports director of Honvéd contributed to his decision to accept the offer of Honvéd.[12]

On 21 August 2022, Courts-led Honvéd won for the first time in the 2022-23 Nemzeti Bajnokság I season by beating Vasas SC 2-1 at Illovszky Rudolf Stadion.[13]

Although his team defeated Zalaegerszegi TE at the ZTE Arena on 22 October 2022 on the 12th match day of the season,[14] Courts left the club by mutual consent on 24 October 2022.[15]

Managerial record[edit]

As of 13 November 2022
Managerial record by team and tenure
Team Nat From To Record Ref.
G W D L Win %
Kelty Hearts Scotland 2 October 2013 11 October 2018 192 128 27 37 066.67 [16][17][18][19][20][21]
Dundee United Scotland 7 June 2021 14 June 2022 47 18 13 16 038.30
Budapest Honvéd Hungary 15 June 2022 24 October 2022 18 6 4 8 033.33
Total 255 151 43 61 059.22 —

Honours[edit]

Player[edit]

Cowdenbeath

Manager[edit]

Kelty Hearts

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Tam Courts takes over at Kelty". 3 October 2013.
  2. ^ "Kelty Hearts join EoS League as they follow SPFL dream". Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  3. ^ "KELTY HEARTS WIN PROMOTION TO LOWLAND LEAGUE". Pars Review. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  4. ^ "The only way is up for Kelty!". The Bolton News. 18 May 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  5. ^ "Kelty Hearts Football Club on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 12 October 2018.
  6. ^ Williams, Ieuan (14 February 2020). "Former Kelty Hearts boss Thomas Courts lands United role". Dunfermline Press. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  7. ^ Roache, Ian (3 December 2020). "Dundee United's Thomas Courts opens up on dramatic 'promotion' as entire first-team coaching staff self-isolate after positive Covid-19 tests". The Courier. Dundee. Retrieved 3 December 2020.
  8. ^ Roache, Ian (12 December 2020). "Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland has not let club's pandemic problem bother him". The Courier. Dundee. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  9. ^ "Dundee United appoint Courts as manager". BBC Sport. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
  10. ^ Coyle, Andy (14 June 2022). "Tam Courts leaves position as manager of Dundee United". STV Sport. Retrieved 14 June 2022.
  11. ^ "TAM COURTS IS THE NEW COACH OF THE BUDAPEST HONVÉD". Budapest Honved. 15 June 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  12. ^ TIBOR, PIETSCH (28 June 2022). "Honvéd: Nem a szavak, a tettek embere vagyok – Tam Courts - NSO". NSO.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 29 June 2022.
  13. ^ "Potya gól itt és itt, megverte a Honvéd a Vasast - NSO". 2022.
  14. ^ "Zalaegerszegi TE vs. Honvéd - 22 October 2022 - Soccerway". int.soccerway.com. Retrieved 4 November 2022.
  15. ^ "Tam Courts Dundee United exit decision backfires as he leaves Budapest Honved after TWELVE games". Daily Record. 24 October 2022.
  16. ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-13-14.jpg [bare URL image file]
  17. ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-14-15.jpg [bare URL image file]
  18. ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-15-16.jpg [bare URL image file]
  19. ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-16-17.jpg [bare URL image file]
  20. ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-17-18.jpg [bare URL image file]
  21. ^ http://keltyhearts-co-uk.stackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/season-18-19.jpg [bare URL image file]
  22. ^ "MATCH PREVIEW - KELTY (A)". Cowdenbeath FV. 6 July 2018.
  23. ^ a b c "Leaving Kelty was a Big Decision". Central Fife Times. 23 October 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
  24. ^ "Kelty Seek New Boss". Central Fife Times. 12 October 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2022.

External links[edit]

  • Tam Courts at Soccerbase Edit this at Wikidata
  • Tam Courts at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database
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