Christopher John Nicholl (born 12 October 1946) is an English-born former Northern Ireland international footballer who later worked as a coach and manager. Playing career Nicholl was born in Macclesfield. He played for Burnley (1963–1966) (no league appearances), Witton Albion, Halifax Town (1968–1969) (42 league appearances, 3 goals) and Luton Town (1969–1972) (97 league appearances, 6 goals), before establishing himself as a centre-half with Aston Villa (1972–1977) (210 league appearances, 11 goals). He captained the side to victory over Everton in the 1976/1977 League Cup after two final replays. The second replay is remembered for Nicholl scoring one of the greatest goals in any Aston Villa match, a forty-yard left footer which helped take the match to extra time. In a Division One game against Leicester City in 1976, he scored all four goals (two of them own goals) in a 2–2 draw. This was the second time that this feat had been achieved in the top tier English football and followed Sam Wynne's record during a 1923 fixture between Oldham Athletic and Manchester United. He signed for Southampton in June 1977 and became the backbone of a successful side. He scored eight goals in 228 league appearances, before joining Grimsby Town in August 1983, for whom he made 70 league appearances in three years. He won 51 Northern Ireland full international caps. Management Southampton After serving Grimsby Town as assistant manager, he returned to Southampton as the club's manager when Lawrie McMenemy resigned in June 1985. He kept the Saints in the First Division but despite having players of the calibre of Danny and Rod Wallace, Alan Shearer and Matthew Le Tissier in his squad, he tended to be too cautious. During his 6 seasons in charge, Saints were under-achievers and his best result was in 1989–90 with a finish in 7th place achieved largely thanks to 20 goals from Le Tissier and 18 from Rod Wallace, although they did reach the FA Cup semi-finals in 1986 and the same stage of the League Cup a year later. This was relatively good for a club of Southampton's size, and under Nicholl they finished higher in the league than a number of bigger clubs including Manchester United, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Chelsea, but under McMenemy they had won the FA Cup in 1976, finished league runners-up in 1984 and then fifth in his final season. In 1991, the Saints