Introduction
William "Billy" Brown (born 20 December 1950 in Musselburgh) is a Scottish football player and coach, who recently worked as assistant manager at Heart of Midlothian. He previously managed Scottish Second Division side East Fife. Brown played in the Scottish Football League for Motherwell and Raith Rovers. He then became a football coach, working at Berwick Rangers, Falkirk, Hearts, Bradford City and Kilmarnock with longtime colleague Jim Jefferies.
Club career
Brown began his career at Hull City going on to play for Motherwell and Raith Rovers. His senior playing career was ended by a cruciate ligament injury at the age of 28. He continued to play at a junior level with Newtongrange Star and Musselburgh Athletic whilst with Musselburgh he became a coach.
Management
Brown became assistant manager to Jim Jefferies, an old school friend from Musselburgh Grammar School, at Berwick Rangers in 1988. Since then he has followed him to Falkirk, Hearts, Bradford City and Kilmarnock. After leaving Kilmarnock with Jefferies in January 2010, Brown and Jefferies returned to Hearts soon afterwards. Jefferies and Brown were sacked by Hearts on 1 August 2011.
Brown was appointed assistant manager at Hibernian in September 2011. He was made caretaker manager of the club following the dismissal of Colin Calderwood in November and was interviewed for the job. Pat Fenlon was appointed manager, but Brown was retained as assistant manager until June 2012, when his contract expired.
Brown was appointed manager of East Fife in November 2012. Although East Fife struggled during the 2012–13 season, the club won the Scottish Second Division play-offs to stay in the third tier. On 5 June 2013 it was reported that Brown had parted company with East Fife. Brown then returned to Hearts, working as an unpaid assistant to manager Gary Locke. Hearts had recently entered administration and could not afford to offer a salary to an assistant coach. Brown was given a paid short-term contract in September 2013. In January 2014, Brown was informed that his contract would not be renewed. After a delegation of Hearts players met the club administrators, Brown was subsequently given another contract.
Manager
As of 19 May 2013
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| East Fife |  | November 2012 | 5 June 2013 | 30 | 8 | 8 | 14 | 26.67 |