John Joseph Sheridan (born 1 October 1964) is an Irish former football player and manager who was last head coach of National League club Oldham Athletic.
A midfielder, he began his playing career with Manchester City and then moved to Leeds United, where he scored 47 league goals in 230 appearances.
He played for Nottingham Forest briefly, under the management of Brian Clough, and then joined Sheffield Wednesday, for whom he scored the winning goal in the 1991 Football League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium.
Born in England, he played international football for the Republic of Ireland, for which he won 34 caps and scored five goals over a seven-year period.
Born in Stretford, Lancashire, in 1964, Sheridan joined Manchester City in 1981, but never played for the first team, before moving to Leeds United in July 1982.
Sheridan scored a "rocket" goal in Wednesday's 1–0 win over Manchester United in the 1991 Football League Cup Final.
[citation needed] He played just 17 times in the 1995–96 campaign, and made his final two appearances for Sheffield Wednesday early in the 1996–97 season.
[5] He was loaned to Birmingham City for a four-match spell in the autumn of 1996 (where he once again played under Trevor Francis) before finally exiting Hillsborough on 13 November 1996 in a £180,000 move to Division One leaders Bolton Wanderers.
[6] He played 20 times for the Trotters in the 1996–97 season and scored twice as they were promoted to the FA Premier League as Division One champions with 100 goals and 98 points.
He made eight appearances in the 1998–99 before making a Football League comeback with Division Two side Oldham Athletic, where he would remain for the rest of his playing career.
[citation needed] Following the departure of Iain Dowie to Crystal Palace in late 2003, Sheridan took over the coaching of the Oldham first team, along with fellow-veteran David Eyres, before they were both replaced by Brian Talbot.
On 1 June 2006, Talbot's successor, Ronnie Moore, was himself sacked and Sheridan stepped in to fill in the manager's position on a permanent basis.
[10] He guided Oldham to sixth place in League One in 2006–07, and their promotion challenge was ended in the play-off semi-finals by eventual winners Blackpool.
[18] Sheridan's second season with the club saw him bringing in his own players, and on 22 April 2011 a draw between Torquay United and Wycombe Wanderers meant Chesterfield were promoted without even kicking a ball in League Two.
[28][29] By the end of the season, the club had won eight and drawn four of Sheridan's 19 games in charge and avoided relegation from the Football League.
However, the season ended on a negative note, as following a 2–1 victory over Sheridan's former club Chesterfield which put the Pilgrims into the play off positions,[35] the team then self capitulated and only won one of the final nine games.
This led to Sheridan deciding against renewing the contracts of seven professionals, including former player of the year Maxime Blanchard and Plymouth-born midfielder Luke Young,[36] with promotion the target for 2014–15.
[40] On 28 May 2015, Plymouth announced that Sheridan had left the club by mutual consent after expressing a desire to return to the north of England for family reasons.
On 2 January 2017, equalling a club record of nine successive defeats, Sheridan was sacked for gross misconduct as manager shortly after losing 4–0 to Cambridge United.
[47] On 22 February 2018, Sheridan was appointed manager of League One club Fleetwood Town until the end of the 2017–18 season, replacing Uwe Rosler.
He joined with the club 20th in the league having lost their last eight games in all competitions, but successfully guided them to safety finishing in 14th place.
Oldham were relegated from the English Football League following a 2-1 home defeat by Salford City on 23 April 2022, a match interrupted by an on-pitch protest by fans against the club's owners.