Kenny Hibbitt

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Kenny Hibbitt
Personal information
Date of birth	January 3, 1951 (1951-01-03) (age 57)
Place of birth	Bradford, England
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1967-1968 1968-1984 1982 1984-1986 1986-1988	Bradford Park Avenue Wolves Seattle Sounders (loan) Coventry City Bristol Rovers Total	015 00(0) 466 0(89)  ? (?) 047 00(4) 053 00(5) 581 0(98)
National team
1970	England Under 23	001 00(0)
Teams managed
1990-1994 1996 2001-2002	Walsall Cardiff City Hednesford Town
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Kenny Hibbitt (born January 3, 1951 in Bradford) is a former English footballer. He is most known for his time at Wolves, for whom he played from 1968 to 1984.

[edit] Career

Hibbitt joined Wolves from his home town club Bradford Park Avenue for £5,000 in November 1968. He finally made his club debut as a substitute in a 0-1 defeat to rivals West Bromwich Albion on April 12, 1969, aged just 18. He did not feature again though until September 12, 1970, when he scored his first of many goals in a 2-2 draw at Chelsea.

During his time at Molineux, Hibbitt won 2 League Cups (1974 and 1980) and played in the 1972 UEFA Cup final, where the club lost narrowly to countrymen Tottenham Hotspur. He also helped the club win 2 promotions back to the top flight.

He finally left Wolves in 1984, moving to Coventry City on a free transfer. In total, he played 544 games for Wolves, scoring 114 goals.

His playing career came to an abrupt halt in February 1988, when he broke his leg playing for Bristol Rovers against Southend. He remained with the club after this, as assistant to manager Gerry Francis and helped the team win the (old) Division 3 title in 1990.

After this success, he was appointed manager of Walsall, who he took to the Division 3 play-offs in 1993/94. He took over as manager of Cardiff City from Eddie May in the summer of 1995, but moved upstairs to a director of football role with the arrival of Phil Neal the following year. However, Neal's time in charge was brief, departing after only a couple of months to become assistant to Steve Coppell at Manchester City. Hibbitt took over the team once again before handing the reins over to Russell Osman. In February 1998, Osman was sacked and Hibbitt took over team affairs for the third time, before being replaced by Frank Burrows. The arrival of Burrows saw Hibbitt's influence greatly diminished, and at the end of the 1997/98 season he left the club altogether.

He returned to management with non-league Hednesford Town in September 2001, but despite rescuing the club from a poor start and preserving their place in their division, he was sacked at the end of the season. He now works for the Premier League, reviewing the performances of the referees.

His older brother Terry was also a footballer.

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v • d • e Cardiff City F.C. – Managers McDougall (1910–11) • Stewart (1911–33) • Wilson (1933–34) • Watts-Jones (1934–37) • Jennings (1937–39) • Spiers (1939–46) • McCandless (1946–47) • Spiers (1947–54) • Morris (1954–58) • Jones (1958–62) • Swindin (1962–64) • Scoular (1964–73) • Clayton (1973) • O'Farrell (1973–74) • Andrews (1974–78) • Morgan (1978–81) • Williams (1981–82) • Ashurst (1982–84) • Goodfellow and Mullen (1984) • Goodfellow (1984) • Durban (1984–86) • Mullen (1986) • Burrows (1986–89) • Ashurst (1989–91) • May (1991–94) • Yorath (1994–95) • May (1995) • Hibbitt (1995–96) • Neal (1996) • Hibbitt (1996) • Osman (1996–98) • Hibbitt (1998) • Burrows (1998–2000) • Ayre (2000) • Gould (2000) • Cork (2000–02) • Lawrence (2002–05) • Jones (2005–)