Biography

Jim Gannon was born in Southwark, South London and moved with his family to Ireland at a young age. Jim received his start in higher level football from the Irish club Dundalk. He impressed for Dundalk, and in April 1989 was signed up by Sheffield United where he struggled to break into the first team. After 12 months he moved to Stockport County where he had a distinguished ten year career. His 479 club appearances puts him in third spot in Stockport’s all-time appearance list and his 65 goals are 9th in their scoring records.

Jim is known by Stockport fans as 'The Ghost', due to his knack of 'ghosting' in at the back of the box to score from crosses. On his return to Ireland, Gannon completed his accountancy exams and had a number of successful years at Shelbourne which included winning 2 League Championships, scoring in a Champions League qualifier and playing in the UEFA Cup.

Dundalk 2004 - 2005

In June 2004 he was appointed to his first managerial post, taking charge of Dundalk, who were also the first club in Jim's professional playing career. On 14 November 2005, Jim confirmed his resignation from Dundalk they had already secured a comfortable mid-table position in Ireland's second tier of association football.Prior to Jim's departure, the team drawn ten consecutive matches.

Stockport County 2005-09

After the resignation of Chris Turner as Stockport County manager, Jim was appointed as caretaker manager with the team five points adrift of safety at the bottom of League Two, facing potential relegation from the Football League. An upturn in results saw Jim offered the job full time, which allowed him to guide County to safety, avoiding relegation from the football league on the final day of the 2005–06 season.

At the beginning of the 06-07 season, Jim and Stockport announced they had drawn up a 5-year plan to take the club to the Championship. Results on the field followed this statement of intent, with Jim leading County to a League record nine consecutive victories without conceding a goal. County missed out on the League Two play-offs , missing out on goal difference despite a 5-0 victory over Darlington on the last day of the season.

County finished the 2007-08 season in fourth, and on his fifth visit to Wembley, his first as a manager, Gannon guided Stockport to a 3-2 win over Rochdale in May 2008 to win promotion to League One.Having quickly taken Stockport from the foot of League Two to promotion to League One on a meager budget, Jim Gannon is branded one of the most highly-rated managers in the lower leagues