Keith Andrews went from set-piece coach to Brentford head coach in a year
Keith Andrews spent much of his playing career fighting for a place, bouncing between clubs and loans. He still captained Wolves at 21, won a trophy at Wembley and played for Ireland at Euro 2012. In 2024 Brentford hired him to coach set pieces; a year later they made him head coach.
Andrews, born on 13 September 1980 and raised in Artane in Dublin, came through the Wolverhampton Wanderers academy and debuted in March 2000. At the end of the following season, aged 21, he captained Wolves against Queens Park Rangers, the club's youngest skipper in more than a hundred years. New signings then pushed him to the bench, and he went out on loan to Oxford, Stoke and Walsall before leaving for Hull City in 2005.
His breakthrough came in League Two with Milton Keynes Dons, where he was made captain. Under his former Wolves teammate Paul Ince, he scored the winner at Stockport in April 2008 that clinched promotion, and a penalty in the 2–0 Football League Trophy final win over Grimsby at Wembley. He was voted League Two Player of the Year and joined the PFA Team of the Year, and Ince took him to Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League that September. Spells followed at Ipswich, West Bromwich Albion, Bolton, Brighton and Watford before a last loan back at MK Dons and retirement in August 2015.
Andrews won 35 caps for the Republic of Ireland between 2008 and 2012, scoring on his debut against Poland and again in a 2–0 friendly win over Italy. His header opened a 4–0 play-off win in Estonia that sent Ireland to Euro 2012. The tournament went badly, with three defeats and a red card for him against Italy, but The Irish Times rated him arguably the team's best performer, and he was named the FAI's player of the year.
Coaching followed as assistant at MK Dons, then alongside Stephen Kenny with Ireland's under-21 and senior sides until November 2023, and briefly at Sheffield United. On 27 June 2025 Brentford promoted him to replace Thomas Frank, and in February 2026, with the team seventh, they extended his contract to 2032.
Source: Keith Andrews (footballer)
