Stuart Gray was today appointed as Fulham's new senior coach, taking over first team duties from Peter Grant until a new head coach is found. But just how much do we know about the man who will be sat in the dugout for the foreseeable future.

Pulling up trees at Forest

Gray came through the youth system at Nottingham Forest at the time that they were the best club in Europe. The young midfielder signed pro forms in 1980, the year Forest won a second successive European Cup (pictured) under Brian Clough. He played just over 50 games for Forest before going on to feature for Barnsley, Aston Villa and Southampton before finishing his playing days at non-league Bognor Regis.

Helping make shoot-out history

It was with Southampton that he scored in an FA Cup game against Manchester United in February 1992, a goal which led to a little piece of history being created. It secured a 2-2 draw and led to the first ever penalty shoot-out featuring top flight sides, which the Saints won. It also led indirectly to the end of his career, as Gray never recovered from an Achilles tendon injury picked up in the next round against Bolton.

Gone after just three months at Saints

Gray's first managerial role lasted just three months. Handed the reins as caretaker at Southampton after Glenn Hoddle left for Spurs in March 2001, he was made permanent manager in June but has been bombed out by September. Despite his brief tenure, Gray still managed to break the Saints' transfer record when he shelled out £4million on Rory Delap (pictured). Gray was also sacked from both his other managerial roles, at Northampton Town and Sheffield Wednesday.

Impressive win ratio as caretaker

He has had far more success as a caretaker manager, with win percentages of 50 per cent from his short spells in the hot seat at Wolves (three wins from six), Burnley (two wins from four) and Portsmouth (three win from six), with the sequence only broken by his two games in charge of Aston Villa in 2002, which were both drawn. Gray has also acted as assistant to other caretaker managers, one of who was a certain Kit Symons (pictured), in his Crystal Palace days.

Not a big enough name for Wednesday

Gray was one of the earliest graduates of the LMA's Certificate in Applied Management at Warwick University, but that did not him being sacked by Sheffield Wednesday last summer as he was not a big enough name for the Owls' new Thai owners, despite doing a fair job at Hillsborough. He initially got the job after leading Wednesday through 11 unbeaten games as caretaker, and last season led the club to their best finish in six years.