His managerial career started at Boston United as player-manager, and during this time he gained a degree in physical education at Sheffield University. He also spent time during this period teaching at Abbeydale School in Sheffield. He managed England’ s semi-professional team and in 1982 he became the coach for the England Under-21 team.
At Notts County he started as assistant-manager to Jimmy Sirrel, although his role was effectively that of manager. He managed Notts County in the middle of three seasons they spent in the First Division during the early eighties and achieved 15th place in the table on very low gates. He moved to Hillsborough in the 1983 close-season and in 1983-84 took Wednesday back to the First Division in his first season. Wednesday were close to winning the Second Division championship, but it was Chelsea who eventually took the title which went to the last game of a thrilling season.
His Wednesday team became formidable First Division opponents and the first season back 1984-85 included memorable league victories at both Anfield and Old Trafford. The following season 1985-86 Wednesday finished 5th in the league and had it not been for the appalling scenes at the Heysel stadium, which led to a ban on English clubs, Wednesday would have played in Europe. In 1986-87 & 1987-88, they finished in a mid-table position in the First Division and it was two months into the 1988-89 season when he left the club to manage Leeds United.
It’ s a great credit to Wilkinson that the performance of his teams always seemed to exceed the sum of their individual abilities. During his time as manager, the board were reluctant to speculate too heavily in the transfer market and the club’ s wages structure proved a deterrent to some players who might otherwise have joined the club. It remains a matter of debate, that if Wilkinson had been given the kind of budget that was later afforded to Atkinson and Francis, he might have enjoyed the success he eventually had at Leeds.
In his first full season at Elland Road, Leeds won the Second Division championship, in the same season that Wednesday were relegated. In their first season back in the First Division, they did exceptionally well to finish fourth and the following year they won the First Division championship. He's found little success in cup competitions. In the European Cup, they were beaten in the first round by Stuttgart only to be awarded a reprieve in the form of a replayed game, after it was discovered that Stuttgart had fielded four foreign players. Despite winning that game, they were beaten by Rangers in a disappointing performance in the second round which denied them a place in the lucrative league stages.
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