James Martin Gilligan (born 24 January 1964) is an English former professional footballer. He is currently at Watford in the role of Head of Technical Development^[3] and has also coached at Nottingham Forest, Wimbledon, Milton Keynes Dons and with The FA. He holds a UEFA Pro License.

His son Ryan Gilligan is also a professional footballer.

Born in Hammersmith, Gilligan later moved to Stevenage. He started his career as an apprentice at Watford after joining the club at the age of thirteen. He was spotted playing for a Hertfordshire FA XI by Watford scout Tom Walley and a Chelsea scout. Both scouts approached his parents, who accepted Watford's offer and he signed schoolboy terms with the club following his fourteenth birthday.^[4]

He turned professional in August 1981, making a goalscoring debut against Aldershot.^[4] He helped Watford defeat Manchester United to win the FA Youth Cup in 1982 whilst also gaining representative honours, appearing for the England Youth team. In October 1982, he joined Lincoln City on loan for one month in an attempt to gain first-team experience, but made only three substitute appearances during a spell he later described as "disappointing".^[4] Returning to Watford, he began making intermittent appearances for the first team, the undoubted highlight being scoring Watford's first goal in Europe in their very first game against Kaiserslautern in the 1983–1984 UEFA Cup; he would later score in the quarter final defeat to Sparta Prague. However, he never established a regular starting role in his four seasons as a professional.

Having come to Grimsby Town's attention when scoring against them in an FA Cup Fourth Round tie in January 1985, Gilligan moved to Grimsby in the August 1985 for a fee of £100,000.^[5] However, his season at Blundell Park was disappointing: he managed just six goals in the season at the club, including two in a League Cup match against York City.^[6] Grimsby cut their losses in the summer of 1986 by allowing him to move on to Swindon Town for a fee of £30,000. Once again, he struggled to make an impression and in January 1987 joined Newport County on loan before moving to Lincoln City in March 1987. Gilligan failed to fire for the Red Imps, scoring a solitary goal as Lincoln slipped to relegation from the Football League.

A fee of £17,500 saw him join Cardiff City where he enjoyed the most productive spell of his career. He scored on his debut in a 1–1 draw with Leyton Orient and went on to finish as the club's top scorer in his first year.^[7] Virtually ever present during his two years at the club he scored vital goals in several competitions including the second goal during a 2–0 Welsh Cup final victory over Wrexham and a hat-trick against Derry City in the European Cup Winners Cup.

After two defeats in the opening two games of the 1989–90 season, Cardiff's manager Frank Burrows accepted an offer to become assistant manager to John Gregory at Portsmouth. The pair soon tabled an offer of £215,000 for Gilligan which the Cardiff board readily accepted. After a year on the South Coast, Gilligan returned to South Wales to play for Swansea City before injury finished his league career.^[8] In March 1993, he resumed playing in the non-league with Boreham Wood before moving on to Stamco.

Following his retirement, Gilligan returned to Watford, heading up their Football in the Community scheme. After spells as youth development manager and youth team manager, he was appointed Watford's assistant academy director. He left Watford in 1999 with David Platt appointing him reserve team manager at Nottingham Forest. In July 2001, following Platt's departure and the appointment of Paul Hart to the manager's position, Gilligan left his role at Nottingham Forest.^[9] A month later, he was appointed manager of Boreham Wood,^[10] succeeding Graham Roberts in the role. However, less than three months later he resigned from the role.^[11] He joined the PFA as a regional coach educator, whilst also helping out David Platt with the England U21s, before being appointed technical director at Wimbledon in February 2003.^[12] Integral to Gilligan's appointment was Stuart Murdoch whom Gilligan had forged a friendship with from his coaching days at Watford. With Wimbledon suffering financial difficulties and the move to Milton Keynes, Gilligan moved up the ranks at Milton Keynes Dons, becoming assistant manager to Murdoch. Following Murdoch's sacking in November 2004, he was placed in temporary charge.^[13] He remained in charge until the appointment of Danny Wilson in December, a move which saw Gilligan depart the Dons shortly afterwards.^[14]