Samuel Eddie Patterson (born 22 September 1961 in Belfast) is the former manager of NIFL Premiership clubs Cliftonville and Glentoran. He was relieved of his duties as Glentoran Manager on Saturday 17 October 2015. Despite winning two Irish Cups in three years, the club highlighted deteriorating league positions and performances as the main reason for his dismissal.
Patterson, from the Bruslee Way/Pinkerton Walk area of the New Lodge Road, was brought up in Belfast. He now lives in Glengormley. In the 1970s, he played midfield for Newington Football Club in the Down and Connor League, along with John McAuley, Gary Higgins and Paddy McCoy, all of whom were later to emulate him by playing for Irish League teams. Patterson went on to have a spell playing intermediate football for Chimney Corner under former Cliftonville boss Lawrence Stitt.
Patterson took temporary charge of The Reds on 22 July 2005, when former manager Liam Beckett walked out, and was officially confirmed as Cliftonville boss on 11 October 2006. He had been assistant manager the previous season. Patterson starred for the club during his playing days and was also a successful manager of the reserve side, Cliftonville Olympic.
In his first season in charge of the Cliftonville F.C. Senior side, Patterson led his side to a fifth-place finish, an improvement on the 11th place in the previous year. The season ended in controversy, however, after a registration error involving fellow Irish League side Coleraine F.C.. Had Cliftonville been awarded the extra three points due to this registration error, they would have climbed above Dungannon Swifts F.C. into fourth place and qualification for the UEFA Intertoto Cup the following season. Nevertheless, coming fifth was the club's best performance since winning the title in 1998.
The team's biggest victory that season was an 8–1 hammering of Armagh City F.C. During the January transfer window, Patterson re-signed two former players, Chris Scannell, who had been away in Australia for just over a year, and Barry Johnston, from Coleraine.