Gary Owers (born 3 October 1968) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, and football manager. He most recently managed

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

. He was previously manager of

Bath City Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club have ...

and Forest Green Rovers as well as the assistant manager at Aldershot Town,

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park ...

and Gateshead.

Career

Born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is a ...

, Owers began his career with

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, making his debut in 1986 and playing in the 1992 FA Cup Final, in which Sunderland lost to

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

. In December 1994 Owers moved to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

for a fee of £250,000, and he spent four years there, before moving to

Sam Allardyce Samuel Allardyce (; born 19 October 1954), colloquially referred to as Big Sam, is an English football manager and former professional player. Allardyce made 578 league and cup appearances in a 21-year career spent mostly in the Football Lea ...

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

in the summer of 1998. In 2000 Owers signed a new two-year deal with Notts County. He was released by Notts County at the end of the 2001–02 season and was signed by

Nigel Spink Nigel Philip Spink (born 8 August 1958) is an English football coach and former professional footballer. He played as a goalkeeper from 1976 until 2001. He made his name at Aston Villa and also made one appearance for England at international le ...

, the manager of Forest Green Rovers in August 2002. Owers became player-coach at

in October 2003. He was appointed as Bath's new manager the following month, and led them to sixth place in the

Southern League Premier Division The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...

in 2005–06, missing out on the play-offs on goal difference. Owers replaced Alan Lewer as manager of Forest Green Rovers on 25 May 2005 after they had been relegated from the

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

. However, they got a surprise reprieve as

Northwich Victoria {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

's ground failed to meet division rules, meaning they were relegated with Forest Green taking their place. In his first season in charge of Forest Green, where he managed the club's first ever full-time professional squad, he led the team to 19th place in the Conference avoiding relegation on the last day of the season with a 2–0 victory over Stevenage Borough. However, after a disappointing start to the 2006–07 season, he left the club alongside assistant manager Shaun Taylor on 27 August 2006. On 11 November 2009 Aldershot Town Manager Kevin Dillon, confirmed that Owers was to be his new Assistant Manager at Aldershot Town.Under Dillon and Owers Shots finished in their highest ever league position ( 6th ) before losing to Rotherham in the play-off semi-final. In June 2011 Owers was appointed as a scout at former club

under manager

Keith Millen Keith Derek Millen (born 26 September 1966) is an English football manager and former player who played as a centre back. He was most recently manager of Carlisle United. Millen was appointed as Steve Coppell's successor, after Coppell chose t ...

. He was promoted to first team coach after the arrival of Derek McInnes. In June 2012 Owers joined the coaching staff at

primarily to work with the youth team players under newly appointed Academy Manager Kevin Hodges. In January 2013 Owers was promoted from Argyle's youth set-up to begin working with the first team by newly appointed manager John Sheridan. In April 2014 he left

, with his role being taken up by Sean McCarthy and player Paul Wotton. In March 2015, he was confirmed Head of Recruitment at

SPFL Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

side

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lana ...

. However, only three months later in June 2015 he was named as assistant manager to Malcolm Crosby at

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

club Gateshead but left the club in November 2015 following the sacking of Crosby. On 4 February 2016, he returned to

Twerton Park Twerton Park is a football stadium in the Twerton suburb of Bath, England. The stadium is named after the surrounding area, Twerton. The stadium has a physical capacity of 8,884, 1,066 of which are seats. It has been the home of Bath City F.C. ...

for a second spell as manager of Bath City. On 13 September 2017, Owers left his position at Bath City to accept the role of head coach at National League club

. On 25 October 2017, after Torquay achieved a 1–0 away win at Ebbsfleet United, courtesy of a Jamie Reid special, Gary Owers claimed of Torquay United "we're not rubbish anymore". However a number of poor performances and results ensued. Under Owers Torquay were relegation from the

with 2 games to spare, finishing the season 7 points from safety. A poor start to Torquay's following season saw Owers step down from his role one day shy of a year in charge.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Owers, Gary 1968 births Living people Footballers from Newcastle upon Tyne English footballers Association football midfielders Sunderland A.F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players Bath City F.C. players Weston-super-Mare A.F.C. players Minehead A.F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Southern Football League players English football managers Bath City F.C. managers Forest Green Rovers F.C. managers Weston-super-Mare A.F.C. managers Torquay United F.C. managers National League (English football) managers Bristol City F.C. non-playing staff Aldershot Town F.C. non-playing staff Plymouth Argyle F.C. non-playing staff Gateshead F.C. non-playing staff FA Cup Final players