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 lea ...

, and football manager. He most recently managed

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

. He was previously manager of Bath City and

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. Formed in October 188 ...

as well as the assistant manager at

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spr ...

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club has played ...

and

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

Career

Born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

, Owers began his career with

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

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

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. In December 1994 Owers moved to

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

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

Sam Allardyce Samuel Allardyce (born 19 October 1954) 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 League, as well as brief spells in the North ...

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

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 l ...

, the manager of

in August 2002. Owers became player-coach at Bath City 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 football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from East Anglia, the South and Midlands of England, and South Wales. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and e ...

in 2005–06, missing out on the play-offs on goal difference. Owers replaced Alan Lewer as manager of

on 25 May 2005 after they had been relegated from the

Conference National The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National League (English football), National Le ...

. However, they got a surprise reprieve as

Northwich Victoria Northwich is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England. It lies on the Cheshire Plain, at the confluence of the rivers River Weaver, Weaver and River Dane, Dane, east of Chester, south of Warr ...

'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 Stevenage Football Club (known as Stevenage Borough Football Club until 2010) is a professional association football club based in the town of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. The club competes in EFL League One, the third level of the Engli ...

. 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

Manager

Kevin Dillon Kevin Brady Dillon (born August 19, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Johnny "Drama" Chase on the HBO comedy series '' Entourage'', Bunny in the war film ''Platoon'', and John Densmore in the musical biopic ''The Doo ...

, 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. He was promoted to first team coach after the arrival of

Derek McInnes Derek John McInnes (born 5 July 1971) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Scottish Premiership club Heart of Midlothian. He featured prominently for Greenock Morton, Rangers, West Bromwich A ...

. In June 2012 Owers joined the coaching staff at

primarily to work with the youth team players under newly appointed Academy Manager

Kevin Hodges Kevin Hodges (born 12 June 1960) is an English retired football player and manager who played as a midfielder, and now works as assistant manager at Dorchester Town. He spent the majority of his playing career with Plymouth Argyle of the Foo ...

. 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 Paul Anthony Wotton (born 17 August 1977) is an English former professional footballer who is the manager of Torquay United. Having begun his career with his home-town side, Wotton went on to become the club's most successful captain as they ...

. In March 2015, he was confirmed Head of Recruitment at SPFL Premiership side

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

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

Malcolm Crosby Malcolm Crosby (born 4 July 1954) is an English former professional footballer and manager. He is currently working for Exeter City as the club's Chief Scout under former Wigan Athletic manager Gary Caldwell. Playing career Born in South Shield ...

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

club

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 association football, football stadium in the Twerton suburb of Bath, Somerset, Bath, England. It has a physical capacity of 8,840, containing 1,006 seats. It is currently the home of Bath City F.C., who have played there si ...

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 Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. The club compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1946 from the merger ...

, 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 relegated 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 men's footballers Men's 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