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 le ...

, 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 Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

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 tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in the spring ...

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 Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

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 ...

, 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 and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. 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 association football, football manager and former professional player. Allardyce made 578 league and cup appearances in a 21-year career spent most ...

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

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

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

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 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 team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier o ...

. However, after a disappointing start to the 2006–07 season, he left the club alongside assistant manager

Shaun Taylor Shaun Taylor (born 26 February 1963) is an English former professional footballer who made more than 500 appearances in the Football League and Premier League, playing for Exeter City, Swindon Town and Bristol City. Taylor was born in Plymou ...

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 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 to ...

. 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 manager of Scottish Premiership club Kilmarnock. He featured prominently for Greenock Morton, Rangers, West Bromwich Albion and Dund ...

. 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 Footb ...

. 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 Truro City. Having begun his career with his home-town side, Wotton went on to become the club's most successful captain as they won t ...

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

. 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 s ...

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 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 Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the club competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1946 fr ...

, 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