James Colvin Rowe (born 23 July 1983) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player. Until 2022, he was manager of the

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

club

AFC Fylde AFC Fylde is a professional football club based in Wesham in the Borough of Fylde, Lancashire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Mill Farm. Originally known as Kirkham & Wesham following a merger of Kirkham Town and Wes ...

Early life

Rowe, the son of former football manager

Colwyn Rowe Colwyn Roger Rowe (born 22 March 1956) is an English football coach and former professional player. Career Playing career Rowe began his professional career in 1973 with Colchester United, before signing with Chelmsford City in 1975. Coaching ...

, was born and grew up in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, where he attended St Joseph's College. In his youth he played for

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

Playing career

After being released by Charlton at age 18, Rowe joined

Southern Football 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 ...

club Ilkeston Town. He subsequently joined

Histon Histon is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is immediately north of Cambridge – and is separated from the city – by the A14 road (England), A14 road which r ...

, where he scored 30 goals as an 18 year old, however, a serious knee injury interrupted Rowe's progress. In 2004, he joined

Heybridge Swifts Heybridge Swifts Football Club is a football club based in Heybridge, near Maldon, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Scraley Road. History The club was established in 1880 as Heybridge Football Club. After joining t ...

. Afterwards, he joined Stamford and Grantham Town for short spells, before signing with Rugby Town in July 2005. However, he left Rugby Town after three games by mutual consent, following being fined by the club for dissent. He subsequently returned to

, before joining

Needham Market Needham Market is a town in Suffolk, England. The town of Needham, Massachusetts, was named after Needham Market. History It initially grew around the wool combing industry, until the onset of the plague, which swept the town from 1663 to 1665. ...

for the remainder of 2005–06. He signed with

AFC Sudbury Amalgamated Football Club Sudbury is a football club based in Sudbury, Suffolk, England. The club was formed in 1999 by the merger of Sudbury Town and Sudbury Wanderers, the process giving rise to the name Amalgamated Football Club Sudbury. ...

in 2006, where his father

Colwyn Colwyn was a local government district with borough status from 1974 to 1996, being one of six districts in the county of Clwyd, north-east Wales. History The borough was created on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It cover ...

and uncles Gary and Paul Barker previously played, remaining with them until the end of 2008. In January 2009, he joined

Leiston Leiston ( ) is an English town in the East Suffolk non-metropolitan district of Suffolk, near Saxmundham and Aldeburgh, about from the North Sea coast, north-east of Ipswich and north-east of London. The town had a population of 5,508 at the ...

, where he scored 20 goals in his first 12 games. In July 2009, he joined

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parishes in England, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office ...

. In 2010, he began working for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

in a part-time academy coaching role, which allowed him to continue to play, where he joined Leamington in 2010. He departed at the end of the season to work full-time with Birmingham. In 2013, following a gap in his playing career due to his coaching commitments, he rejoined former club Canvey Island, scoring once in four appearances.

Managerial career

Youth coaching

Rowe retired from playing at age 27, moving into coaching. He joined

, as the academy's head of education and coach for the U16 and U17 teams. He stayed at Birmingham for three years, before joining the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

as a coaching advisor, where he was responsible for providing technical reports on Academy teams across England and Europe. Afterwards, he joined

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

as assistant academy manager. In 2015, Rowe left West Ham after having been disciplined for "poor practice" regarding young players. Following an internal investigation caused by complaints, he was ordered to undertake awareness training. He went to Holland to attend the Johan Cruyff Institute in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, where he earned a master's degree in coaching.

Aldershot Town (assistant)

In June 2016, Rowe was appointed assistant manager with

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

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area i ...

under manager Gary Waddock., extending his contract a year later. Despite interest from

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

clubs, Waddock and Rowe remained at Aldershot, guiding the Shots to two successive play-off positions in 2016–17 and 2017–18. Rowe left Aldershot in January 2019, by mutual consent.

Gloucester City

In November 2019, Rowe was appointed manager of sixth-tier

side Gloucester City, having been approached while at Aldershot 12 months earlier. After arriving at Gloucester, the team initially struggled before the season was shortly cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. After making sweeping roster changes in the offseason and bringing in players whom he has previously worked with such as Akwasi Asante, they began the following season with an upset loss to ninth-tier Christchurch F.C. in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

on penalties, however, they were able to rebound quickly and began the 2020–21 National League North season with four consecutive league wins, equaling their best league start in 78 years, as well as eight wins through nine matches.

Chesterfield

In November 2020, he left Gloucester to become manager of fifth-tier

club

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

, signing a contract through the end of the 2022–23 season. In early 2021, his contract was extended through the summer of 2024, despite some interest from

clubs. On 12 April 2021, Rowe was awarded with the league's Manager of the Month award for the previous month as his side won six out of seven games, conceding zero goals in these wins. After joining the club while they were in 22nd place in the 23-team league through nine matches, Rowe ultimately guided Chesterfield to a sixth-place finish in his inaugural season, advancing to the promotion playoffs, but were defeated by

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 October 2021, it was reported that

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

made an official approach to recruit Rowe to become their new manager. Through his first 50 matches with Chesterfield, he led the club to a record of 30 wins, ten losses, and ten draws. In his first full year as manager, the club got 101 points from 50 league games. On 8 January 2022, Chesterfield played

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

holders

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in the third round of the FA Cup, with Chesterfield losing 5–1. On 24 January 2022, Rowe was suspended by Chesterfield pending an investigation into allegations of misconduct, later disclosed as an allegation of sexual assault in November 2021. On 4 February 2022, Rowe departed Chesterfield by mutual consent.

AFC Fylde

On 7 March 2022, Rowe was appointed manager of

side

, signing a three-year contract. On 29 September, the club stated that Rowe had resigned. The previous day, he had been formally charged with one count of sexual assault in November 2021. Fylde stated that due diligence had been done before his appointment. In November 2022, Rowe pleaded not guilty to the charges, and is scheduled for trial on 4 December 2023.

Personal life

Rowe also holds a

UEFA A Licence UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe, mandates several coaching licences for professional managers, each valid for coaching at a certain level. These include the UEFA Pro Licence, the UEFA A Licence, and the UEFA B Licence. They are is ...

, and a Masters of Research Degree in

Sports Science Sports science is a discipline that studies how the healthy human body works during exercise, and how sport and physical activity promote health and performance from cellular to whole body perspectives. The study of sports science traditionally inc ...

from

Nottingham Trent University Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design, w ...

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Individual *

Manager of the Month: March 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, James 1983 births Living people English footballers Association football forwards English football managers Luton Town F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Ilkeston Town F.C. players Histon F.C. players A.F.C. Sudbury players Leiston F.C. players Canvey Island F.C. players Leamington F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff Aldershot Town F.C. non-playing staff Gloucester City A.F.C. managers National League (English football) managers People educated at St Joseph's College, Ipswich Association football coaches Alumni of Nottingham Trent University AFC Fylde managers