Gary Steven Jones (born 10 May 1975) 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 first team coach of Marine. As a player, he was a forward and makeshift

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

from 1993 until 2008 for

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

. In 2008 after retiring from the playing side of the game he has since held various positions on the coaching staff at

Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay ( cy, Bae Colwyn) is a town, community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic county of Denbighshire. Eight neighbouring communities are incorpo ...

, Chester,

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

and

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population ...

Playing career

Gary Jones started his career as a trainee at

in 1993, and he was a commanding force for the club, which in turn saw him move to

in the summer of 2000. Whilst at Tranmere he played in the

2000 Football League Cup Final The 2000 Football League Cup Final was played between Leicester City, in their third final appearance in four years, and First Division side Tranmere Rovers at Wembley Stadium on 27 February 2000. It was the 34th and last League Cup Final to be ...

. However, after playing only a brief role in first team affairs at Forest, he re-joined Tranmere in 2002, initially on loan before he made the move permanent. Jones once again played a vital part in the Rovers squad, and remained a regular at Prenton Park until he was released in June 2005. He joined

on trial a month later and after a slow start to the 2005–06 season, due to lack of fitness, Gary provided vital goals in Grimsby's ultimately unsuccessful promotion push. He was leading goal scorer with 17 goals in all competitions and formed a very effective partnership with Michael Reddy who scored 14 goals. He was seemingly going to miss the playoff final due to a 90th minute red card in the second leg of the semi-final, but this was rescinded on appeal. He signed a new one-year deal at

in the summer of 2007. He enjoyed a great rapport with the fans, and his whole-hearted displays made him a big favourite. He played most of the 2007–08 season with an injury (including an appearance as a substitute at Wembley as Grimsby lost out to MK Dons in the Football League Trophy final). Jones underwent surgery to improve his troublesome injury, but left Grimsby due to family reasons and then eventually retired.

Management career

On 24 September 2008, it was announced that Jones was the new assistant manager at Colwyn Bay Football Club. On 21 May 2010 he returned to his home town and was appointed assistant manager of Chester the new club who were formed out of the liquidation of Chester City. In January 2014 he was appointed caretaker manager of Chester following the departure of Neil Young. He has since worked at

and Marine.

References

External links

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Football Heroes Profile
– Nottingham Forest {{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Gary 1975 births Living people Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players English men's footballers Grimsby Town F.C. players English Football League players Footballers from Chester Chester F.C. managers English football managers Men's association football forwards Marine A.F.C. non-playing staff