 Norwich City in 1959 with – from left, standing:Roy McCrohan,Ralph Hunt,Ken Nethercott,Barry Butler,Ron Ashman,Matt Crowe; sitting from left:Errol Crossan,Terry Allcock,Terry Bly,Jimmy Hill andBobby Brennan. | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ronald George Ashman[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1926-05-19)19 May 1926 | ||
| Place of birth | Whittlesey, England | ||
| Date of death | 21 June 2004(2004-06-21) (aged 78) | ||
| Place of death | Scunthorpe, England | ||
| Position(s) | Centre-forward,full-back | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1947–1963 | Norwich City | 592 | (55) |
| 1945–1946 | →Peterborough United (loan) | 19 | (3) |
| Total | 611 | (58) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1962–1966 | Norwich City | ||
| 1967–1973 | Scunthorpe United | ||
| 1973–1975 | Grimsby Town | ||
| 1976–1981 | Scunthorpe United | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Ronald George Ashman (19 May 1926 – 21 June 2004) was an English professionalfootball player and manager. He spent his entire playing career withNorwich City and was later their manager. He went on to manageScunthorpe United andGrimsby Town.
Ashman was born inWhittlesey,Cambridgeshire. He played 662 games forNorwich City, scoring 56 goals. 592 of those games were league appearances – a club record. He made his debut atCarrow Road againstAldershot on 4 October 1947. Ashman was a centre-forward at that early stage of his career, but went on to play at full-back for many years. He was the captain of the Norwich team that reached the semi-finals of theFA Cup in 1959 as a Third Division side, won promotion to the Second Division in 1960 and won theLeague Cup in 1962.
He was selected to play for theThird Division South team against the North in 1955–56.
WhenGeorge Swindin resigned as Norwich City manager in November 1962, Ashman was appointed acting manager and was eventually given the job on a permanent basis onBoxing Day 1963. By then, he had played his last game for the club on 19 October 1963. Ashman remained manager until the end of the 1965–66 season, when his departure ended twenty years of service to the club.
Ashman then took over atScunthorpe United in October 1967, but he was unable to arrest their slide and their1967–68Third Division season ended in relegation.[2] UntilPaul Hurst matched the feat in 2019, Ashman remained the only Scunthorpe manager to have lost all of his opening three games in charge.[3]
During their following1968–69Fourth Division campaign, Ashman gave a professional debut to futureEngland captain and managerKevin Keegan. All of Keegan's 141 appearances for the club came under Ashman's management, and in his 2018 autobiography Keegan described Ashman as "a man who deserved a great deal of respect."[4] Ashman personally drove Keegan toAnfield after negotiating a £33,000 sale for him, having famously asked the midfielder: "Have you got a good suit? Well, you're going to need one. Where you're heading, you're going to need to look smart."[5]
Despite having lost both Keegan and star strikerNigel Cassidy, and having finished a lowly 17th the season prior,[6] Ashman masterminded an against-the-odds promotion for Scunthorpe out of theFourth Division in1971–72,[6] with a then joint-club record 15-game unbeaten stretch either side of Christmas.[7]
Despite being unable to keep Scunthorpe in theThird Division the following season, this promotion was enough to persuade arch-rivalsGrimsby Town of Ashman's talents and they duly poached him as manager in June 1973.[8] It was claimed that Ashman "never enjoyed the same admiration he had gained in Scunthorpe",[9] but in his only full season in charge atBlundell Park,1971–72 Ron ledThe Mariners to a very respectable 6th-place finish in the Third Division. But with Town sat a disappointing 18th[10] the following February, Ashman was duly relieved of his services.[11]
Ashman managed 87 games in charge of Grimsby; of which The Mariners won 31, drew 25 and lost 31. Remarkably, Grimsby both scored and conceded exactly 114 goals during this reign.[8] After 11 months out of the game, Ashman returned to theOld Showground for his second spell as Scunthorpe manager in January 1976.[11]
It was arguably during the remainder of Scunthorpe's1975–76Fourth Division season that Ashman achieved his greatest managerial coup. With The Iron having finished rock-bottom of the entireFootball League the season before[12] and sitting six points adrift of avoiding a successive re-election application when Ashman returned,[13] he masterminded a great escape and eventual 19th-place finish.[14] This was in large part thanks to a run of seven wins and five draws across March and April, with official club historian John Staff stating that Ashman's efforts "deserved a medal".[15]
Alongside assistantJohn Kaye, Ashman continued to find and develop a number of high-profile players, including futureEuropean Cup winnerRichard Money, Scunthorpe's all-time club-record goalscorerSteve Cammack and famous England cricket all-rounderIan Botham.[16] With the club struggling both on and off the field however, Kaye was made redundant in February 1981, before Ashman was "moved upstairs" to the role of General Manager the following month.[17]
Across his two spells in charge, Ashman was manager of Scunthorpe for 11 years and 576 games. The latter remains an all-time club record, four games ahead of second-placedBrian Laws.[17]
Less than a year after his appointment as General Manager and with the club rumoured to be on the verge of bankruptcy, it was confirmed that Ashman had been formally made redundant from his role, alongside the club's secretary and physiotherapist.[18]
This was his last role within football and Ashman instead ran a travel agents' shop on Scunthorpe High Street, which was opened by his former playerKevin Keegan and often advertised in Scunthorpe United's official match programmes.[19]
In 2002, Ashman was made an inaugural member of theNorwich City F.C. Hall of Fame,[20] whilst prior to his death in 2004,[21] he was also an official Vice-President of Scunthorpe United and was a regular at both the club's matches and shareholder meetings.[22]
Norwich City