John Askey

**John Colin Askey** (born 4 November 1964) is an English football manager and former player. He is currently manager of Port Vale. He was manager of Shrewsbury Town from June to November 2018.

## Playing career

As a player, Askey played as a forward. Born in Stoke-on-Trent, he joined the youth set up at local club Port Vale, the club that his father Colin had made over 200 appearances for, at the age of 15 after playing for local school sides. He spent a year at Vale Park but didn't make a senior appearance and left the club in 1983. He then spent a year working as a labourer at a pottery firm in Tunstall while playing amateur football for Milton United, managed by his father. He joined Macclesfield Town a year later in 1984 to help fill a gap when the club was short of players. While at The Silkmen, he achieved promotion to the Football Conference in 1987. He would go on to win the Football Conference twice during his career at Moss Rose. He stayed in Macclesfield for 19 years until his retirement in 2003. He made an incredible 511 league appearances for the club, scoring 109 league goals. In 1990, while at Macclesfield, Askey earned a cap for the England C national team.

## Pre-STFC management career

After retiring as a player, Askey went on to manage the Macclesfield Town reserve side, with whom he would win the Avon Insurance League Division Two Championship. He then became first-team assistant manager to David Moss who was sacked in October 2003 with Askey taking his place as first-team manager. In April 2004, after a run of bad results, Askey was demoted to assistant manager to new boss Brian Horton. Askey would stay at The Silkmen as youth and reserve team manager. In 2013, the opportunity arose for Askey to once again become first-team manager after the dismissal of Stephen King. In his first full season back as manager, he took the club to the third round of the FA Cup and 15th in the Conference Premier. The 2017 FA Trophy final saw Askey's Macclesfield side lose 3–2 to York City at Wembley. The club earned promotion back to the Football League at the end of the 2017–18 season despite financial difficulties with players not being paid and a transfer budget of just £350,000.

## Shrewsbury career

Askey was appointed as Shrewsbury Town manager on a three-year deal on 1 June 2018, succeeding Paul Hurst who had left for Ipswich Town. John Filan, who Askey had worked with at Macclesfield, was appointed as his assistant manager. He was able to retain goalkeeping coach Danny Coyne and physio Chris Skitt as part of his backroom staff.

Askey's Shrewsbury tenure got off to a sticky start in the league. Three defeats and two 0–0 draws from Town's first five league games saw Town sat second-bottom of League One, only off the bottom on goal difference. His first win as Shrews manager came on 15 September as goals from Greg Docherty and Lee Angol confirmed a 2–0 win at home to Southend United. Askey found wins hard to come by and by early November, Town had only managed 4 league wins from 17 games. A late Luke Waterfall goal at AFC Wimbledon in a 1–2 win on 3 November appeared to have possibly kept Askey's job safe for the time being, however, a 1–1 draw with National League side Salford City in the first round of the FA Cup on 11 November was the final straw and Askey was sacked the same day after managing just 5 wins, 8 draws and 8 defeats in 21 games in all competitions and a win rate of just 23.8%. He left Town 18th in League One.

After goalkeeping coach Danny Coyne took the helm for a few games after his dismissal, Askey was eventually replaced by former Premier League defender Sam Ricketts on 3 December.

## Post-Shrewsbury career

After a short break from football management, on 4 February 2019, Askey was appointed manager of former and hometown club Port Vale in League Two. He is still manager at Vale Park and is currently pushing for promotion to League One.