Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Steven John Ball [1] | ||
Date of birth | [2] | 2 September 1969||
Place of birth | Colchester, England [2] | ||
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) [2] | ||
Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
Youth career | |||
Arsenal | |||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1987–1989 | Arsenal | 0 | (0) |
1989–1990 | Colchester United | 4 | (0) |
1990–1992 | Norwich City | 2 | (0) |
1992 | Cambridge United | 0 | (0) |
1992–1996 | Colchester United | 64 | (7) |
1996–1998 | Sudbury Town | 77 | (14) |
1998 | Heybridge Swifts | ||
2003 | Long Melford | ||
Total | 147 | (21) | |
Managerial career | |||
1998–2003 | Stanway Rovers | ||
2006 | Clacton Town | ||
2013–2014 | Leiston | ||
2015–2016 | Maldon & Tiptree | ||
2016 | Colchester United (caretaker) | ||
2020–2021 | Colchester United | ||
2022 | Colchester United (interim) | ||
*Club domestic league appearances and goals |
Steven John Ball (born 2 September 1969) is an English football manager and former professional footballer. Ball is currently Head of Academy Coaching at League Two club Colchester United.
Ball began his career with Arsenal, with whom he won the FA Youth Cup in 1988, but failed to make a first-team appearance for the club. He made his Football League debut with Colchester United, where he had two stints separated by spells with Norwich City and Cambridge United. In a career blighted by injury, Ball made 70 Football League appearances between 1987 and 1996. He also spent time in non-League football with Sudbury Town, Heybridge Swifts, and briefly Long Melford.
Ball was manager at Stanway Rovers, Clacton Town, Leiston and Maldon & Tiptree, and was part of the coaching team at Colchester United before being named assistant manager to David Wright and John McGreal, and becoming head coach in July 2020. He parted company with Colchester in February 2021.
Ball, born in Colchester, began his career with London-based club Arsenal. In 1988, he won the FA Youth Cup, but failed to live up to his promise with the club, failing to make a first-team appearance following an ankle-ligament injury. [3]
After his release from Arsenal, Ball joined hometown club Colchester United and made four appearances during their ill-fated 1989–90 season in which they were relegated from the Football League to the Conference. [4] [5]
Ball signed for Norwich City after leaving Colchester, managing just two appearances for the club between 1990 and 1992. [3] [5] He briefly signed for Cambridge United in August 1992 but had left by September to re-sign for Colchester. [2]
He had an improved second stint with the U's, accumulating 64 league appearances and scoring seven goals. [5] He had been restricted to signing a rolling monthly contract, struggling with injuries, before leaving to join Sudbury Town in 1996. [3]
Ball made 77 appearances and scored 14 goals for Sudbury until 1998. He joined Heybridge Swifts briefly, before being appointed manager of Stanway Rovers. While managing Rovers, Ball worked for a Colchester-based stationery company. He left in 2003 to join Long Melford as a player, but was not fit enough to play regularly. He quit in December 2003. [3]
Ball was appointed assistant manager of Clacton Town in 2004, but financial problems in the summer of 2005 led to him leaving the club. He returned in 2006 as manager, but was required to resign after his job based in Colchester was restructured to cover Birmingham and the Midlands. Ball later returned to Stanway Rovers as assistant manager, before joining Leiston as assistant manager in 2010. [3]
In summer 2012, Ball was offered a full-time coaching position with the Colchester United Academy at their new training complex based in Tiptree. [4] He returned to Leiston as assistant manager to Steve Pitt in October 2013, [6] however, Pitt left the club after just six weeks in the role, leaving Ball in charge. [7]
In October 2014, Ball left Leiston to make a return to Colchester United in a full-time coaching role. [8]
Ball was appointed as manager of Maldon & Tiptree in December 2015 after former manager and fellow Colchester United coach David Wright was promoted to assistant manager at the U's. Ball continued to combine his coaching role at Colchester with his part-time role managing the Jammers, working with John McGreal with the under-21 side. [9] He led his side to a seventh-placed finish in the Isthmian League Division One North table. [10] After Colchester United manager Kevin Keen left the club following their relegation from League One on 26 April 2016, Ball was named as assistant to newly appointed caretaker manager David Wright for the final two games of the season. [11] Ball was then appointed assistant manager to incoming first-team coach John McGreal on 4 May. This meant Ball parted company with Maldon & Tiptree after a successful season in the Isthmian League. [12] With McGreal's role set to commence following Colchester's final game of the season against Rochdale on 7 May, Ball was named as the club's fifth caretaker manager of the season after David Wright was made unavailable for personal reasons. [13] The game ended 2–1 to Rochdale. [14]
After four years as McGreal's assistant, Ball succeeded him as head coach on 28 July 2020. [15] However, following a run of 13 games without a win, Ball parted company with the club on 23 February 2021. [16] Having returned to the club in the role of technical director, Ball was placed in interim charge of the first-team in September 2022 following the sacking of Wayne Brown. [17]
Team | From | To | Record | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
Leiston | 4 December 2013 | 25 October 2014 | 44 | 22 | 10 | 12 | 50.00 | |
Maldon & Tiptree | 29 December 2015 | 4 May 2016 | 22 | 13 | 6 | 3 | 59.09 | |
Colchester United (caretaker) | 4 May 2016 | 8 May 2016 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | |
Colchester United | 28 July 2020 | 23 February 2021 | 34 | 8 | 13 | 13 | 23.53 | |
Colchester United (interim) | 18 September 2022 | 30 September 2022 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | |
Total | 102 | 43 | 29 | 30 | 42.16 |
Kevin Horlock is a football manager and former professional footballer. He is the manager of Needham Market and assistant manager of the Northern Ireland under-21 team.
David Wright is an English former professional footballer and manager who was most recently Assistant First-Team Coach of League One club Milton Keynes Dons.
John Leslie McGreal is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is currently an U21s coach at Ipswich Town.
Karl Anthony Duguid is an English former professional footballer. He spent the majority of his playing career with Colchester United where, over two stints, he made over 400 league appearances. He also played for Plymouth Argyle before finishing his professional career at Colchester, where he became a coach following his retirement in 2014.
Jamie Leslie Guy is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. He played in the English Football League before dropping into non-League football following injury problems.
Wayne Lawrence Brown is an English football coach and former player who was most recently manager of Colchester United.
The 2012–13 season was Colchester United's 71st season in their history and fifth successive season in the third tier of English football, League One. Alongside competing in the League One, the club also participated in the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Football League Trophy.
Conor Stephen James Hubble is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Canvey Island. He came through the youth ranks at Queens Park Rangers, before joining Colchester United's Academy, where he made his Football League debut in 2013. He had two loan spells at Leiston before joining permanently in 2015 following his release from Colchester. He then joined Billericay Town in the summer of 2015.
Frankie James Kent is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Scottish Premiership side Heart of Midlothian.
The 2014–15 season was Colchester United's 73rd season in their history and seventh successive season in the third tier of English football, League One. Alongside competing in the League One, the club also participated in the FA Cup, the League Cup and the Football League Trophy.
The 2015–16 season was Colchester United's 79th season in their history and their eighth consecutive season in League One, the third tier of English football. Along with competing in League One, the club also participated in the FA Cup, League Cup and Football League Trophy. The club suffered relegation to League Two, the fourth tier of English football, for the first time in 18-years after finishing the season in 23rd position and in the relegation zone. Colchester made an early exit in the League Cup at the hands of Reading, while they made the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in ten years but were defeated by Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur 4–1.
The 2016–17 season was Colchester United's 80th season in their history and their first season competing in League Two following their relegation from League One in the 2015–16 season. It was their first season in the fourth tier of English football for 18-years. Along with competing in League Two, the club also participated in the FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.
James Arthur Bransgrove is a retired professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Saffron Walden Town F.C.
Tariq Ahmed Issa is an English footballer who plays as a forward for Kings Park Rangers.
The 2017–18 season was Colchester United's 81st season in their history and their second successive season competing in League Two. Along with competing in League Two, the club also participated in the FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.
Tarryn Allarakhia is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder or a winger for National League side Rochdale. Born in England, he plays for the Tanzania national team.
Eoin Francis Okorie McKeown is an English footballer who plays for National League side Tamworth, where he plays as a forward.
Junior Chukwuemeka Ogedi-Uzokwe also known as Junior is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward.
The 2018–19 season was Colchester United's 82nd season in their history and their third successive season competing in League Two. Along with competing in League Two, the club also participated in the FA Cup, EFL Cup and EFL Trophy.
Tom English is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward for Arsenal where he was a member of the FA youth cup winning squad in 2000 and Marine Castle United in the Singaporean S.League in 2001. His professional career was cut short after he was seriously injured in a fall in Tenerife, though he eventually played semi-professionally for several East Anglian sides. He now works as a postman.