Ron Suart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ron Suart (born in Barrow-in-Furness in 1920) is a former English football player and manager.
Suart was a full-back at Blackpool - playing alongside Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen - and later Blackburn Rovers (transferring in 1949) before retiring in 1955. Blackpool reached the FA Cup Final in 1948, but he missed it through injury. He took over at Wigan Athletic as player-manager and then went to Scunthorpe United in 1956. After leading the club to promotion as Division Three North champions in 1957-58 he returned to Blackpool, then in the First Division.
Suart managed to retain Blackpool's place in the top tier for the next eight seasons and reached the League Cup semi-finals in 1962, losing to eventual winners Norwich City. While at Blackpool, he also helped to unearth future England internationals Alan Ball and Emlyn Hughes. He was sacked in February 1967 and became assistant manager to Tommy Docherty at Chelsea.
Docherty left the club in October, but Suart's services were retained by new manager Dave Sexton. He was with the club as they won the FA Cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1971, but declined thereafter. When Sexton was sacked in October 1974 after a poor start to the season, Suart took charge of the first team. However, he was unable to prevent the club's slide towards relegation and was replaced by Eddie McCreadie the following April. He later became a scout at Wimbledon but, with the club in heavy finanical trouble, was released in February 2002.
Preceded by: Dave Sexton |
Chelsea manager 1974-1975 |
Succeeded by: Eddie McCreadie |