Ron Suart

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Ron Suart
Personal information
Full name	Ronald Suart
Date of birth	1920
Place of birth	Barrow-in-Furness, England
Playing position	Defender (retired)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1946-1949 1949-1955	Blackpool Blackburn Rovers	103 (0) 176 (0)
Teams managed
1955-1956 1956-1958 1958-1967 1974-1975	Wigan Athletic Scunthorpe United Blackpool Chelsea
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of January 19, 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Ron Suart (born in Barrow-in-Furness in 1920) is a former English football player and manager.

Contents 1 Playing days 2 Management career 3 Honours 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Playing days

Suart was a full-back at Blackpool - playing alongside fellow defenders George Farrow and Harry Johnston in a team also including Stanley Matthews and Stan Mortensen - and later Blackburn Rovers (transferring in 1949) before retiring in 1955. Blackpool reached the 1948 FA Cup Final, but he missed it through injury.

[edit] Management career

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, the first ex-Seasider to go back to the club as manager, who were 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, Ray Charnley, and Emlyn Hughes, though with the abolition of the maximum wage and the new freedom which players had, he was unable to prevent many of his star players moving on. He was sacked in January 1967, four months before Blackpool were relegated to Division Two, and was succeeded by Stan Mortensen.

Suart became assistant manager to Tommy Docherty at Chelsea, where he spent seven years. Docherty left the club in October, and Suart briefly became caretaker manager. His services were retained by new manager Dave Sexton. He was with the club as they won the FA Cup in 1970 and the in 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 financial trouble, 82-year-old Suart was released in February 2002.

[edit] Honours

Blackpool

• Division Three North championship: 1957/58

[edit] References

• Calley, Roy (1992). Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887-1992. Breedon Books Sport. ISBN 1-873626-07-X. 

[edit] External links

• Managerial stats at Soccerbase
• Blackpool career profile
• Blackburn Rovers career profile

Preceded by Joe Smith	Blackpool F.C. manager 1958-1967	Succeeded by Stan Mortensen
Preceded by Dave Sexton	Chelsea F.C. manager 1974-1975	Succeeded by Eddie McCreadie