Steve Ball

Steven John Ball (born 9 September 1969) is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is currently head coach at League Two club Colchester United.

For the Darlington player, see Steve Ball (footballer, born 1973).

Steve Ball
Personal information
Full name Steven John Ball[1]
Date of birth (1969-09-02) 2 September 1969[2]
Place of birth Colchester, England[2]
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[2]
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Colchester United (manager)
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)
Teams managed
1998–2003 Stanway Rovers
2006 Clacton Town
2013–2014 Leiston
2015–2016 Maldon & Tiptree
2016 Colchester United (caretaker)
2020– Colchester United
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

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.

Playing career

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]

Coaching career

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]

Career statistics

Managerial statistics
As of match played 29 January 2021[14][16]
Team From To Record
GWDLWin %
Leiston 4 December 2013 25 October 2014 44 22 10 12 050.00
Maldon & Tiptree 29 December 2015 4 May 2016 22 13 6 3 059.09
Colchester United (caretaker) 4 May 2016 8 May 2016 1 0 0 1 000.00
Colchester United 28 July 2020 Present 30 8 11 11 026.67
Total 97 43 27 27 044.33

Honours
Arsenal

References
  1. "Colchester United – Player profile". Coludata.co.uk. Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  2. "Steve Ball – Football Stats – Soccer Base". Soccerbase. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  3. "Flown From The Nest – Steve Ball". Flown From The Nest. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  4. "Former U's midfielder Steve Ball joins Academy coaching staff – Colchester United – East Anglian Daily Times". EADT. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  5. "STEVE BALL". Post War English & Scottish Football League A – Z Player's Database. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  6. Brammer, Chris (20 October 2013). "Leiston chief reveals reasons behind appointments of Steve Pitt and Steve Ball". Green'Un. Ipswich. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  7. Bacon, Mike (4 December 2013). "New Leiston boss Steve Ball takes charge with Rob Bate at Victory Road". Green'Un. Ipswich. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  8. Rees, David (27 October 2014). "Report — Steve Ball leaves Leiston with a win as he heads for Colchester United". East Anglian Daily Times. Ipswich. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  9. Waldron, Jonathan (29 December 2015). "Colchester United academy coach Steve Ball succeeds David Wright in Maldon and Tiptree hot seat". Daily Gazette. Colchester. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  10. Waldron, Jonathan (28 April 2016). "Ball enjoying feel-good factor at Maldon and Tiptree". Maldon Standard. Braintree. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  11. Marston, Carl (29 April 2016). ""I'll be taking stock in the summer" – Colchester United caretaker David Wright". Green'Un. Ipswich. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  12. Plummer, Matt (4 May 2016). "Ball parts company with Maldon and Tiptree to take up new role at Colchester United". Daily Gazette. Colchester. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  13. Waldron, Jonathan (6 May 2016). ""Proud" Ball to take charge of the U's against Rochdale". Daily Gazette. Colchester. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  14. "Colchester United 1–2 Rochdale". BBC Sport. 8 May 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  15. "Colchester United: Steve Ball named new head coach". BBC Sport. 28 July 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
  16. "Fixtures And Results". Maldon & Tiptree FC. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  • Steve Ball at Soccerbase
  • Steve Ball at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database
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