Ron Ashman

Ashman was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. He played 662 games for Norwich City, scoring 56 goals. 592 of those games were league appearances – a club record. He made his debut at Carrow Road against Aldershot on 4 October 1947. Ashman was a centre-forward at that early stage of his career, but went on to play at full-back for many years. He was the captain of the Norwich team that reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1959 as a Third Division side, won promotion to the Second Division in 1960 and won the League Cup in 1962. He was selected to play for the Third Division South team against the North in 1955–56.

When George Swindin resigned as Norwich City manager in November 1962, Ashman was appointed acting manager and was eventually given the job on a permanent basis on Boxing Day 1963. By then, he had played his last game for the club on 19 October 1963. Ashman remained manager until the end of the 1965–66 season, when his departure ended twenty years of service to the club. Ashman then took over at Scunthorpe United in October 1967, but he was unable to arrest their slide and their 1967–68 Third Division season ended in relegation. Until Paul Hurst matched the feat in 2019, Ashman remained the only Scunthorpe manager to have lost all of his opening three games in charge. During their following 1968–69 Fourth Division campaign, Ashman gave a professional debut to future England captain and manager Kevin Keegan. All of Keegan's 141 appearances for the club came under Ashman's management, and in his 2018 autobiography Keegan described Ashman as "a man who deserved a great deal of respect." Ashman personally drove Keegan to Anfield after negotiating a £33,000 sale for him, having famously asked the midfielder: "Have you got a good suit? Well, you're going to need one. Where you're heading, you're going to need to look smart." Despite having lost both Keegan and star striker Nigel Cassidy, and having finished a lowly 17th the season prior, Ashman masterminded an against-the-odds promotion for Scunthorpe out of the Fourth Division in 1971–72, with a then joint-club record 15-game…

Less than a year after his appointment as General Manager and with the club rumoured to be on the verge of bankruptcy, it was confirmed that Ashman had been formally made redundant from his role, alongside the club's secretary and physiotherapist. This was his last role within football and Ashman instead ran a travel agents' shop on Scunthorpe High Street, which was opened by his former player Kevin Keegan and often advertised in Scunthorpe United's official match programmes. In 2002, Ashman was made an inaugural member of the Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame, whilst prior to his death in 2004, he was also an official Vice-President of Scunthorpe United and was a regular at both the club's matches and shareholder meetings.

Norwich City

Football League Cup: 1961–62