Name: Darren Ryan
DOB: 3rd July 1971
Dale debut: 12th August 1994 – Bury 1-0
Last game: 22nd December 1995 – Leyton Orient 0-2
Also played for: Shrewsbury Town, Chester City, Stockport County, Barry Town, Total Network Solutions,
Newport County, Merthyr Tydfil, Carmarthen Town, Haverfordwest County, Newtown
Time at Dale: According to Rochdale AFC Who’s Who 1973-1999, Darren signed in 1994 and was leading top scorer for the Reserves in 1994-95 with two hat-tricks to his name plus netted five against Scunthorpe Reserves in the following season. In total he made 31 appearances, scoring 2 goals for the first team over two seasons with a number of starts on the left flank at the end of his first.
Favourite memories of playing for Dale: Best memories of his time at Rochdale is the FA Cup replay win at Darlington when the payers knew they were drawn against Liverpool in the FA Cup 3rd Round and a day out at Anfield, unfortunately the result wasn’t too clever.
Another great moment was the Auto Windscreen Shield run losing to Carlisle United 3-5 in the two legged semi-final playing with some good players and characters in Shaun Reid, Paul Butler, Dave Thompson, Steve Whitehall (memory of the match at Carlisle from Keith Hicks was a gale force wind down the pitch, which Andy Thackeray choose to defend in the first half then seem to disappear in the second after Dale had conceded three goals in a 1-4 defeat)
What are you doing since leaving Dale?: Darren had notable success with Barry Town, twice winning the Welsh Premier League and appearing in Europe where Barry became the first Welsh team to get past two qualifying rounds of the EUFA Cup before losing only 4-6 on aggregate to Aberdeen in the next stage. At other Clubs in Wales, he became an established figure including Newtown, where he replaced his former Chester City team-mate, Roger Preece as Manager in October 2006 remaining with the Club for four years, stepping down in August 2010. He joined Airbus UK as Manager in March 2011 before returning to Newtown in June but quit after just seventeen days in charge to become First Team Coach at Northwich Victoria before resigning on 16th January 2012 along with the rest of Andy Preece’s management. Preece was appointed Director of Football at Welsh Premier League side Airbus UK Broughton the next day followed by Darren, appointed as Head Coach.
Darren now works at Wolverhampton Wanderers having been there for ten years involved in numerous roles but now the Elite Player Development Manager for the highly successful Academy at Under 9 – 23’s.
