Ron Ferguson

For the father of Sarah, Duchess of York, see Ronald Ferguson.

Ron Ferguson

Personal information
Full name	Ronald Charles Ferguson
Date of birth	(1957-02-09)9 February 1957
Place of birth	Accrington, England
Height
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
–	Sheffield Wednesday
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1974–1976	Sheffield Wednesday	11	(1)
1975–1976	→ Scunthorpe United (loan)	3	(0)
1976–1980	Darlington	114	(18)
1980–1986	Racing Jet de Bruxelles	135	(35)
1986–1989	La Louvière	28	(10)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ronald Charles Ferguson (born 9 February 1957), known as Ron or Ronnie Ferguson, is an English former footballer who played in the Football League for Sheffield Wednesday, Scunthorpe United and Darlington, and in the Belgian League for Racing Jet de Bruxelles and La Louvière, in the 1970s and 1980s. He played as a forward.

Life and career

Ferguson was born in Accrington, Lancashire, and attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, He began his football career as a youngster with Sheffield Wednesday, and made his first-team debut on 9 November 1974, a couple of months after his 17th birthday; he scored the opening goal in a 3–0 defeat of York City in the Second Division. He finished the season with eleven appearances. In December 1975, he joined Fourth Division club Scunthorpe United on loan; he played three times without scoring. Sheffield Wednesday released Ferguson in the second half of the 1975–76 season, and he signed for Fourth Division Darlington, for whom he scored the only goal of the game against Torquay United on 15 March 1976.

In December 1976, Ferguson scored the only goal of the game to eliminate his former club from the 1976–77 FA Cup. The goal, a powerful drive from a distance of anything from 30 to 50 yards (25 to 45 m), was voted best goal ever seen at Darlington's Feethams ground in a 2003 poll on the occasion of the ground's closure. Two weeks later, he scored in the local derby with Hartlepool in less spectacular fashion, "scrambl[ing] in the equaliser" after an hour of the match. In something over four seasons with Darlington, he scored 18 goals from 114 appearances.

In 1980, Ferguson joined Belgian Second Division team Racing Jet de Bruxelles. He spent six seasons with the Brussels-based club, during which time they were relegated to the third tier, enjoyed two successive promotions to spend the 1984–85 season in the First Division, and were relegated back to the Second. They were promoted once in 1986, but Ferguson moved on to La Louvière in 1986, where he spent three seasons playing in the third tier.