Background
He is the son of former Portuguese Vale player Colin Askey.
He is the son of former Portuguese Vale player Colin Askey.
The club were denied promotion that season, but John managed to add to his medal collection with a second Conference title two years later. John Askey turned to full-time football following the club"s promotion to the Football League and continued as a regular part of the side who were promoted immediately to what was then known as the Second Division. As a League player, John played more than 170 matches, scoring 31 times whilst his non-League time with the club is often not reported by statistical sources.
John"s final match for the club came on the last day of the 2002-2003 season against Rochdale.
Although the match was meaningless in terms of either club"s League position, it went down in Silkmen history when John followed up a Matthew Tipton shot to score in the 88th minute to level the scores at 2–2 before diving into the crowd to celebrate. By this time John was Assistant Manager to David Moss.
When Macclesfield Town manager David Moss was sacked in 2003 following a 2–1 home defeat to Southend, the club appointed John Askey as his replacement. This move was widely applauded by the supporters who saw John as a club legend.
Brian Horton was appointed in early April to steer the club to League safety.
John stayed on as assistant manager and, with the arrival of Paul Ince moved to Youth Team manager where he was influential in the arrivals of Shaun Brisley, Matthew Flynn, Kristian Dennis and John Rooney into the first-team squad. He was again given charge of the club when manager Stephen King was sacked after the 3-1 defeat by Grimsby Town on April 3, 2013 and was named manager in June 2013.