Reading Football Club are delighted to announce that Tony Warner has been appointed as First Team goalkeeping coach and James Oliver-Pearce will also join Paul Ince and Alex Rae out on the Bearwood Park pitches as First Team Coach when pre-season training begins in earnest this week.
Warner, who began his career alongside Paul Ince at Liverpool, joins the club from Bristol Rovers where, as goalkeeping coach, he has been working closely with former Royals stopper Anssi Jaakkola at the Memorial Ground.
Born on Merseyside, the 6’4” keeper played understudy to David James and Brad Friedel during his time at Anfield whilst enjoying loan spells at Swindon Town and north of the border with Celtic and Aberdeen.
Following a move to Millwall in 1999, he found his home at the Den where he achieved promotion to the second tier with a League One title, won the club’s Player of the Season accolade in 2002-3, helped the Lions reach an FA Cup Final in 2004 and earned more than 200 appearances for the club.
A spell with Cardiff City led to a move to Fulham, where he kept a clean sheet on his Premier League debut in a goalless draw against Birmingham City at Craven Cottage. Further loan stints at Leeds United, Norwich City and Barnsley, preceded permanent moves to Hull City, Charlton Athletic and back to Elland Road – and his final first team appearances in the UK came at Scunthorpe United and Tranmere Rovers.
Warner flew to the other side of the world to feature briefly for Wellington Phoenix in the A-League but was back on home soil to begin a coaching career as part of Ince’s set-up at Blackpool.
The former Trinidad & Tobago international’s coaching career has since taken him to Bolton Wanderers, into the Indian Super League, back into English football with Accrington Stanley and then to Bristol Rovers last summer. Now he links up with Paul Ince once more at Bearwood Park.
We are also delighted to welcome James Oliver-Pearce to the club, who joins us this week from AFC Wimbledon to become our new First Team Coach at Bearwood Park.
Oliver-Pearce, 31, joined the Dons as an Academy coach back in 2012. Initially working with the club’s aspiring foundation phase players, he worked his way up the age groups within the AFC Wimbledon youth system and began working at Under-18 level in 2015.
He impressed, playing a crucial role in the development of players who have progressed to make professional careers within the game, and after spells as Lead Youth Phase Coach and managing the Dons’ Under-16s, he was appointed as Head Coach of the Under-18s in 2021.
His promise was swiftly identified by AFC Wimbledon manager Mark Robinson who asked him to step up to become one of his first team coaching staff at Plough Lane at the start of the year and he also impressed Mark Bowen during his short spell at the helm towards the end of the campaign.
A highly thought of, progressive young coach, James now joins the Royals as part of Paul Ince’s new-look first team coaching structure.
Goalkeeping coach James Bittner, who moved up from Academy to take a first team position when Mark Bowen took the managerial reins in late 2019, has been offered a senior role within our Academy set-up.
And we can officially confirm that Michael Gilkes has reverted to his vital role at the helm of our highly-regarded Academy while Mikele Leigertwood resumes his position as Under-18s Manager. We would like to place on record our sincere thanks to both for selflessly stepping up to help Paul and Alex take care of first team affairs in the all-important final three months of the campaign – and for the roles they undoubtedly played in helping the club survive the threat of relegation.
