The 1974-75 season had been a disastrous one for Wednesday, collecting just five league victories and suffering the indignity of relegation to the Third Division. The only surprise was that Steve Burtenshaw’ s contract as manager was not terminated during the close season. After yet another poor start in 1975-76, he was fired by new chairman Bert McGee in October. Ashurst was chosen to try and put a stop to Wednesday’ s decline.
Len Ashurst worked extremely hard for the club and whilst the results achieved in his time may suggest that he was not a great success, his contribution in arresting the club’ s decline should not be underestimated. In his first season they had only nine wins in their first 36 games and were still left requiring a point from their final league game to avoid relegation to the Fourth Division. 1976-77 was a much improved season and for much of it Wednesday looked a possibility for promotion. At the end of the season, they finished in eighth position but prospects were looking brighter, but there was another poor start in 1977-78 without a victory in the first 10 games. Ashurst paid the price and was sacked in October 1977.
Ashurst’ s contribution to the club was in making some good signings in Bob Bolder, Jeff Johnson, Ian Porterfield and Dave Rushbury. Dave Cusack, Jimmy Mullen and Chris Turner were all developed under Ashurst and he was also responsible for recruiting John Harris as chief scout. The former Sheffield United manager stayed in the job until 1986 and both Charlton and Wilkinson were to benefit from the appointment.
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