as a player-coach. He hoped his role as reserve team coach would stand him in good stead for a future career in management. An achilles injury forced him to sit out most of the 2011–12 pre-season. However Adams allowed Owen to act as manager for a pre-season friendly against Stone Dominoes, a game which Vale won 2–0. Despite coaching the reserves and continuing his university work, as a player he missed just one of the "Valiants" first ten league games of the season. However, he then was struck down by injury, and underwent a hernia operation in November. The next month he took up yoga to help overcome his injuries, and also undertook scouting assignments for the club. He returned to action in the boxing day win at Hereford United. However a week later he split his foot open. Deciding to play on against the pain, he was sidelined again in mid-January after breaking his left hand in training. On 29 February, after learning that the club were unable to pay the wage bill, he injured his knee in a reserve team game against Stoke City; the injury effectively ended his season. He began the 2012–13 season on the bench, and requested a loan move, though remained at Vale Park as Micky Adams was unable to sign any more covering defenders due to the club being in administration. As the club's PFA representative, Owen negotiated a compromise agreement with the administrators that saw the players take a temporary wage cut until new owners were found. He made only his second appearance of the campaign against Northampton Town on 27 October, but had to leave the game at half-time after injuring himself with an "ugly lunge" on Adebayo Akinfenwa. He left the club by mutual consent in January 2013. He claimed to have "a burning desire to play football", though he had also made inroads into coaching and media work during his time at the club. International career Owen picked up two Wales under-19s caps, both easy victories over the Faroe Islands under-19s. The first was a 4–1 win on 7 August 2001, the second was an 8–2 victory two days later. Coaching career Having rejected playing offers from numerous clubs, Owen retired as a player and began working as the under-12 coach at the Stoke City Academy in 2013. Owen was promoted to assistant manager of Stoke City U18s for