Following the end of his playing career he took up coaching and has had a number of roles at a range of clubs including spells as manager of Frickley Athletic, Carlisle United, Scarborough, Colchester United, Oldham Athletic, Huddersfield Town, Portuguese side Beira-Mar, Chester City and Celtic Nation.
A non-League playing career with clubs including Gainsborough Trinity and Mossley ended at Frickley Athletic, where Wadsworth was player-manager.
The following season Carlisle reached the Auto Windscreens Trophy final but lost to Barry Fry's Birmingham City.
[2] It was therefore somewhat ironic that after leaving Colchester, Wadsworth spent two weeks working with Steve Coppell even further south at Crystal Palace before becoming assistant manager to Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle United.
Wadsworth was to leave Newcastle in June 2001, without telling Sir Bobby, to become assistant manager to Stuart Gray at Southampton.
After Lou Macari and Joe Jordan's dismissal Wadsworth was appointed manager of Huddersfield Town in July 2002, after being recommended to chairman David Taylor for the job.
In June 2004, he was appointed manager of Portuguese club Beira-Mar, but left in September amid claims of boardroom interference.
Wadsworth re-surfaced at Shrewsbury Town in January 2005 as assistant manager to Gary Peters and remained with the club until March 2006.
[6] Wadsworth was appointed First Team Coach at Football League One club Hartlepool United in June 2010[7] and Caretaker Manager on 19 August following the resignation of Director of Sport Chris Turner.
[8] After a successful season in League One where Pools finished 16th and on 23 June Wadsworth was rewarded with an extension to his contract; becoming the club's first permanent manager in 920 days.
[9] In October 2013 Wadsworth was appointed as temporary first team coach at Sheffield United to support caretaker manager Chris Morgan.