BUNGAY Town has appointed a new management team with the aim of making a concerted bid for promotion next season.
The new manager tasked with taking the Black Dogs into the Anglian Combination premier division is 33-year-old Travis Manning, who lives in Hopton, and has previously had success managing Yarmouth Reserves, Hemsby and Loddon.
His assistant is Tony Dance, who has experience at various levels with Leyton Orient and moved to the area five years ago. Dale Oxborough, who was previous manager Rob Moore’s assistant, completes the team
Moore stood down at the end of last season for health reasons, having seen Bungay finish ninth in division one last season.
Manning said he was excited about his appointment and looking forward to getting down to work.
“There is a lot of potential at this football club and it should be playing at a standard befitting its standing and its facilities,” he said.
“My ultimate target is the Thurlow Nunn League. “If places like Mulbarton, Harleston, Sheringham and Heacham can achieve that there is no reason why we cannot do the same. The set-up is here.”
A self-employed hairdresser who runs his own business, Manning played for Hemsby and Yarmouth Reserves before managing Yarmouth Reserves and taking them from division five to division three of the Anglian Combination in successive seasons. In 2018-19 he managed Loddon, then at a low ebb, and saw them finish third in division two. He also took Loddon to the league cup final, only losing to Heacham in extra time.
He will assess the current squad when pre-season training starts on June 15th, but he is already putting feelers out on players he feels could boost the Black Dogs’ chances.
“We need to strengthen as a while and I am already starting on that,” he said. “I am confident thst with the players we have and ones we bring in we can challenge for promotion.”
Dance was involved in the development centre at Leyton Orient and in other roles. He was also0 involved at Enfield Town, Rayleigh Town and Leigh Ramblers, giving him solid experience in football in Essex, and he said he was looking forward to working with Manning at Bungay.
Black Dogs’ head of football Richard Daniels said the appointments were made after five people were interviewed and he was pleased with how the process went.
“We are delighted Travis has agreed to take on the role as manager, and it was key that we named Tony as his assistant, with the wealth of experience he has,” he said.
“It was also key that Dale is on board to provide continuity, and we feel together the three will take the club forward in the way the chairman (Jon Fuller) and myself want it to go.”
He said Moore worked hard during his season at the club, but unfortunately player commitment was an issue all season.

We have also decided to bring Jimmy Ross back to manage our Reserves. Jimmy returns with a new philosophy, that we have asked him to bring. He brings Passion and Desire to do well with our crop of younger players, that done so well last season under Jimmy and Jeff Rowlands.

Ollie Flood comes onto the Management team to help Jimmy, but his availability is still in question due to work commitments, so we may have another announcement on the Reserves in due course.

No news on the A team as of yet.

Onto the U18's, and Nathan Brunsdon remains as Manager, but his assistant this year becomes Ben Dossett, ive praised Ben up on here before, we see this as a Massive plus for the U18's, Ben's involvement all around the club last season was invaluable, and we are delighted he has agreed to this new role.

John Thawley also remains as part of the management tea, John plays a very important role behind the scenes that goes unnoticed, so we are pleased JT remains on board.