BUNGAY Town FC has appointed Richard Daniels at their new manager as the club prepares for the new season.
And Daniels, in his second spell with the club, will have the highly experienced Jason Maher with him as he plots in the long term to take the ambitious Black Dogs into the Thurlow Nunn League.
He takes over from joint first team managers Craig Hunting and Shaun Payne. The two veteran players ran the first team for most of last season after previous manager Tim Clarke and assistant Stu Vincent stepped down.
Club chairman Shaun Cole said the club was delighted to obtain the services of a top manager with Eastern Counties League experience in Richard Daniels.
“When Richard announced Jason Maher was coming with him we couldn't believe our luck. We've got two top guys with excellent contacts and a huge amount of experience. They have the knowledge to help us climb to the Anglian Combination Premier Division and ultimately our aim is to take Bungay Town FC into the Thurlow Nunn Eastern Counties League and back into The FA Vase and FA Cup.
“I know Richard and Jason can't wait for the season to start and I share their enthusiasm, there will be a real buzz about Bungay Town next season.”
The Black Dogs have some of the best facilities in the Anglian Combination. Daniels was manager from 2008-11, and is back with enthusiasm.
“It is like unfinished business from the last time,” he said. “I left last time to go to Gorleston, which was always my club and I had a good five years there, but this is a new challenge for me. Bungay is a progressive club with good people behind it who deserve success, and in the long term the Thurlow Nunn League is the aim.”
Maher was Daniels’ assistant when he was at Diss Town, and later became manager at Saffrron Walden Town.
“He is a very good friend and a particularly good coach, passionate about what he does and he won’t let Bungay down,” Daniels said. ”When he became available it was a no brainer to get him to join me.”
Daniels emphasised that last season’s Bungay squad would form the nucleus of his team – Hunting and Payne had done a good job, and Hunting was “a big part of the future in what we are doing.
“That squad is good enough, though I will be bringing in three or four additions,” he said.
Daniels has had spells as manager of Thurlow Nunn League sides Gorleston and Diss, and will bring that experience with him. He was previously manager of the Black Dogs in 2008, taking over form Howard Dunn and taking the team to promotion from the Anglian Combination division two at the end of the 2007-08 season. Season 2008-09 saw them finish in sixth place in division one, but Daniels stood down the following season to join Gorleston.
Bungay dropped back into division two in 2011-12, but Clarke eventually got then back into division one at the end of 2014-15, and last season they finished a highly creditable fifth and ready for a serious push for promotion to the premier division next season.