KENDAL Town FC have welcomed their new manager for the club.

Craig Dootson, a retired football player himself and goalkeeper, has been announced as the club's new manager since the recent departure Warren Beattie who had to step down due to personal reasons.

Mr Dootson began his career as a player with his home team Preston North End in 1998, before going on to compete for Bamber Bridge, Leigh RMI, Stalybridge Celtic. Bury, Hyde United, Alfreton Town, Fleetwood Town, Harrogate Town, and Altrincham before finally signing with Kendal Town.

The club has recently had a set back with their recent losses on the pitch, but the team and community are still hopeful their fortunes can be turned round in the coming year.

Craig Dootson said: “I retired playing a few years ago and went into coaching. This went really well and I wanted to continue it, especially with keepers which is my area of interest.

“However, when I was 17, I had an injury that never fully recovered and it is now beginning to impact on me so it made coaching a bit more difficult.

“I had been playing for 20 years so I hope to bring a lot of experience to the role.

“I don’t come to the game for the money, and coaching was more about spending time with my kids and family.

“I made the decision to knock it on the head and then the job offer came from Kendal Town.

“I had never considered a role like this before but I thought if I would do this it would be for a club I really care about. And this is that club.

“I retired on the Monday and was manager by Thursday. Not a bad week.

“It will be a challenge but we thrive on challenges. We’re in a tough league and the team’s we are against are spending serious money on their teams.

“It’s been difficult for us recently but I am looking to bounce back on Saturday, and after training with some of the lads we’ll be putting a new team to the one that previously played in on Saturday.

“Appleby was a big game and one we should have won, but every credit to them.”

Craig has a set of short term and long-term objectives for the club which he hopes will turn the club’s fortunes.

He added: “I’m looking at the team we’ll be against and we need to get between 15-18 points to stay up in this league.

“First thing is to build defence and make sure we stop conceding goals.

“That’s the starting point on the pitch.

“We have four loan players back on Saturday and we’ll hopefully see more signings in the future.

“We have a lot of experienced players who I can trust to make a real impact.”

A spokesperson for the club said: "We are delighted to announce Craig has accepted the position as KTFC 1st team manager with immediate effect.

"David Woodruff has been retained as assistant manager and Andy Whiteside stays on as 1st team coach.

"We're delighted to appoint Craig who has worked in professional and semi-professional football for a number of years. He brings with him a wealth of experience and contacts. We see this as a really good fit for the club."