Penycae Football Club are pleased to announce Ben Heath as our first team manager. His previous playing clubs included Cliftonville , Glenavon, Rhyl, Connahs Quay, Caernarfon, Warrington he is also a UEFA qualified coach.
Ben gave his thoughts on his appointment “I am pleased and very excited to have the opportunity to get Penycae FC back to where they should be over the next few seasons. The main focus is to get out of the position we currently are in then build for the following season. Once I had met Colin and Steve and seen the amazing things going on behind the scenes I knew I wanted the job. The set up is fantastic and the community is right behind the club.
I have coached Academies, teams in this league also above and felt the time was right to start looking for my own opportunity to put my thoughts and beliefs on the pitch. I have learnt much off the likes of Nev Powell, Aden Shannon, Tom Taylor, Dutton, Jelks and Mutts which will all help in the coming years.
The club has an amazing youth set up which I will be looking at with Gavin the U21s manager as I believe age is just a number and if you are good enough you are old enough. Luckily there are a few local lads that I remember coaching from my time at Wrexham Academy and am looking forward to giving as many youth players a chance as possible.
Lee Pope will be coming in as my assistant who is currently on the Welsh UEFA B licence course. I am also pleased that Ian and Steve are happy to stay on board and as a team we will get the club back up the league.
There is load’s to say but we need to start talking on the pitch. So for now thank you to the club for the opportunity now let’s get to work”.
Chairman Colin Jackson gave his own thoughts on the appointment, “Firstly I would like on behalf of the club to thank Ian and Steve for the great job they have done this season in what has been a difficult time for us. Our league position is no reflection of the effort and commitment that both have put in but when Ian notified us of his intentions to step down at the end of the season we thought it would be in the best interests of the club especially with the break over Christmas to advertise now for a new manager. We did have a lot of interest for the position but for us Ben was the stand out applicant and we were pleased to offer him the job. League tables don’t lie and we do face a difficult time to climb back up the league but I am very confident having spoke to Ben that we can achieve our short term target which is to get out of the relegation battle and then long term to bring some long overdue success to the club. I would like to finish by welcoming Ben to the club and wishing him all the best in his new role”