The club can announce that the experienced John Cornforth has been brought in to assist Tom Wade until the end of the season in the role of first team coach.
Cornforth, 45 years-old, enjoyed a long playing career that saw him feature for the likes of Sunderland, Swansea and Birmingham City, as well as picking up two full caps for the Wales national side.
Since his retirement as a player John has gained managerial experience with Newport County, Exeter City and Torquay United. He has also worked abroad where he was appointed to the position of Head Coach of the Korean Academy STS in Bucheon, South Korea.
Having recently relocated back to the North East, he has spent the last couple of weeks helping out at Northern League side Horden CW
Manager Tom Wade was pleased with the appointment “John’s got good experience – he’s come in to give me a hand on the coaching side of things. He was at the match on Saturday and we had a good chat after the game regarding what he thought and we are on the same page in terms of how we want the team to progress. He’s joined until the end of the season, but hopefully things will go well and we’ll see what happens.”
Cornforth was also pleased to heading to Croft Park “It was a no-brainer joining the Spartans when Tom got in touch – it’s obviously a famous club with a good tradition, I have only been in the North East for about five and half weeks and having been helping out (former Spartans goalkeeper) Phil Naisbett at Horden. I was at the game on Saturday and was really impressed with the standard of the football on show, given the conditions.”
“There is only something like eight weeks of the season left, but hopefully we can work on a few things in training and try and keep up the momentum that the club have generated in the last couple of games.”
Welcome to the club John!