TOMMY COONEY BECOMES NEW IVES MANAGER
St Ives Town Football Club is delighted to announce the appointment of Tommy Cooney as their new first team Manager. Tommy arrives at the Quattro-Tech Westwood Road following the resignation of Ricky Marheineke a fortnight ago.
Tommy joins the Ives after a period as Assistant Manager at Royston Town. Prior to this he had a spell as manager at Northwood. But it was at Arlesey Town where he made a real impact as Manager. During his time with the Bedfordshire outfit, he guided them to a top six finish, their highest position and points total for over 10 years and during his time at Arlesey attendances increased significantly with the club winning multiple team of the month awards. His managerial experience is enhanced further with a spell as Assistant Manager at National League south outfit, Dulwich Hamlet.
In addition to his managerial career, Tommy is an academy coach at Stevenage and has also played football at many levels. This includes Brentford and Morecambe as well as playing football abroad in Sweden and Finland. He also represented the Republic of Ireland at under 17 and under 19 level.
Tommy said “I am grateful to Andrew, Mark and the board at the Football Club for trusting in me and offering me the job as first team manager. This is a proper football club where Ricky has done extremely well. We all know it’s going to be a difficult task and the club is going through a new period but everybody here is on the same page and I believe in the long term we can really achieve something special. However, looking at the short term my first job will be keeping St Ives Town Football Club at step four and I will do everything in my power to achieve that”.
Cooney added “I give thanks to everyone at Royston Town. I’ve learnt a lot about myself during my period under Chris and feel I’m now going to St Ives a much better manager. I look forward to seeing the fans on the terraces Saturday and please get behind the group over the next two games we need to stay positive and work together as one.
Commenting on his appointment, Club Co-Chairman Andrew Dunn said “I’m delighted to welcome Tommy to the club. He brings experience of being part of the management staff at various levels of the non-league pyramid. Furthermore, he has tremendous knowledge of the semi-professional game as well as identifying young players coupled with the ability to work with a restricted budget. He is professional and has a real hunger and desire to succeed. He wants to play a big part in what we want to achieve at this football club both on and off the pitch and I am thrilled that he has decided to join us.
Dunn added “I want to also say how grateful the club has been to Dan Lawlor for stepping up to coach the team on an interim basis whilst we identified a permanent replacement for Ricky. Dan has worked hard over the last few weeks, and the board cannot thank him enough for what he has done during this interim period. Dan will remain in charge of the home matches against Barwell on Saturday and Corby on Monday night whilst Tommy will be in the dugout for the first time for the league match at Basford next Saturday.”
