Millington is New Clipstone Boss
9th June, 2014
Chris Millington has been unveiled as the new first team manager of Clipstone and he will be assisted by Steve Whitehead and Chris Bullock.
Millington was captain of Dronfield Town for eight years and led them through the lower leagues winning the Derbyshire Cup in the process. He had spells with Hallam in between this and captained the Under 19s team that finished runners up in the Regional Midland League but he had to retire from the game aged 26 due to an achilles injury.
He was appointed assistant manager at Dronfield where they won the Central Midlands League Cup in 2011/12 and then the North Division the following year before finishing a solid fourteenth in their first season in the NCEL.
Chairman Brett Marshall said: "The process of finding the right person was always going to be difficult after a wonderful season on and off the field with the club gaining nineteen more points than the previous season along with the complete transformation of the ground & facilities.
"We did not want to make a knee-jerk reaction with the decision on the management position for the football club so a lot of thought about the process was done doing plenty of groundwork to set up a shortlist of candidates.
"I spoke to several managers but kept the situation low key, in-house and completely confidential so the candidate selection process ran quietly but seamless. I knew if we had advertised the position we would have been inundated with lots of managers looking for an opening back in which wasn't what we wanted as stability is the strap line for the football club.
"Unfortunately, I heard the same things from 90% of the managers I interviewed but when I spoke to Chris Millington we knew after fifteen minutes he was the one.
"At just 31, along with his lack of managerial experience as a number one, didn't phase me at all as if the person is right they deserve to be given a chance as I was by Colin Abbott at Southwell City a decade ago.
"Chris was chomping at the bit to be given an opportunity to become a number one and now he has been rewarded with it. His enthusiasm was infectious, his drive organisation skills and the most important being a nice guy made it unanimous for myself and the football club.
"Chris will have Stephen Whitehead and Chris 'Ginner' Bullock as his assistants for the 2014-2015 season ahead. As a football club we want to take small realistic steps forward year-on-year, hopefully to become a fixed NCEL team competing consistently at the right end of the table playing attractive football with that work ethic as the underbelly on and off the field."
Millington said: "I was attracted to the club for many reasons, one of them being that Brett and the committee have worked hard over the last twelve months to lay down solid foundations that ensure the club's stability. This, in turn, has provided the club with an excellent platform to move forward with a long term sustainable structure both on and off the pitch.
"At this club, there is a huge emphasis on putting the players first which is something that is not done enough at this level and is also something that I am looking forward to contributing to. From a personal point of view, this is a great opportunity to manage a forward thinking football club with real non league values. For that I would like to thank Brett and the committee for giving me their full support and I can't wait to get started."
(Story Source: Clipstone)
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